Microsoft is bringing its Copilot AI assistant to small businesses as the tech giant is launching a new premium tier of the technology for individuals.
On Tuesday, the company made an announcement letting small businesses know that they can now subscribe to its Copilot virtual assistant in the company's productivity apps. Furthermore, consumers who are paying for Microsoft 365 software can sign up for a new paid version of the assistant.
The new updates will help the company expose more of its customers to generative artificial intelligence. This is a type of technology that startup OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot popularized last year.
It is capable of composing natural-sounding text with a person's brief written command. The tech giant's efforts to expand access to the technology could help it start to cover the costs of building data center infrastructure that enables AI.
Investors have been gambling on Microsoft to capitalize on generative AI demand in operating systems, cloud, productivity, web search, and security. This is despite facing competition from the likes of Amazon and Google, as per CNBC.
Last week, Microsoft was able to reclaim the title of the most valuable publicly traded company from Apple. The company's CEO, Satya Nadella, has recently been conveying that AI lies at the center of the software maker's current identity.
The first time that Microsoft started offering Copilot for Microsoft 365 was for large companies in November last year as well as faculty and staff at educational institutions the month after. For the latter, the add-on costs $30 per person per month on top of existing subscription costs.
The latest announcement gives small businesses that pay for Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard the opportunity to sign up for up to 299 licenses at $30 per person per month.
On the other hand, the new premium tier for individuals will be available for $20 per month and will be called Copilot Pro. The new subscription will add a text-drafting, number-crunching AI assistant to Microsoft's widely used applications, including Word and Excel, according to Inquirer.
New Premium Tier for Individuals
The latest development will also allow consumers to gain access to new tools and AI models, such as GPT-4 Turbo. Microsoft added that it would be removing a 300-person minimum requirement to purchase the enterprise version of the AI assistant.
This makes the security controls and Microsoft Teams upgrade that come with the $30 per month per user Copilot available to smaller businesses. Corporate Vice President Jared Spataro said that the tech giant is now expecting virtually all of its business customers to sign up for access to Copilot AI.
While most of the features that were previously available to businesses for the last few months will become accessible to consumers, there is a big exception. This is the capability to summon Copilot to generate a PowerPoint deck based on a Word document.
This is because the consumer version is not powered by Microsoft's Graph technology, due to the functionality not being available just yet. Furthermore, the AI assistant includes improvements to the Image Creator from Designer and allows users to build their own Copilot GPT, said The Verge.
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