Microsoft unveils AI-powered Office features, Copilot Pro

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Barely two months after Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) rolled out Copilot for businesses, the technology giant is keen on expanding the offering to all classes of consumers in its latest iteration.

Dubbed Copilot Pro, the artificial intelligence (AI) offering will extend beyond enterprises to everyday users, providing access to various Office features. Per the Verge report, Copilot Pro users will have access to advanced AI services in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel via text prompts.

With a monthly subscription fee of $20, Copilot Pro’s functionalities appear similar to its previous iteration but offer priority access to subscribers. A closer look at the perks reveals that users will have early access to incoming OpenAI models before other customers, with the major difference being open access for individual users rather than businesses.

Subscribers can expect faster performance without the usual hassles of server congestion, even during peak times. The offering appears targeted to power users, relying on Copilot for several use cases, similar to OpenAI’s paid ChatGPT subscription.

“There’s a lot of demand from those power users and they want more rapid access to the latest models, they want faster performance, and they want creativity tools,” remarked Divya Kumar, Microsoft’s Global Head of Marketing for Search and AI.

Sources say Microsoft will roll out new features for Copilot Pro in the coming weeks with the ability for users to use both ChatGPT-4 and Copilot for their operations seamlessly. Microsoft has adopted a frenetic approach toward AI development in the past, launching a slew of features in rapid succession since mid-2023.

“Given that pattern we’ve been in, that rolling thunder, you can expect we’re going to do the exact same thing for Copilot Pro,” said Kumar.

Microsoft remarks that Copilot Pro users will require a subscription for its Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plans to access the AI functionality across its Office apps.

Throwing its weight behind AI

Microsoft started 2024 with a bang, continuing a long tradition of experimenting with emerging technologies to unveil plans to add an AI Copilot key in its first major keyboard update in nearly 30 years.

Alongside the keyboard upgrade, the company plans to launch its AI-enhanced computer through incoming releases of the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Pro 10.

However, the company’s collaboration with OpenAI has piqued the interest of antitrust regulators, with the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launching an investigation into the partnership.

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