Microsoft is pushing forward with integrating its AI assistant, Microsoft Copilot, into Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription plans in parts of Asia-Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, and several Southeast Asian countries. This strategic move, aimed at embedding AI deeper into daily productivity, comes with increased subscription fees, marking a potential shift for users globally.
Copilot is Microsoft’s AI-based digital assistant, designed to enhance productivity within its suite of Office applications. Powered by the advanced GPT-4 language model and Microsoft Graph, it helps users manage tasks such as document drafting, content summarization, and creating structured tables. By drawing on data from Microsoft Graph, Copilot personalizes interactions and streamlines complex processes.
New AI Subscription Model Introduced
In markets such as Australia and Singapore, Microsoft 365 subscribers will now receive 60 monthly AI credits as part of their plans, allowing access to Copilot’s capabilities in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Windows tools like Notepad and Photos. These credits, which reset monthly without rolling over, are used each time a Copilot feature is activated—whether drafting a document, generating a summary, or analyzing data. Microsoft writes in an announcement for the Asian market:
“It’s been nine months since we introduced consumers to Copilot in our Microsoft 365 apps via Copilot Pro. We’ve spent that time adding new features, improving performance, and listening carefully to customer feedback. Based on that feedback, we’re making Copilot part of our Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions.”
With this AI integration, subscription prices are rising. In Australia, for example, the annual cost for Microsoft 365 Family has jumped from AU$139 to AU$179. Importantly, while the primary subscriber gains Copilot access, other members of the Family plan do not. Each secondary user must purchase a separate Copilot Pro plan to use the same features. Microsoft maintains an option for a non-AI version at the original price, but opting for it requires canceling the current plan and repurchasing the basic one.
Introduced with a $30 per-user monthly price in 2023, Copilot was set up to generate substantial income for Microsoft, with revenue projections of up to $10 billion annually by 2026. In early 2024, Microsoft removed a 300-seat minimum requirement for business access, broadening its reach to smaller companies. The recent trial in APAC markets continues this trajectory, as the company tests consumer response to AI-assisted productivity tools.
Global Strategy and Future Plans
This limited rollout in APAC markets may foreshadow a wider expansion to regions like Europe and North America. Microsoft’s phased approach allows for adjustments based on regional feedback, which the company described as an effort to “listen, learn, and improve” its product offering. The recent deployment aligns with the company’s history of region-specific trials before global releases.
Microsoft has also begun testing a redesigned Copilot interface in Word, making AI tools a core part of the document creation process. This updated design aims to simplify how users handle tasks by offering features like importing data from OneDrive or generating templates directly within Word.
While some users welcome Copilot’s capabilities, there is growing concern over increased subscription costs. Some users highlight issues in educational settings, where AI involvement could lead to allegations of academic misconduct. Others pointed out that Copilot’s automatic integration felt unnecessary, taking up system resources and complicating workflows.
Enterprise Adoption and Market Competition
Despite varied individual reactions, Microsoft’s AI strategy has found support among large enterprises. Cognizant purchased 25,000 licenses earlier in 2024 to bolster productivity, while Vodafone acquired 68,000 licenses in September to streamline tasks like email drafting and data analysis. However, not all feedback has been favorable. In October, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called Copilot a modern version of Clippy, questioning its usefulness and suggesting that Salesforce’s AI tool, Agentforce, was a superior alternative.
Security Risks Highlighted by Experts
Security concerns have also accompanied Copilot’s expansion. At the Black Hat conference in August, Zenity CTO Michael Bargury detailed vulnerabilities within Copilot Studio, Microsoft’s no-code platform for building bots. His presentation showed how attackers could misuse AI to automate phishing or bypass standard security checks, emphasizing that default bot settings left some enterprise tools publicly accessible. While Zenity introduced a tool called CopilotHunter to help identify these risks, protecting older implementations remains an ongoing challenge.
Last Updated on November 7, 2024 2:12 pm CET
