Microsoft to sell Copilot to large enterprises from November 1

Microsoft will sell its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant software Microsoft 365 Copilot to large enterprise customers starting November 1. 

The announcement made on Thursday at the Microsoft Surface event at New York follows the company’s offering of Microsoft 365 Copilot for preview to a small group of businesses. Companies can tap into Copilot for tasks involving Word files, PowerPoint presentations and quickly find information from email messages, the company said.

As per a statement from Microsoft, its Office applications contribute 24% of Microsoft’s total revenue, and the category grew by 16% in the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is the result of the company’s close collaboration with AI startup OpenAI, the creator of the popular generative AI tool ChatGPT which was released in November last year.  

Across Microsoft 365 Copilot and several other products announced this year, Microsoft is relying on OpenAI’s underlying GPT-4 large language model, which underpins ChatGPT and can summarise information or generate human-like text in response to a written prompt, the company said. 

Microsoft is also developing assistants for its Fabric data-analytics software, its Dynamics sales and customer-service software, its Bing search engine and its Windows 11 operating system. But at the latest event, the company said that it will begin rolling out one Copilot in Bing, Edge and Windows 11 starting September 26. 

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, said on Thursday that he was keen on chatting with Copilot in his personal account in his hotel room the night before. “It’s exciting to be in a place where we are bringing some software innovation and really having fun enjoying this entire journey,” he said. 

In March, Microsoft first revealed plans for Microsoft 365 Copilot. As of May, 600 large organisations were using it in a paid early-access program. In July, the company announced the price of $30 per person per month for the enhancements, on top of existing subscription costs for Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365. 

Amy Hood, the company’s finance chief, told analysts in July that growth from AI services would be “gradual” as organisations adopt certain Azure capabilities and Copilots such as the Microsoft 365 Copilot become generally available for broad purchasing. 

Hood said that for Microsoft’s current 2024 fiscal year, which will end in June 2024, the financial effects would mainly come in the second half. 

To be sure, Microsoft’s push to have large organisations and companies pay a monthly fee comes after its rival tech major Google began charging users for its Duet AI. The AI tool is for Google Workspace, and launched for enterprises at $30 per person in August. 

Earlier this week, American investment banker Morgan Stanley unveiled its AI assistant for banks and financial companies, which allows them quick access to the bank's database of about 100,000 research reports and documents. Its contenders Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are also exploring use of AI in financial services.