Microsoft Launches Pay-As-You-Go 365 Copilot Chat with AI Agents for Businesses

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Launches : The Future of Workplace Efficiency?

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat has been launched and has been design to reshaping how organizations approach productivity and collaboration by using advanced AI technology, including OpenAI's GPT-4. This platform provides a secure, enterprise-ready solution designed to streamline workflows, optimize processes, and deliver measurable outcomes. Whether your organization aims to enhance operational efficiency or empower employees, Copilot Chat is tailored to meet the evolving demands of the modern workplace. At its core, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat isn't just another productivity tool; it's a partner in redefining efficiency. By seamlessly integrating advanced AI capabilities like GPT-4 into familiar platforms such as Outlook, Teams, and Excel, this tool promises to simplify workflows, enhance decision-making, and unlock new levels of creativity. Whether you're looking to streamline processes, improve collaboration, or adopt AI securely across your organization, Copilot Chat offers a tailored solution to meet your needs. Let's explore how this innovative technology is poised to transform the way we approach work, one task at a time. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat integrates AI to deliver a seamless and efficient user experience. Its core features include: These features empower businesses to adopt AI without compromising on security, flexibility, or budget, making sure that organizations can confidently integrate AI into their operations. One of the standout capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is its ability to create custom AI agents. These agents are specifically designed to align with your organization's unique workflows and integrate seamlessly with existing systems. Examples of their functionality include: By automating repetitive tasks and providing real-time assistance, these agents free up valuable time for employees to focus on strategic priorities, driving both efficiency and innovation across the organization. Gain further expertise in Microsoft 365 by checking out these recommendations. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat integrates directly with widely used Microsoft 365 applications, making sure AI-driven insights are accessible within familiar tools. This integration enhances productivity by allowing users to: Additionally, advanced analytics provide actionable insights into productivity and return on investment (ROI), helping organizations measure the tangible impact of their AI initiatives. Collaboration is a cornerstone of modern workplaces, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat enhances teamwork by integrating with tools like Microsoft Teams. With AI-driven insights, teams can: By making sure that critical information is readily available, Copilot Chat enables teams to work smarter and more cohesively, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration. Security and compliance are critical considerations when adopting AI, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat addresses these concerns with robust measures. Key security features include: These features provide organizations with the confidence to adopt AI responsibly, making sure data integrity and regulatory compliance throughout their operations. Organizations are at varying stages in their AI adoption journey, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat offers flexible deployment options to accommodate these diverse needs. Whether introducing AI for the first time or scaling its use across departments, the platform supports your goals. The pay-as-you-go pricing model ensures scalability, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes and budgets. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat demonstrates versatility with applications across various industries. Examples include: These use cases highlight how Copilot Chat can drive innovation, improve efficiency, and deliver measurable results across sectors. By automating routine and repetitive tasks, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat enables employees to focus on creative and strategic work. Examples of tasks that AI can handle include: This shift not only boosts overall productivity but also enhances job satisfaction by reducing mundane workloads, allowing employees to contribute more meaningfully to organizational goals. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat represents a significant advancement in AI adoption, offering tools that empower organizations to integrate AI into every aspect of their operations. By combining innovative technology with user-friendly interfaces, Copilot Chat ensures that AI is accessible, secure, and impactful. This platform is designed to help businesses navigate their digital transformation journeys with confidence, equipping them to thrive in an increasingly competitive and technology-driven environment.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Brings Consumption Model To AI Agents

