Microsoft relaunches Copilot For Business With Free Ai Chat And Pay-as-you-go Agents

Microsoft is relaunching its free Copilot for businesses arsenic Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat today, complete pinch nan expertise to usage AI agents. Copilot Chat is Microsoft’s latest effort to get group utilized to utilizing AI astatine activity and relying connected it tin to tempt them into paying $30 per play to get nan afloat Microsoft 365 Copilot.

“It’s free and unafraid AI chat that’s GPT-powered,” explains Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s main trading serviceman of AI astatine work, successful an mobility and reply pinch The Verge. “You tin upload files truthful it’s very comparable to nan competition, successful truth we deliberation moreover astatine this level it bests nan competition.” Spataro wouldn’t punishment nan competition, but it’s intelligibly ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is fundamentally a rebranding of what was erstwhile Bing Chat Enterprise earlier Microsoft rebranded it to conscionable Copilot. It crucially now includes entree to Copilot AI agents correct incorrect nan chat interface — which was antecedently only disposable successful nan afloat Microsoft 365 Copilot acquisition — requiring a $30 per personification per play subscription. These agents are designed to activity for illustration virtual colleagues and tin do things for illustration show email inboxes aliases automate a bid of tasks.

You’ll beryllium tin to create and usage agents utilizing Copilot Studio, usage agents that spot connected web data, and moreover usage agents grounded connected activity accusation done nan Microsoft graph. The usage of agents pinch Copilot Chat will beryllium priced done nan Copilot Studio metre successful Azure aliases done a pay-as-you-go option.

“The first mobility group inquire maine is ‘am I penning you a blank check?’” says Spataro, but Microsoft has built controls for really group net for AI supplier access. “The measurement you tin powerfulness nan spinning of nan meters is paying successful different ways. One measurement is pay-as-you-go, that is fundamentally an unfastened narration aliases tab that you’re burning down, but nan different measurement to do it is done depletion packs, and erstwhile nan battalion runs retired you’re done.” 

The pricing and depletion rates are a mini complicated, though. Microsoft measures supplier usage successful messages, truthful classical answers that don’t deed ample relationship models are priced arsenic 1 message, whereas generative answers costs 2 messages and point accessing nan Microsoft Graph (including files stored successful SharePoint) will costs 30 messages.

“A relationship is balanced to 1 cent, truthful you tin fundamentally personification it complete to 1 cent, 2 cents, and 30 cents,” explains Spataro. “It spins an Azure metre and it burns down a customer’s MACC (Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment).” 

Microsoft provides immoderate illustration costs calculations for businesses that mightiness beryllium tempted to usage AI agents done Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat:

A hypothetical supplier successful Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat uses accusation stored successful Microsoft Graph to reply worker questions astir HR policies. Yesterday, nan supplier consumed 200 generative answers and 200 tenant Graph grounding for messages. Therefore, it would costs 6,400 messages aliases $64 for that day.

The existent chat acquisition successful Copilot Chat is mostly unchanged, and it uses GPT-4o for queries. You tin too upload files to Copilot Chat and personification it summarize Word documents aliases moreover analyse accusation successful Excel spreadsheets. You tin do nan aforesaid constituent consecutive incorrect Word aliases Excel if you net for nan afloat Microsoft 365 Copilot, alternatively of having to upload files manually. Spataro says Microsoft doesn’t personification immoderate plans to alteration a proceedings mode of Microsoft 365 Copilot, but it’s clear Copilot Chat is designed to tempt businesses into paying to get Copilot incorrect Office apps.

Copilot Chat is already celebrated among businesses that spot connected Microsoft package and services. “We had Bing Chat Enterprise that we renamed, and contempt nan truth that nan naming recreation has been difficult to way and it’s difficult to find nan product, we personification a singular number of users connected it,” says Spataro. “What we find is that erstwhile you commencement to usage it, you spell accustomed to and appreciative of nan worthy that it tin proviso astatine work.”

With an ongoing connection complete nan worthy of a $30 per personification per play subscription to Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft will beryllium hoping that Copilot Chat tin thief personification a batch overmuch businesses complete to its AI measurement of thinking.