Microsoft launches a premium tier for people and expands Copilot AI assistant to small businesses

Microsoft said on Tuesday that its Copilot virtual assistant is now available for small businesses to subscribe to through the company’s productivity tools. Additionally, customers can register for a new premium version of Copilot if they purchase Microsoft 365 software.

The upgrades will help Microsoft in introducing generative artificial intelligence to a larger number of its clientele. Last year, OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot gained popularity; it can create natural-sounding language in reply to a brief written command. By granting more access, the business may be able to begin paying for the construction of the AI-enabling data centre infrastructure.

Investors have been counting on Microsoft to capitalise on generative AI demand in OS systems, cloud, productivity, online search and security, even as it faces competition from the likes of Amazon and Google. Microsoft took back the title of most valuable publicly traded business from Apple last week.

The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, has been emphasising lately how AI is vital to the company’s identity. “Our goal is quite simple to understand. In November, during Microsoft’s Ignite conference in Seattle, Nadella declared, “We are the Copilot company.”

Using the extensive language models of OpenAI, Microsoft began to make Copilot for Microsoft 365 available in November to large corporations and to academic staff and faculty in December. For them, in addition to the monthly subscription fees already charged, the add-on costs $30 for every person.

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s in office of Windows and Surface, announced in a blog post that small businesses can now sign up for up to 299 licences for $30 per person per month if they pay for Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard.

Furthermore, he said, Microsoft will remove the 300-seat requirement for business plans that has been in effect since November. This would allow users of Copilot who have Office 365 E3 or E5, which are less expensive than full Microsoft 365 subscriptions, to use Copilot.

Copilot is available for free to anyone who wants to use it through a number of channels, such as copilot.microsoft.com and the Bing search engine. However, it hasn’t been possible for users of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions to utilise it in Word, Excel, Outlook, and other applications. That is evolving. People can join up for the new Copilot Pro add-on starting on Tuesday for $20 a month per person.

“Priority access to the very newest models— starting today with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo” is granted to Copilot Pro users, according to Mehdi.

With an upcoming tool called Copilot GPT Builder, they will be able to create bespoke chatbots and transition between models, employing the state-of-the-art model during peak usage.

“Whether you need advanced help with writing, coding, designing, researching or learning, Copilot Pro brings greater performance, productivity and creativity,” Mehdi wrote.