"It's about unleashing a swarm of intelligent agents to supercharge your productivity and unlock the full ROI of AI," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. Microsoft has launched Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, expanding its line of consumption-based AI offerings by providing an option for pay-as-you-go artificial intelligence agents with the existing free chat experience for M365 commercial customers. The move comes as generative AI vendors experiment with different payment models for their GenAI wares. The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant's M365 Copilot is $30 per user, per license, but it also offers the consumption-based Security Copilot GenAI tool, which comes to $4 an hour per provisioned stock-keeping unit (SKU). Competitors such as Salesforce have tried other pricing models such as a $2 per conversation starting price for Agentforce, while Amazon has options for on-demand and batch pricing or provisioned throughput for its Bedrock foundation models offering. [RELATED: Microsoft Copilot, Copilot+ PC, Windows 11 AI Updates Start Rolling Out] CRN has reached out to Microsoft for comment. Wayne Roye, CEO of Staten Island, N.Y.-based Microsoft partner Troinet, told CRN in an interview that Microsoft AI is the biggest, most exciting part of the portfolio this year. Roye said that Microsoft would be a help to his business by continuing to get the word out on how AI can improve business functions and how it will change the work required of a variety of job roles. "AI is going to affect so many things, change so many functions and accelerate the speed of growth of a lot of organizations if they really address it the right way," Roye said. "Creative people will strive and survive with AI. ... If you're the person that all you do is hit a button all day long with no thought, AI is going to do that for you. But if you're the guy that's now thinking through and ideating on how these buttons now actually create something great, that person is going to accelerate and make more money." In a post to Microsoft-owned social network LinkedIn, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Chat "a big step forward in making AI accessible to every employee in every business." "It's not just about having access to Copilot," Nadella said. "It's about unleashing a swarm of intelligent agents to supercharge your productivity and unlock the full ROI of AI." He indicated that Chat can help demystify AI agents for users, comparing them to the simplicity of "creating an Excel spreadsheet." M365 Copilot Chat is powered by GPT-4o, the flagship AI model by Microsoft-backed OpenAI. Chat includes enterprise data protection, agent management and other IT controls, Jared Spataro, Microsoft chief marketing officer for AI at work, said in a blog post Wednesday. Microsoft customers will likely use a mix of consumption-based Copilot Chat and license-based M365 Copilot, Spataro said. Agents are accessible by PC, tablet, mobile and other devices. They are built by users adding an agent's name, instructions and where it gets its information ("knowledge"). Chat will warn users if the agent is accessing a source not available to certain people in an organization. "These announcements enable every customer to accelerate their AI transformation and realize enterprise-wide ROI," he said. "Now, every employee has a Copilot and a team of agents to scale their impact." The two offerings have some key differences. Consumption-based M365 Copilot Chat does not include a variety of features included with license-based M365 Copilot. Missing from Chat are: While license-based M365 Copilot includes an offer for agents grounded in work data-which includes content from meetings, emails, documents, chats and more-this is a metered offering in consumption-based M365 Copilot Chat, according to Microsoft. Both the consumption-based offer and license-based offer use metering for agents that act independently of users with autonomous actions. Although consumption-based M365 Copilot Chat doesn't include Copilot Analytics for measuring usage and adoption, it does have basic reporting in the Microsoft Admin Center available, according to Microsoft. Features in preview for M365 Copilot include Copilot Actions and pre-built M365 agents-including interpreter, facilitator, project manager and employee self-service agents. The new consumption-based Chat offer allows for a limited number of file uploads of any documents for Copilot to then summarize, analyze and suggest improvements, among other AI-powered actions. Copilot Pages allow users to collaborate with colleagues on projects in real time, bringing in content from Copilot, files and the web. Examples of agents Chat users might create include a customer relationship management (CRM) agent for fetching account details before a customer meeting and field service agents that can surface instructions and product information stored in a user's SharePoint. IT administrators can build organization-wide agents and manage the deployment, according to the tech giant. The Chat announcement follows Microsoft's unveiling of its new "CoreAI - Platform and Tools" division, headed up by Facebook's former head of engineering, Jay Parikh.

