Microsoft has released Copilot Pro and Copilot for Microsoft 365, and is providing free access to those tools for smaller organizations and educational faculty. They also created the Copilot mobile application. Moreover, Copilot is also available in the Microsoft 365 mobile application.
Copilot Pro provides access to Microsoft 365 applications for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers. Moreover, access is provided to GPT-4 Turbo and the ability to build a Copilot GPT.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 uses data from emails, chats, documents and the Internet to execute complex tasks via a natural language prompt. For example, generating a status update based on the meetings, emails and chat threads.
Furthermore, Microsoft launched Copilot mobile application for Android and iOS. This brings Copilot capabilities to both phone and PC, enabling smooth transitions of queries and chats between the two devices. The mobile version replicates Copilot's abilities from the computer, providing entry to GPT-4 for crafting images, and the choice to integrate photos from the phone in Copilot interactions.
Microsoft also announced the addition of Copilot to the Microsoft 365 mobile application for individuals with a Microsoft account. This new feature is going to be ready in approximately one month. This application will give access to Copilot inside Microsoft 365 and allow easy export of the created content. The applications can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
This announcement is generating significant interest in the IT world, especially among users of Microsoft tools and programmers. Many of them share their insights after their initial experiences of usage. Overall, the community expresses positive opinions about the tool. However, there are also doubts and questions, among others, about the high subscription price. Vincent Lauria added his thoughts on this topic:
I feel like Copilot Pro ought to be included with a Microsoft 365 subscription, or at least the other way around. Having to subscribe to it on top of 365 feels like a double-dip, especially since Copilot Pro is already twice as much as 365 on its own.
When it comes to the first user experiences, Ethan Mollick, an associate professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, summarised his own with the following words:
All-in-all, it is a pretty impressive set of tools, especially if you are not a GPT-4 power user. It is also clear that the easy UXs built into everyone's most used office tools will make AI-generated content ubiquitous, for better or worse.
Copilot for Microsoft 365 became generally available for enterprises in November. From 15th January, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is also available for small businesses with Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Business Standard Customers can purchase between one and 299 seats for $30 per person per month.
Additionally, Copilot for Microsoft 365 has free access for education faculty and staff, offering AI chat on the web, and featuring models like GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 without additional charges. Starting in early 2024, commercial data protection will be activated for authorized users logging into school accounts. This ensures the safety of user and organizational data, with chat prompts and responses in Copilot not being stored, and Microsoft having no direct access to them. This data is not utilized to train fundamental large language models.