Shubham Sawarkar
Microsoft today officially announced the pricing details for its AI-driven Copilot for Microsoft 365 during the Microsoft Inspire partner event. The suite of advanced contextual AI tools, a result of Microsoft’s collaboration with OpenAI, will be available to businesses for $30 per user. Additionally, the company has introduced Bing Chat Enterprise, a privacy-centric version of the AI chatbot that prioritizes enhanced security measures for handling sensitive business data.
First revealed in March, Microsoft 365 Copilot represents the company’s vision for the future of work. Powered by the GPT-4 language model, this suite of tools allows users to generate Office content using natural-language text prompts. For instance, users can simply ask PowerPoint to create a presentation based on a Word document, generate a proposal using spreadsheet data, or even summarize emails and draft responses in Outlook. Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s Chief Communications Officer, explained that Copilot leverages business data such as documents, emails, calendar entries, chats, meetings, and contacts, along with the user’s working context, to provide more comprehensive, relevant, and actionable responses to queries.
Although Microsoft initially conducted testing with a limited group of enterprise partners earlier this year, the company has not yet announced a specific date for full availability to all business customers. However, the pricing announcement suggests that the launch date is likely approaching swiftly. The monthly fee of $30 will apply to Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium customers. Microsoft has yet to disclose pricing or availability details for Copilot in the consumer market.
Simultaneously, Microsoft has introduced Bing Chat Enterprise as a security-focused alternative to its AI chatbot, which was initially launched for consumers in February 2023. In response to feedback from corporate customers expressing concerns about data protection, the company developed Bing Chat Enterprise. According to Shaw, this enterprise-oriented chatbot ensures the safeguarding of commercial data, providing organizations with AI-powered chat functionality that guarantees data protection throughout the entire process. This offering enables commercial customers to access improved answers, increase efficiency, and explore innovative ways to enhance creativity within their organizations.
Bing Chat Enterprise is being rolled out today as a preview to Microsoft 365 E5, E3, Business Premium, and Business Standard customers at no additional cost. Moreover, Microsoft plans to make the enterprise-focused chatbot available as a standalone subscription for $5 in the future.
