By Jim Lundy
Microsoft Ships CoPilot and Offers New Copyright Protection
Last week, Microsoft announced that it is making its Copilot available for Microsoft 365 for non-enterprise customers. This means everybody didn’t want to pay for a minimum of 300 seats.
They also announced the Microsoft CoPilot Pro for people with personal accounts. This blog analyzes the move.
The Three Flavors of Microsoft CoPilot
There are now three versions:
- Microsoft CoPilot (formerly Bing Search): Free
- CoPilot for Microsoft 365: $30 per user per month
- CoPilot Pro for Microsoft Personal and Family Accounts: $20 per user per month
What Does CoPilot Work With?
The main focus of the announcement is that the rest of us can now buy the CoPilot for use with Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
The supported applications include MS Excel, MS Word, MS Outlook, MS PowerPoint, and Microsoft Teams.
The Editions of Microsoft 365 that are Supported
The other good news is that Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, along with Office 365 E3 and E5 subscriptions are eligible to work with the CoPilot. For the Business licenses, the Business Standard or Business Premium are both supported.
For home and personal users, the lower price is because people don’t pay much for a home license ($99.00 per year or $8.25 per month).
CoPilot Copyright Protection is Now Available
Microsoft announced Copyright protection on January 5th, 2024.
The statement says the following:
“The Copilot Copyright Commitment extends Microsoft’s existing IP indemnification coverage to copyright claims relating to the use of our AI-powered Copilots, including the output they generate, specifically for paid versions of Microsoft commercial Copilot services and Bing Chat Enterprise. This includes Microsoft 365 Copilot which brings generative AI to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more – enabling a user to reason across their data or turn a document into a presentation.“
In Aragon Research’s opinion, not offering this IP Protection would have slowed the adoption of CoPilots from Microsoft. We will note that Google announced its copyright and indemnification capabilities in December.
Bottom Line
Microsoft CoPilot is now generally available and this is good for the industry. The question that remains is whether will enterprises jump to pay $30 per user per month on top of the existing subscription. Our take is that only part of the enterprise will.
We do expect Microsoft and others to continue to innovate in Generative AI, which means these products and services will continue to add improved capabilities over time.
2024 is the Year of Virtual Agents for the Contact Center!
Thursday, February 15, 2024 at 10 AM PT | 1 PM ET
Contact Center 2024 – Why You Need AI Virtual Agents
2024 marks the year of Virtual Agents for Contact Centers. Building them has become easier than ever, addressing a significant challenge – handling repetitive queries.
Join us in this insightful webinar where Aragon CEO and Lead Analyst, Jim Lundy, delves into the importance of virtual agents, their capabilities, and guides you on selecting a provider for building them.
Key topics for discussion include:
- Key trends fueling the surge of AI-based Virtual Agents in Contact Centers.
- The essential functions of virtual agents within a contact center.
- What are some of the key selection criteria in selecting providers and the tools that they offer?
