Starting from November 1st, Microsoft will offer Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI companion for core productivity applications like Word and Excel, to large corporate clients. This move aims to bolster Microsoft’s already dominant Office applications, which constitute 24% of the company’s total revenue and experienced a 16% growth in the fiscal fourth quarter. Microsoft’s collaboration with OpenAI, particularly leveraging the GPT-4 large language model, plays a pivotal role in the development of Microsoft 365 Copilot and other products.
Microsoft is planning to roll out Copilot in Bing, Edge, and Windows 11 on September 26th. For corporate users, Microsoft 365 Copilot will assist in document preparation, presentation creation, and information retrieval from emails.
CEO Satya Nadella expressed enthusiasm for Copilot, likening it to the transformative impact of PCs in the 1980s, the internet in the 1990s, and mobile technology in the 21st century.
The idea for Microsoft 365 Copilot was unveiled in March, and by May, 600 large organizations were already using it in a paid early access program. The pricing was announced in July, with a cost of $30 per person per month in addition to existing Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Microsoft faces competition from Google, which offers Duet AI for Google Workspace at a similar price point. Currently, Microsoft 365 Copilot tools are in preview with small businesses.
Microsoft anticipates gradual growth from AI services as organizations adopt Azure capabilities and Copilot solutions like Microsoft 365 Copilot become widely available for purchase. The impact of this growth is expected to be more pronounced in the second half of Microsoft’s fiscal year ending in June 2024.
(Source: Jordan Novet | CNBC)