Agents have entered the Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

If you use Microsoft 365 Copilot for work, you'll like this upgrade. Microsoft's Office 365 apps have been the cornerstone for many working professionals' day-to-day workflows for years. As a result, when the company developed its AI assistant, Copilot, it was only natural to infuse it across the 365 apps, and now, it is getting even more helpful. Also: Microsoft's Copilot AI is coming to your Office apps - and it won't come cheap On Wednesday, Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat which builds on the traditional free Microsoft 365 Copilot chat experience, introducing pay-as-you-go agents that can automate repetitive tasks. With Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, commercial customers can still chat with Copilot regarding content across their Microsoft 365 applications, such as asking for quick summaries from an email thread or asking for help preparing for a meeting on their Outlook calendar by leveraging GPT-4o. However, the bonus is now being able to create, discover, and pin agents. Agents are AI assistants that can carry out repetitive tasks for you with minimal or no instruction. The Microsoft 365 agents, which can be grounded on both your work data and the web, can be programmed using natural language in Copilot Agent Builder and Copilot Studio. Both tools are accessible right in Copilot Chat. "People often mystify agents, but I think of it like creating an Excel spreadsheet," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "Building agents should be as simple as that." Business use cases for agents could include a customer service representative using a CRM agent to provide them with account details before a meeting, or a field service agent accessing step-by-step instructions stored in SharePoint, according to Microsoft. Using agents does come at an additional cost, priced on a metered basis. The costs are determined by the sum of messages used by your organization, with message usage varying depending on the agent's complexity and use of specific features, according to Microsoft. IT admins stay in control, with the ability to create organization-wide agents and manage agent deployment. Also: Autonomous businesses will be powered by AI agents To get started, customers can visit the Copilot Chat website, where they should see the new "Create agent" option on the right-hand tab. This release comes a day after OpenAI launched Tasks, a similar feature that lets users prompt the chatbot once to carry out recurring future tasks -- a baby step into agentic AI. AI chatbots have proven to be helpful assistants, and the next frontier is getting them to help with minimal direction. As a result, AI agents are poised to become one of the most prominent AI trends in 2025, with many companies, such as Salesforce, Asana, and even Microsoft, launching AI agent enterprise offerings toward the end of last year.

Microsoft 365 gets a new pay-as-you-go Copilot Chat plan

Summary Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat offers pay-as-you-go access to AI agents for businesses. Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, Copilot Chat can assist with tasks like market research, meeting preparation, and content generation. Users can directly create agents in Copilot Chat to streamline repetitive tasks. Remember Bing Chat Enterprise? In case you don't, it was an AI-powered chat service designed for business organizations, offering features focused on workflow automation such as code writing and document summarization. Today, Microsoft has relaunched it under a new plan called Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Related Microsoft Copilot: What is it, and how does it work? Is Microsoft Copilot the best AI chatbot available right now? Posts Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is a new pay-as-you-go plan for businesses Copilot Chat is built on OpenAI's GPT-4 AI model and can be used for tasks like conducting market research, preparing for meetings, creating key takeaways in Word documents, and even generating AI-powered images for social media posts and campaigns using Copilot Pages. Additionally, users can use and create agents using natural language directly within Copilot Chat to automate repetitive tasks, such as monitoring email inboxes or gathering account details before a customer meeting. The best part? Previously, AI agents were only available with the full Microsoft Copilot subscription, which costs $30 per user per month and provided access to AI-powered features across Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook. With the new Copilot Chat plan, businesses can access Copilot AI agents directly within the chat experience and pay based on usage (pay-as-you-go). While the exact amount a business will end up paying for Copilot Chat will vary depending on what their team does with it, it's undoubtedly a step in the right direction. After all, it's much better to pay for what you use rather than commit to a flat fee, especially for businesses with fluctuating needs or smaller teams that may not require constant access to AI agents. While Copilot Chat can't be found in Office applications like Word and Excel, you can begin using it in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for Windows, Android, or iPhone app stores or via Microsoft 365 Copilot's official website.

