A more accessible Copilot with no seat minimum. Yes, that’s the latest announcement from Microsoft who is opening its artificial intelligence assistant to consumers and making the corporate version available to smaller companies. This announcement has come sooner than expected and there are quite a few points you need to know. We cover the key areas in this article.
About Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a new AI-powered assistant that will be integrated into Microsoft 365. It will help users to be more productive by providing them with personalised recommendations, insights, and suggestions. Having only launched in November, Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data in the Microsoft graph – this includes things like your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and more. Combined with the Microsoft 365 suite of apps this turns your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet by allowing users to summarise emails, animate slides in PowerPoint and more.
The reason for change
Last year Copilot was only available for enterprise customers that had to commit to at least 300 Copilot licenses. Fast forward to 15th of January 2024 and the AI-powered assistant is generally available for organisations of all sizes with no minimum license requirement. As you can guess this rapid shift has come thanks to the incredibly high demand from all size businesses in AI and AI powered tools. And not to worry if you’re an individual who has an interest in AI, individual users not tied to business plans can also access Copilot as part of the Microsoft Copilot package (Copilot Pro).
A summary of the updates from Microsoft
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now generally available for small businesses with Microsoft Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard Customers, where they can purchase between 1 and 299 seats.
- 300 seat minimum purchase for commercial plans and making Copilot available for Office 365 E3 and E5 customers.
- Commercial customers can now purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 through Microsoft’s network of Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partners.
- Eligibility of Copilot for Microsoft 365 for education faculty and staff.
Copilot pricing structure
There are now three versions of Copilot that you need to be aware of. Here is a breakdown of each package:
- Copilot – this is the standard version that’s available free of charge to both consumers and businesses, think of this as a chatbot much like ChatGPT.
- Copilot Pro – for consumers/individual users, offering AI-powered Copilot features inside Office apps and more.
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 – Microsoft now also offers the same premium subscription with more features to businesses with this package.
We’ve included a more detailed description of each option below.
If you’re interested in learning more about Copilot, contact our team who can help.
