Microsoft is making its online office suite smarter, albeit for an extra cost to subscribers.
The company announced it will be adding its Copilot AI to Office apps included with a Microsoft 365 subscription. These apps include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Copilot is the AI tool Microsoft has slowly but surely been rolling into its various software products, including Windows 11.
Prior to this rollout, the only way Windows users could cram Copilot into the Office suite (Word, et al.) was to enroll in a Copilot Pro subscription, a service that cost $20 per month. Microsoft will continue that program, but now Copilot is available to anyone who wants to add it to the Microsoft 365 subscription.
There is a small catch. Adding Copilot it Microsoft 365 bumps the price by between 30-42%. For individuals, this bumps the price from $6.99 to $9.99 every month (or from $69.99 to $99.99 per year). Families that enroll will have to pony up $12.99 per month, up from $9.99 (annual subscriptions will jump to $129.99 from $99.99).
Copilot isn't the only AI-powered tool coming to Microsoft 365. The company will also add Microsoft Designer, which is an AI image editor.
Copilot is already well-embedded in Windows 11, and most new laptops (like the 2024 Surface Laptop, curr. $833 on Amazon) include a dedicated Copilot button on their keyboard.
AI has been quickly rolled out in various consumer products and has been met with a largely mixed response. Copilot in particular has received harsh criticism, most of which is centered around poor response generation (including direct threats to users) and Microsoft's heavy-handed implementation of the tool.
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