Microsoft launches consumption-based 365 Copilot Chat option for corporate users

Microsoft on Wednesday announced a tier of its Copilot assistant for corporate users with a consumption-based pricing model. The new Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat option represents an alternative to the Microsoft 365 Copilot, which organizations have been able to pay for based on the number of employees with access to it. The introduction shows Microsoft's determination to popularize generative artificial intelligence software in the workplace. Several companies have adopted the Microsoft 365 Copilot since it became available for $30 per person per month in November 2023, but one group of analysts recently characterized the product push as "slow/underwhelming." Copilot Chat can be an on-ramp to Microsoft 365 Copilot, with a lower barrier to entry, Jared Spataro, Microsoft's chief marketing officer for AI at work, said in a CNBC interview this week. Both offerings rely on artificial intelligence models from Microsoft-backed OpenAI. Copilot Chat can fetch information from the web and summarize text in uploaded documents, and people using it can create agents that perform tasks in the background. It can enrich answers with information from customers' files and third-party sources. Unlike Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat can't be found in Office applications such as Word and Excel. People can reach Copilot Chat starting today in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for Windows, Android and iOS. The app is formerly known as Microsoft 365 (Office). It's also available from the web at m365copilot.com, a spokesperson said. Some management teams have resisted paying Microsoft to give the 365 Copilot to thousands of employees because they weren't sure how helpful it would be at the $30 monthly price. Costs will vary for the Copilot Chat depending on what employees do with it, but at least organizations won't end up paying for nonuse. "As one customer said to me, this model lets the business value prove itself," Spataro said. Microsoft tallies up charges for Copilot Chat based on the tally of "messages" that a client uses. Each "message" costs a penny, according to a blog post. Responses that draw on the client's proprietary files cost 30 "messages" each. Every action that an agent takes on behalf of employees costs 25 "messages." "We're talking a cent, 2 cents, 30 cents, and that is a very easy way for people to get started," Spataro said. Salesforce charges $2 per conversation for its Agentforce AI chat service, where employees can set up automated sales and customer service processes. The number of people using Microsoft 365 Copilot every day more than doubled quarter over quarter, CEO Satya Nadella said in October, although he did not disclose how many were using it. But sign-ups have been mounting. UBS said in October that it had 50,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, and in November, Accenture committed to having 200,000 users of the tool.

New Microsoft 365 AI offering means all your workers can use Copilot for free

Copilot Chat brings AI creativity, collaboration and productivity gains Microsoft is continuing its mission to get its Copilot AI platform in the hands of as many users as possible with a new expansion. The company has announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, an upgrade to the current free chat tool in its office software platform which will provide access to AI tools at no extra cost. The move will mean everyone in your business can now get the most out of Copilot and AI agents, bringing workers at all levels up to speed on the latest technology. The new edition will provide a secure AI chat service powered by GPT-4o, with agents accessible directly within the chat. It will be offered alongside the current $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription, meaning customers can customize their AI investment for the needs of their workforce, and that access to agents can be priced on a metered basis. All the existing familiar capabilities of Copilot will be included in the new chat services, with users able to upload any documents and then ask questions or have Copilot carry out tasks such as summarization or data analysis. There's also access to Copilot Pages, allowing for greater collaboration across your business with co-workers and AI services, and the ability to create and add in AI-generated images to spice up your presentations. AI agents can be created directly within Copilot Chat using natural language, hopefully boosting productivity and freeing up time previously spent on manual processes or tasks. Company-wide agents can also be created thanks to Copilot Studio, with agents deployed to all workers needing them. "Copilot Chat enables your entire workforce -- from customer service representatives to marketing leads to frontline technicians -- to start using Copilot and agents today," Microsoft's Jared Spataro, CMO AI at Work, noted in a blog post. "Moving forward, every organization will have a mix of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot - our best-in-class offering - to drive AI transformation at scale."

