Microsoft 365 Copilot to Bring AI to Office

What is it?

Microsoft Copilot is a chatbot based on Open-AI. We all know Chat GPT by now, and developers will already know the Microsoft Copilot available with GitHub where it can be used for coding software. The AI software analyzes code to suggest code snippets and help developers save time. Microsoft 365 Copilot will do the same for Office, saving time by acting as an in-program AI assistant.

Microsoft 365 Copilot will be available across all Microsoft apps. The idea is to save time and increase productivity. The AI software will use its access to all data to help with using functionality and suggesting content.

Although the advantages will be available for users, the benefit to organizations is ever bigger. Using organizational data and functions, team productivity can further improve. Summarizing data, extracting key information, suggesting actions, arranging meeting schedules, the options are endless.

Of course, Microsoft has incorporated the required privacy and content auditing measures. Specialists will audit and configure the machine learning to improve privacy protection and content filtering. Will it be enough? Time will tell, as with most of these recent AI developments. Copyright, privacy, and security will all remain focus points with more advanced and integrated use of AI.

This does not mean that end-users do not need to check. Unlike a template, AI-generated content is dynamic and will (initially) need to be verified. For functionality, this does not apply. If AI can suggest features of the Microsoft apps to be used that help save time or improve the result, that will definitely help users.

Availability and pricing

Microsoft has not formally given a deployment date for the 365 Copilot release. Since it is a cloud-based solution, it can easily be released to their user base at any time. I am sure it will be done gradually, to prevent overload and assess feedback.

Pricing is also not known yet. “We’ll share more on pricing and licensing soon”, is the official statement on the Microsoft blog. Considering the fact that the GitHub copilot functionality is not free, chances are that Microsoft 365 Copilot is also not going to be free. Like Chat GPT, these services require storage and a lot of processing power, so the cost will need to be covered somewhere.