Key Takeaways:
- Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI-powered assistant that launched in preview earlier this year, is now generally available for organizations.
- The Copilot tool allows users to draft emails in Outlook, summarise documents in Word, and catch up on missed Teams messages.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot is available for $30 per user per month as an add-on for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 commercial customers.
Microsoft 365 Copilot, the new AI-powered assistant that launched in public preview earlier this year, is now generally available. Microsoft 365 commercial customers will now need to pay an additional $30 per user per month to access the Copilot feature.
In March, Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve productivity by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its suite of Office applications. It provides generative AI capabilities across Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, Loop and more. The AI-powered tool allows users to interact with Office apps with natural language commands.
“Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant at work. It builds on Bing Chat Enterprise but is in a class all its own. It includes enterprise-grade security, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI to ensure all data processing happens inside your Microsoft 365 tenant—using technology Microsoft 365 customers have relied on for years,” said Jared Spataro, CVP of Modern Work & Business Applications.
In Microsoft Outlook, the Microsoft 365 Copilot lets users draft replies, summarize emails, and integrate data from other sources such as Excel. It can also analyze information in Excel spreadsheets, identify insights and key trends, and generate Python virtualizations. In Microsoft Word, Microsoft 365 Copilot can assist in summarizing documents, rewriting text to improve clarity and conciseness, enhancing the writing style, and generating tables.
Additionally, the Copilot integration in Microsoft Teams helps users to catch up on missed messages and share notes or action items from a meeting. The feature also discovers and surfaces important information hidden in organizational documents.
Starting today, Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on license ($30 per user per month) for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 commercial customers in the Microsoft 365 Current Channel. However, organizations who want to use Copilot must purchase a minimum of 300 licenses for employees. Microsoft also plans to make it available for Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Business Premium, government, and education customers, though there is no ETA yet.
Overall, Microsoft 365 Copilot should make it easier for employees to access information relevant to their roles. The service comes with a hefty price tag because generative AI technologies that use large language models (LLMs) require significant computational resources. This almost doubles the total subscription price for companies on certain lower-end plans that range from $12 to $23 per user per month. You can learn more about Microsoft 365 Copilot on the official website.