Microsoft's newest Copilot plan for business is pay-as-you-go

Microsoft is launching a pay-as-you-go plan for corporate customers that bundles together several, but not all, of the company's existing AI-powered productivity features for Microsoft 365. The new plan, Copilot Chat -- not to be confused with Microsoft's Copilot Business Chat or GitHub Copilot Chat -- is underpinned by OpenAI's GPT-4o AI model and lets users ask business-related questions, build workflow automations, generate images, and more. All of these capabilities were a part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft's sprawling enterprise AI add-on for Microsoft 365. But pricing for Microsoft 365 Copilot is more rigid. A license costs $30 per user per month. "Copilot Chat ... adds pay-as-you-go [services] to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 commercial customers," Microsoft said in a blog post published Wednesday. "Copilot Chat is a powerful new on-ramp for everyone in [an] organization to build the AI habit." Copilot Chat's features live in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, a rebranding of the Microsoft 365 app. From the app, users can ask Copilot, Microsoft's chatbot experience on top of GPT-4o, to summarize key points in an uploaded file, draft a work document, or create an AI-generated image. Or, they can collaborate on a project with teammates and AI via the built-in Copilot Pages tool. Microsoft is particularly touting Copilot Chat's task automation features, which it describes as "agentic." Using the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, Copilot Chat users can launch "agents" to automate basic tasks, like giving account details before a sales meeting, or delivering instructions to a field service worker. IT admins can build org-wide agents and manage their deployment, as well as govern the access and security of individual agents. Agents will be priced on a "metered basis," Microsoft told TechCrunch. It didn't reveal more; we've reached out to the company for detailed pricing information and will update this article if we hear back. The Copilot Chat plan lacks many of the features in Microsoft 365 Copilot, including prebuilt agents and AI-powered capabilities for Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Copilot Chat users also don't get the personalization options available to Microsoft 365 Copilot subscribers, nor do they get Microsoft's recently introduced Copilot Analytics tool to measure company-wide AI usage. It seems fairly clear that Copilot Chat is Microsoft's attempt to convince holdouts to pull the trigger on Microsoft 365 Copilot by dangling metered agentic features, while at the same time extracting incremental revenue from customers with less complex AI requirements. Microsoft 365 Copilot hasn't been a home run for the tech giant. According to Business Insider, Copilot, which Microsoft claims is being used by nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies, is proving to be inefficient, costly, and insecure for many organizations. Per a recent Gartner survey, only 3.3% of IT leaders said that Copilot has provided significant value to their employers. In an internal memo this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company's focus in 2025 will be "[AI] model-forward applications" that "reshape all application categories." "We have a lot of work to do and a tremendous opportunity ahead," Nadella wrote. "The good news is that we have been working at this for more than two years, and have learned a lot in terms of the systems, app platform, and tools required for the AI era."

Microsoft launches Copilot Chat for businesses to boost AI adoption

(Reuters) - Microsoft on Wednesday rolled out a chat service allowing businesses to use on-demand AI agents for routine tasks, betting on the pay-as-you-go model to drive up the adoption of the technology. The free service, Copilot Chat, which uses OpenAI's GPT-4, lets users create AI agents using natural languages such as English and Mandarin for tasks such as market research, writing strategy documents and preparing for meetings. However, features including summarizing and transcribing Teams calls and creating PowerPoint slides require a $30 monthly Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription. Microsoft, like other big technology companies, is under pressure to show returns on its hefty investments in AI, as the software giant is set to spend about $80 billion during its current fiscal year on data centers and AI infrastructure. After a Gartner report last year raised doubts about Copilot's adoption, Microsoft has been pushing its uptake. In November, Microsoft began allowing customers to create autonomous agents requiring minimal human intervention, a strategy which some analysts say could offer tech companies a simpler path to monetization. (Reporting by Rishi Kant in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

Microsoft Debuts Pay-as-You-Go AI Copilot Chat | PYMNTS.com

Microsoft is adding pay-as-you-go artificial intelligence agents to its free chatbot for commercial users. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat offers free AI chat powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o for Microsoft 365 commercial customers, according to a Wednesday (Jan. 15) Microsoft blog post. "Moving forward, every organization will have a mix of Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot ... to drive AI transformation at scale," the post said. Copilot Chat lets users conduct market research, create strategy documents or prepare for meetings, per the post. It can also work in Microsoft programs by summarizing a Word document or recommending improvements for a PowerPoint presentation, for example. Users can also create agents to automate repetitive tasks directly in Copilot Chat. These include customer relationship management agents and field service agents that can "access step-by-step instructions and real-time product knowledge stored in SharePoint," the post said. Agents are priced on a metered basis, according to the post. "While Copilot Chat is a powerful new on-ramp for everyone in your organization to build the AI habit, Microsoft 365 Copilot remains our best-in-class personal AI assistant for work," the post said. "It includes everything in Copilot Chat and more." AI agents in the B2B space are "stepping up to take on more responsibility, shifting from assistants to key players in B2B processes," PYMNTS reported Wednesday. For example, AI agents are taking over customer service and operations at major companies, navigating complicated business processes independently and employing capabilities beyond basic chatbots. This month, Salesforce, Talkdesk and Google made announcements about their own AI agent efforts. In addition to Google's own AI projects, the tech giant is investing in business-process-specific providers such as Fazeshift, an accounts receivable AI agent. "Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all interactions," PYMNTS wrote. "Today's customers expect personalized, high-touch experiences, even from the businesses they engage with. Agentic AI systems are increasingly able to learn about individual customer preferences, anticipate their needs, and offer tailored solutions -- without the need for human intervention." In addition, AI agents can track behavior, predict needs and offer insights on customer satisfaction, allowing companies to deliver enhanced customer experiences and foster long-term loyalty.

