Microsoft Copilot News
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a new AI assistant and productivity tool that, as the name suggests, works across the Microsoft 365 portfolio to help users with their daily work.
The AI can pull from Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Office emails, and other Microsoft 365 apps to gather data in real time, using natural language processing to understand and execute tasks.
The Copilot System, which powers the AI, is a processing and orchestration engine that uses Large Language Models, data in the Microsoft Graph (which contains data like a user’s emails, files, and chats), and the Microsoft 365 apps, all through natural language processing. (While Microsoft has invested heavily in ChatGPT, that’s only a piece of what makes Copilot work.)
Microsoft states that Copilot is built with a comprehensive approach to security, compliance, privacy, and responsible AI to make sure that it’s secure and ready for enterprise use.
As we kick off a new year, we’re thrilled to see people increasingly using and loving Microsoft Copilot for work and life. Our goal is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more by bringing Copilot, the everyday AI companion, to millions of people around the world. We have reached another milestone in this mission with more than 5 billion chats and more than 5 billion images to date. As Copilot continues to earn preference and usage, we’re receiving valuable feedback on how to improve. Two examples: First, there are a set of Copilot power users like creators, researchers, programmers and others who want more rapid access to the very latest we have to offer. And second, our Microsoft 365 customers want access to Copilot in the Microsoft 365 apps for personal use.
To help address those needs, today we’re delighted to announce more options for power users, creators and anyone looking to take their Copilot experience to the next level. This begins with the introduction of Copilot Pro, a new premium subscription for individuals that provides a higher tier of service for AI capabilities, brings Copilot AI capabilities to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers, and new capabilities, such as the ability to create Copilot GPTs. We are also announcing the general availability of our Copilot app for iOS and Android phones. Finally, we’re excited to bring Copilot for Microsoft 365 to more commercial customers by expanding the availability to businesses of all sizes, including small- and medium-sized businesses, starting today.
Introducing Copilot Pro: Supercharge your creativity and productivity
Today we’re announcing the availability of Copilot Pro, a new subscription that delivers the most advanced features and capabilities of Microsoft Copilot to individuals looking to supercharge their Copilot experience. Whether you need advanced help with writing, coding, designing, researching or learning, Copilot Pro brings greater performance, productivity and creativity.
Copilot Pro Provides:
- A single AI experience that runs across your devices, understanding your context on the web, on your PC, across your apps and soon on your phone to bring the right skills to you when you need them.
- Access to Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on PC, Mac and iPad for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers.
- Priority access to the very latest models – starting today with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo. With Copilot Pro you’ll have access to GPT-4 Turbo during peak times for faster performance and, coming soon, the ability to toggle between models to optimise your experience how you choose.
- Enhanced AI image creation with Image Creator from Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator) – ensuring it’s faster with 100 boosts per day while bringing you more detailed image quality as well as landscape image format.
- The ability to build your own Copilot GPT – a customised Copilot tailored for a specific topic – in our new Copilot GPT Builder (coming soon) with just a simple set of prompts.
Expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 to businesses of all sizes
While Copilot Pro is our best experience for individuals, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is our best experience for organisations. Copilot for Microsoft 365 became generally available for enterprises in November. As we said earlier this year, 40% of the Fortune 100 participated in our Early Access Program, and since GA for enterprise, customers like Visa, BP, Honda, Pfizer, and partners like Accenture, KPMG and PwC are already using Copilot — which means thousands of people across industries and sectors have started working in new ways, with an AI-powered copilot at their side. Today we are excited to announce that Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for organisations of all sizes — with no seat minimum. We are also enabling our partners to help every business become AI-powered.
Today’s updates include:
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now generally available for small businesses with Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard Customers can purchase between one and 300 seats for $30 per person per month.
- We’re removing the 300-seat purchase minimum for commercial plans and making Copilot available for Office 365 E3 and E5 customers (A Microsoft 365 license was previously required).
- Commercial customers can now purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 through our amazing network of Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partners.
- Last month, we also announced eligibility of Copilot for Microsoft 365 for education faculty and staff.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is even more powerful for organisations because it works across your entire universe of data at work — including emails, meetings, chats, documents and more, plus the web. With natural language prompts like “Tell my team how we updated the product strategy,” Copilot can generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads. Copilot is also integrated into the apps millions of people use every day, including Microsoft Teams (which is not available with Copilot Pro). Copilot jump-starts your creativity in Word, analyses data in Excel, designs presentations in PowerPoint, triages your Outlook inbox, summarises meetings in Teams – whether you attended or not – and so much more. Backed by enterprise-grade security, privacy, and compliance.