Microsoft recently made the exciting announcement that Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now generally available to business customers as a paid add-on. We’ve compiled the details released about pricing and availability, along with our insights into how your business could benefit from Copilot, its potential limitations, and how to get started with the new AI features in Microsoft 365.
Understanding the Options
There are two paid Copilot licenses available for purchase, Copilot Pro for individuals (not suitable for businesses), and Copilot for Microsoft 365 for organisations. The table below explains the key differences between each of these licences.
Availability
As of the 15th of January 2024, the licence requirements for Copilot have been updated. With this, we recommend that businesses wanting to make use of the Copilot add-on have Business Premium licences at a minimum. While those with E3 + E5 security will also be able to access Copilot, you can ensure that your data is as secure as possible with full E5 seats.
Those with Business Standard licenses can purchase the Copilot add-on, but we wouldn’t recommend this due to limited security compatibility when using Copilot.
Additionally, the previous 300-seat minimum has now been removed with no minimum seats required. This means that organisations with at least one M365 Business Standard seat can purchase the Copilot add-on.
Education & Nonprofits
There is currently no education Copilot licence available. However, Education customers on EES can add Copilot to their agreement (with a minimum of 300 seats).
Also, no specific Not-For-Profit licence or discount is currently available. However, Not-For-Profit customers can purchase the Copilot for Microsoft 365 add-on at the standard licence price.
Note: If Not-For-Profit licenses/discounts become available after a customer has purchased at the standard rate, Microsoft has not indicated that any backdated refund or early transfer of the licence will be available.
Copilot for M365 – What’s included?
Businesses purchasing a Copilot for Microsoft 365 add-on licence will be able to access the following:
Price & Payment Terms
Pricing for Copilot add-on licences as of January 15th, 2024:
- Copilot for Microsoft 365 (For Business) – $360 Annual Cost (approx. £285), per user
- Copilot Pro (For Individuals) – $240 Annual Cost (approx. £190), per user
Note: Copilot for Microsoft 365 is currently only available on an annual term, paid upfront.
Use Cases – Why should you be excited about Copilot for M365?
Imagine opening a Word document, being short on time, and needing a quick summary. With Copilot, you can simply ask it to do the heavy lifting and generate that summary for you. Need to remove the background from an image? Copilots got your back. Having access to Copilot is like having a tech-savvy friend at your fingertips, that you can speak to in plain English, ready to assist with tasks both big and small.
Some of the standout use case examples that have been reported by users who have had early access to Copilot include:
- Surfacing information across large-scale organisations with complex infrastructures and multiple data sources with simple written requests.
- Using Copilot in Teams to automatically take meeting notes, create meeting summaries and catch you up on meeting content you may have missed if you join a call part-way through.
- Summarising emails and email chains, particularly on mobile devices – No more endless scrolling through conversations to find the information you need.
- Using M365 chat to look at diaries and analyse how time is being spent, and where you could become more efficient on a day-to-day basis.
- Producing content suggestions across a variety of mediums and formats. This includes written content such as an article in Word or emails in Outlook, visual content such as images in Microsoft Designer, or multi-media content such as a presentation in PowerPoint.
The examples given above, in addition to the array of additional functionality that Copilot offers across the Microsoft 365 landscape, provide a real opportunity for businesses to drive efficiency through AI. Taking a closer look at the potential return on investment (ROI) for organisations, a study of early access users found that the average user will save in the region of 10 hours per month while using Copilot. However, based on a $70,000 (approx. £55,000) annual wage, saving just 2.5 hours a month using Copilot will see users yield a 180% ROI.*
Limitations
While the introduction and availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365 is undoubtedly exciting, as with many advancements in technology, there are some initial limitations to what can be achieved. In its current format, some features of Copilot work very well, and the timesaving benefits are easy to see. However, some features will still require development for users to really get the most from them.
Examples of limitations that early users have experienced include:
- Slower than ideal response loading times when making requests
- An ‘unable to retrieve information’ error, particularly when working with data in Excel
- Content creation, while vastly improved from early AI iterations, in some cases still feels somewhat generic/robotic, particularly in PowerPoint
With this being said, Copilot is still in its infancy, getting your business up-to-speed, and AI-ready now could prove invaluable as features are developed and improved.
Getting Started – Free Copilot & Microsoft 365 Consultation
Are you interested in learning more about whether Copilot for Microsoft 365 could benefit your business? Book a free Copilot & Microsoft 365 consultation below:
* Microsoft – What can Copilot’s earliest users teach us about generative AI at work?
