Microsoft Expands Copilot Access to Office 365 Subscribers But at a Cost
Nov. 8, 2024Not too long ago, new Copilot featurescame outfor business users at the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 event. We also got to know how Copilot in Microsoft Excel has the power to run Python code and perform advanced data analysis. Well, now, Microsoft is going all out and making it easier for Office 365 Personal and Family users to access Copilot in not just Excel, but Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.
In the officialblog post, Microsoft states,
“Productivity and creativity are at the heart of Microsoft 365, and with Copilot integration across our apps you’re now equipped with an AI companion that doesn’t just make your work easier—it makes it more effective (and fun)”.
Then, Microsoft goes on to give a quick rundown of how Copilot further elevates the Office 365 experience within its apps. For those unaware, in Microsoft Word, you can summon Copilot AI to summarize and rewrite text for you as well as create custom images, transform text into tables, and more.
Meanwhile, in PowerPoint, Copilot can create presentations for you from Word documents or PDFs, from scratch. Additionally, Copilot can also add speaker notes automatically, synchronize animations, and just make presentations easier to create.
Outlook and OneNote are also injected with Copilot. They now let you draft emails, summarize email threads, create lists, generate ideas, and do a lot more. However, it’s not an all-you-can-AI buffet and will offer you a set of AI credits to use on a monthly basis. If you’re someone who uses Copilot a lot, you can always upgrade to Copilot Pro. Microsoft says, this way, you don’t need to worry about the usage limit.
Microsoft states,
“To reflect the value we’ve added over the past decade and enable us to deliver new innovations for years to come, we’re increasing the prices of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family. The price increase will apply to existing subscribers upon their next renewal.”
If you ask me, I see this as a double-edged sword. One of the biggest ways to use AI responsibly is to get rid of too much reliance on it. With Copilot AI now being part of almost every Microsoft service out there, it’s basically unignorable. So, it’s up to us to strike the right balance and maintain that human touch in our work to keep AI from taking over.
With that said, what do you think about Microsoft’s latest move to make Copilot more accessible? Cry your heart out in the comments down below!
Sagnik is a tech aficionado who can never say “no” to dipping his toes into unknown waters of tech or reviewing the latest gadgets. He is also a hardcore gamer, having played everything from Snake Xenzia to Dead Space Remake.
