Microsoft is pricing the AI-powered future of Office documents, and it’s a steep one for businesses looking to adopt Microsoft’s latest technology. Microsoft 365 Copilot is available to Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium customers for $30 per user per month.
That’s a big premium over the cost of existing Microsoft 365 plans. Microsoft charges businesses $36 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E3, which includes Office apps, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and more productivity features. The $30 premium for access to Microsoft 365 GoPilot nearly doubles the cost for businesses subscribed to E3 that want these AI-powered features. For Microsoft 365 Business Standard, that’s nearly triple the price at $12.50 per user per month.
Microsoft is trying to transform its Office applications with its AI-powered Copilot service, allowing businesses to instantly condense documents, compose emails and speed up Excel analysis. Microsoft 365 CoPilot certainly looks like a very compelling feature addition, and I truly believe it will change Office documents forever, but existing Microsoft 365 businesses may be deterred from using CoPilot in the short term.
Over the past several months, 600 enterprise customers have been testing Microsoft 365 Copilot during a paid early access program. Firms such as KPMG, Lumen and Emirates NBD have all gained access. “We’re learning that the more customers use Copilot, the more excited they are about Copilot,” Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing, said in a blog post today. “Soon, no one will want to work without it.”
Microsoft has not yet put a release date on Microsoft 365 Copilot. Software giant Google will also face competition. Microsoft’s Copilot announcement comes days after Google announced similar AI features for Google Workspace earlier this year, including AI-assisted text generation in Gmail, Docs and more. Zoom and Salesforce are adding AI-powered features, so now everyone will have an eye on how Google, Zoom, and Salesforce handle pricing for their AI additions.
One reason Microsoft 365 Copilot is priced so high is because Microsoft is investing in building its AI-powered offerings. Microsoft has invested billions in its OpenAI partnership. Tech giants like Microsoft are also clamoring for Nvidia GPUs to implement these features, so until the chip becomes available and costs come down, there’s a premium on what tasks this infrastructure needs to perform. Microsoft is reportedly working on its own AI chips in an effort to avoid costly reliance on Nvidia.
Microsoft is bringing this Copilot experience to teams by integrating it into the Teams phone call experience and Teams chat threads. You can read more about these new Microsoft Teams Copilot features here.
Along with the price announcement, Microsoft is also introducing Ping Chat. It’s essentially the same Bing Chat available to consumers, but with added business data protection. Microsoft is previewing it today, and it’s included at no extra cost in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium. You can read more about Bing Chat Enterprise here.