Microsoft Introduces Pay-as-You-Go Copilot Chat With AI Agents

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new enterprise-focused subscription plan that includes support for artificial intelligence (AI) agents, was introduced on Wednesday. The Redmond-based tech giant has been aggressively pushing its Copilot subscription to businesses and individuals. The new subscription offers more flexible access to the company's AI services, replacing fixed subscription fees with a pay-as-you-go model. The plan also includes access to Microsoft's free Copilot Chat for businesses. The tech giant shared details of the new subscription plan, which is now available to enterprises. The new Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is effectively a "lite" version of the existing Copilot plan, and offers a flexible payment system and fewer AI features. The latter costs $30 (roughly Rs. 2,600) a month per person. Microsoft's new subscription tier appears to be a strategic move to convince large businesses who are still apprehensive of these AI services and do not want to pay a hefty amount for thousands of employees. The Copilot Chat, instead, allows them to test the features and see if it is a good fit. With the pay-as-you-go plan, businesses can also monitor their usage and only use the tool for relevant tasks. Difference between Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions Photo Credit: Microsoft Microsoft is also bundling free access to Copilot chat for enterprises with the subscription. However, the AI chatbot is only grounded in the web (meaning it does not generate responses that it has not verified with a website), and it does not offer work groundedness (allowing the chatbot to access Microsoft Graph and third-party data via Graph connectors). The Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is only the second subscription by the company that offers access to AI agents. While the 365 Copilot also offers a metered payment option for agents performing autonomous actions, in the Copilot Chat subscription, even the work data-based actions are chargeable. In an interview with The Verge, Microsoft's CMO of AI at Work, Jared Spataro, explained what businesses will really have to pay for using AI agents. Microsoft uses "messages" as the unit of AI agent usage. Messages are essentially responses generated by the agent. However, there is no clarity on if the length of the response or special formatting adds to the cost. Spataro told the publication that one message is equal to one cent (roughly Rs. 0.86). Using the AI chat for web-grounded responses costs zero messages (free service) whereas typical answers cost one message. If the Copilot has to generate a response, it will cost businesses two messages. Further, generating a response using data from Microsoft Graph will cost 30 messages and autonomous actions (where the agent performs executable actions) are priced at 25 messages per action. To offer a hypothetical real-world scenario, if a business uses Copilot Chat to generate 5000 responses related to work, 3000 messages where the AI looks through company policies to find answers, and performs 4000 automation tasks in a month, they would have to pay $2,000 (roughly Rs. 1,72,950). Notably, these numbers would constitute moderate usage for a medium-sized (employees between 100-1,000) enterprise.

Microsoft relaunches Copilot for business with free AI chat and pay-as-you-go agents

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is essentially a rebranding of what was once Bing Chat Enterprise before Microsoft rebranded it to just Copilot. It crucially now includes access to Copilot AI agents right within the chat interface -- which was previously only available in the full Microsoft 365 Copilot experience -- requiring a $30 per user per month subscription. These agents are designed to work like virtual colleagues and can do things like monitor email inboxes or automate a series of tasks.

