Microsoft today announced the launch of Copilot Pro, a premium subscription service that provides advanced AI assistance across Microsoft 365 apps and Edge browser. The new service represents a major expansion of Microsoft’s AI offerings, bringing more powerful features previously only available to enterprise customers to consumers and small businesses at an affordable $20 per month price point.
Key Details on Copilot Pro
- Provides advanced AI capabilities powered by GPT-4 Turbo, including generating written content, answering questions, translating text, summarizing documents, and more
- Integrates tightly with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps
- Also works in Microsoft Edge to assist with web searches, filling out online forms, analyzing web pages, etc.
- Aimed at consumers, self-employed professionals, and small businesses
- Prices at $20 per user per month, includes access for up to 6 users and 1TB cloud storage
“With Copilot Pro we’re making the most advanced AI capabilities accessible to everyone – not just large enterprises,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO. “Now small business owners, freelancers and consumers can be more productive and unlock new opportunities with the power of AI by their side.”
More Advanced Capabilities through GPT-4 Turbo
At the heart of Copilot Pro is access to Microsoft’s latest natural language AI model, GPT-4 Turbo, which builds on the capabilities of ChatGPT and Copilot by consuming even more data and context about the world. Microsoft says GPT-4 Turbo can understand documents, have discussions, generate code and text, translate languages and more.
Copilot Pro users will be able to leverage GPT-4 Turbo across Microsoft apps via convenient sidebar widgets in documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It can help draft emails, documents or slides with just a few words of prompting, filling in background research, relevant examples and tailored formatting automatically. Users can also have natural language “conversations” with Copilot Pro to refine and validate the generated text.
Other key highlights of what Copilot Pro can do through GPT-4 Turbo:
- Provide definitions, background summary or analysis when highlighting any text
- Answer follow up questions based on documents context
- Translate documents or passages between 74 languages
- Summarize long passages or simplify complex text
- Fix grammar, refine writing tone and style
- Write formulas based on spreadsheet data descriptions
- Generate and format charts or visualizations for presentations
- And much more across work, school or personal projects
“Copilot Pro gives small businesses powerful AI to compete with larger companies who’ve invested in dedicated machine learning teams and infrastructure,” said Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft’s VP of AI Business. “Now solopreneurs or family-run retail shops have an AI assistant to help turn their ideas into professional grade business plans, marketing materials, online stores and more.”
Integrates AI Assistance Across Microsoft Apps and Services
In addition to the GPT-4 Turbo assistant functionality, Copilot Pro also provides AI-powered integrations designed specifically for Microsoft apps and services:
Outlook – Smart Calendar assists with scheduling meetings and events automatically based on email conversations and commitments. Smart Replies can generate responses to routine emails that capture action items, due dates and key details accurately.
Word – Advanced proofreading and editing tools finalize documents faster. Designer suggests visually appealing document templates tailored to the text. Co-Author provides writing suggestions as you type without losing control over the final draft.
Excel – Money in Excel provides financial templates optimized for small business accounting, including invoicing, expense reporting, cash flow management and more.
PowerPoint – Presenter Coach gives live feedback during practice runs of presentations, including pacing, keyword suggestions and audience engagement metrics.
Microsoft Edge – Shop Wizard finds the best product recommendations and savings opportunities as you browse online stores. Quick Check provides tailored summaries of websites pulled from key details in the content.
Broader Launch Follows Strong Early Feedback
The Copilot Pro introduction follows a lengthy preview period where Microsoft gathered feedback from consumers and businesses enrolled in early access testing. Satya Nadella noted the positive response was a driving factor behind formally launching a paid offering targeted at mainstream users:
“Over the last 6 months, more than 1 million preview testers provided feedback that Copilot Pro made them more productive. We heard from freelancers who started new client work streams with Copilot Pro’s help, photographers who createdportfolios to attract customers, job seekers who differentiated themselves in interviews thanks to AI-generated examples – the stories go on an on.”
“It’s clear there is broad demand for advanced AI assistance, so today we’re excited to make Copilot Pro available to all small businesses and consumers seeking to achieve more.”
Microsoft is offering discounts for annual subscriptions and bundles Copilot Pro with free access to LinkedIn Learning courses to help users maximize value from the AI assistant. Students can purchase Copilot Pro at 50% off as well.
Outlook Going Forward
With the formal launch of Copilot Pro, Microsoft is positioned to reach mainstream consumers and small businesses with some of the most advanced AI capabilities available. And unlike pure-play AI rivals offering single-purpose text or speech models, Microsoft’s bundling of Copilot Pro into its leading productivity suite gives it an immediate channel to reach hundreds of millions of existing customers.
Microsoft also has the advantage of integration opportunities across its entire technology stack – from Azure cloud services powering AI workloads to GitHub collaboration tools being augmented with Copilot intelligence. And as Copilot Pro usage scales globally, Microsoft will benefit from network effects improving the underlying AI models, potentially sustaining a long-term competitive advantage.
While Copilot Pro doesn’t yet fully match ChatGPT’s conversational ability, its tight coupling with daily workflow applications demonstrates different strengths. And Microsoft has shown steady iteration on its AI products is already closing gaps with rival chatbot offerings. With Azure projected to overtake AWS in cloud market share by 2025, Microsoft is poised to dictate the next phase of AI’s enterprise adoption and how it augments human ability.
| Area | Microsoft Advantages with Copilot Pro |
|---|---|
| Capabilities | Integrates AI into leading work apps better than chatbots |
| Market Access | Immediate channel to upsell 365 base >300M strong |
| Network Effects | More usage -> better models -> competitive edge |
| Cloud Platform | Azure taking lead by 2025 powers next-gen AI |
Over the next 6-12 months, consumers and businesses adopting Copilot Pro will serve as Microsoft’s ultimate proving grounds for multi-application conversational AI. If it drives material productivity improvements across core workloads, while avoiding risks like biased model outputs, it could reshape workplace technology priorities and greatly elevate Microsoft’s strategic positioning in the process.
To err is human, but AI does it too. Whilst factual data is used in the production of these articles, the content is written entirely by AI. Double check any facts you intend to rely on with another source.
