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On March 16, Microsoft first unveiled its brand-spanking new AI-powered app, Copilot, and left people desperate to hear more. The Microsoft Inspire event on July 18th finally gave us some of the answers we were waiting for about the subscription pricing, and at last we have a Microsoft 365 Copilot release date — Today! Starting on November 1st, 2023, Copilot for 365 begins rollout, starting with Microsoft’s biggest customers. There are currently about 600 enterprises worldwide that have been paying for the invitation-only Microsoft 365 Copilot early access program these past few months, including KPMG, Lumen, and Emirates NBD.
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft’s new AI Copilot includes the greatest aspects of AI technology. The new addition will become your own digital personal assistant. Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, the new AI tool will be embedded in all of Microsoft’s 365 applications, including Word, Excel and so much more.
The Copilot system itself is an AI system that can (and will) be integrated across each suite of Microsoft applications. In fact, has already been introduced to Bing, Edge, and Windows (the tech giants’ search engine, web browser, and operating system) as of September 26th, 2023.
Essentially, it will enable you to automate a variety of tasks, cleverly using your business’s data and Microsoft Graph. For example, Copilot can generate actionable tasks in real-time during a Teams meeting. It can even help you find insights and analyze trends in Excel – pretty phenomenal really!
So why is this necessary? Well according to Jared Spataro, CVP at Microsoft, “the pace and volume of work have increased exponentially and are outpacing humans’ ability to keep up,” an issue that AI is tapped to solve.
In a world where creativity is the new productivity, digital debt is more than an inconvenience — it’s a threat to innovation. Next-generation AI will lift the weight of work and free us all to focus on the work that matters.
Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President of Modern Work and Business Applications, Microsoft
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Microsoft Copilot features
The updated Microsoft 365 brings a bunch of brand-new generative AI capabilities. An interesting feature that has just been announced is OpenAI’s DALL-E (Stylized DALL·E 3) integration with PowerPoint. This means that users will now be able to prompt Copilot to create custom AI images to accompany their presentation slides. You are free to use AI-generated images (also known as AI art) commercially and without cost.
We will also see a new service called Viva Learning. This application will feature a natural language processing (NLP) interface that will enable users to build a tailored learning journey and upskilling path. It will be able to help you discover new learning resources and find time to complete new training exercises.
Moreover, if you’re a frequent user of Outlook, you’ll be happy to hear that Copilot helps you to write more effective emails. The AI will be able to suggest changes to improve clarity, sentiment and tone as well as provide a few coaching tips to improve your communications.
Is Microsoft Copilot available now? — Release date confirmed!
Yes, Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available as of November 1st, 2023. Following todays confirmed release date, rollout begins with the firms largest customers (i.e. large corporate clients with hundreds or thousands of licenses). Microsoft has opened up a Microsoft 365 preview to only a selection of 600 paying clients via the Microsoft 365 Copilot early access program.
As a result, we’ve already seen the functionality that’s coming over the coming months when rollout resolves to all Microsoft 365 customers. One such much anticipated new capability is whiteboard, a corporate collaboration tool combining chat threads with one note and Microsoft Word style functionality, in addition to integration with other MS “power apps”.
Is Microsoft Copilot free?
The Inspire event on the July 18th revealed that for commercial customers, Microsoft Copilot will be available for an additional $30 per user per month. These customers will have to already be subscribed to Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, or Business Premium Copilot becomes broadly available. You can read on about the pricing of Copilot in more detail here.
Each Microsoft 365 user will enjoy the new AI-powered functionality of Copilot assistant. However, there’s no confirmed end date for the finalization of the rollout.
- NOW READ What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