Microsoft introduces new 'pay-as-you-go' AI agents

Microsoft will begin offering access to AI agents -- specialized generative models that can operate independently and automate repetitive daily tasks -- to enterprise users. The new program is called Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and offers "pay-as-you-go agents to our existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 commercial customers," the company announced Wednesday. The "free plus metered agent usage" Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat offers many of the same features as the existing $30 per user per month "Microsoft 365 Copilot" enterprise program, including access to a chatbot powered by GPT-4o, Copilot Pages, file uploads, image and code generation, enterprise data protection, and, of course, to Copilot Studio, where individual users and IT departments alike can create AI agents. Note, however, that the free Chat program does not grant you access to the Copilot personal assistant, which integrates the AI's capabilities into the rest of the 365 Copilot app ecosystem such as Word, Outlook, and Excel. Recommended Videos The company posits in its announcement post that agents could be leveraged by customer service representatives to provide pertinent account details ahead of a customer meeting or that field service agents could rely on an AI agent to "access step-by-step instructions and real-time product knowledge." Leading AI firms, faced with rapidly diminishing performance returns despite throwing staggering amounts of compute, energy, and cooling resources at the problem, have started looking to these agents as the "next big thing" in generative AI. They are more lightweight and efficient at performing simple, repetitive tasks than the full-size large language models they're distilled from. What's more, they're purpose built to take care of the dull minutia of modern office work, which is the sort of tangible benefit that investors have been clamoring for instead of the "hey, look at what we got this computer to do" hyped performance milestones that AI developers typically have shown off in recent years. 2025 is certainly shaping up to be a breakout year for AI agents. Anthropic's Claude led the way last November with the release of its Computer Use API, which allows an AI to emulate a human user through the computer's keyboard and mouse. OpenAI, of which Microsoft is a major investor, reportedly plans to release its own version of agents through its developer API later this month, launched its initial step into AI agents with ChatGPT Tasks. Google, which was rumored to be releasing its agent, Project Jarvis, in December announced earlier this week that it has partnered with Mercedes-Benz to integrate its automotive agent into the next generation of MBUX navigation and entertainment systems, starting with the Mercedes CLA later this year.

Microsoft Launches 365 Copilot Chat For Business With Pay-As-You-Go Plan - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Microsoft Corp. MSFT on Wednesday launched 365 Copilot Chat, its AI-powered chat service with AI agents and a new pay-as-you-go plan. What Happened: The company has rebranded its AI chat service, formerly known as Bing Chat Enterprise, under a new plan named Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. The service is tailored for businesses and offers features centered on workflow automation. The Copilot Chat is built on OpenAI's GPT-4 AI model and can be used for tasks such as conducting market research, preparing for meetings, creating key takeaways in Word documents, and even generating AI-powered images for social media posts and campaigns using Copilot Pages. See Also: Elon Musk Buying TikTok Could Hurt Tesla Stock, Warns Gary Black -- But Wedbush's Dan Ives Thinks It Makes Sense Earlier, AI agents were only accessible with the full Microsoft Copilot subscription, which costs $30 per user per month. However, with the new Copilot Chat plan, businesses can access Copilot AI agents directly within the chat experience and pay based on usage. While the exact cost for Copilot Chat will vary depending on usage, it's a significant move towards flexible pricing, particularly beneficial for businesses with fluctuating needs or smaller teams that may not require constant access to AI agents. Copilot Chat is available in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for Windows, Android, or iPhone app stores or via Microsoft 365 Copilot's official website. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: The introduction of AI agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is part of a broader trend in the tech industry towards integrating AI into everyday business operations. Startups like OpenAI or established players like Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google have already rolled out or are preparing to introduce comparable AI agent tools. Meta Platforms Inc. (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also addressed the transition from chatbots to AI agents capable of handling more complex tasks and goals. Nvidia Corp. NVDA CEO Jensen Huang has likewise forecasted that AI-powered employees will soon become a vital component of the corporate workforce. Moreover, Microsoft also faces mounting pressure to deliver returns on its significant AI investments, with the software giant planning to allocate about $80 billion this fiscal year toward data centers and AI infrastructure. In November last year, Microsoft started enabling customers to develop autonomous agents that need little human involvement. Some analysts suggest that this approach could provide tech companies with an easier route to monetization, noted Reuters. Price Action: Microsoft's stock increased by 2.56% on Wednesday, finishing at $426.31. In pre-market trading on Friday, it gained another 0.74%, reaching $429.48, as per Benzinga Pro data. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Stephen King Slams Elon Musk's H-1B Visa Stance: 'Musk Thinks Smart Immigrants Can Stay - The Rest of You Washing Dishes ... Get Lost' Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock GOOGAlphabet Inc$196.49-0.25%Overview Rating:Good62.5%Technicals Analysis1000100Financials Analysis400100WatchlistOverviewGOOGLAlphabet Inc$195.21-0.17%MSFTMicrosoft Corp$427.990.39%NVDANVIDIA Corp$138.391.58%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs