Key points
- Chat, coding, and agents are coming to one Copilot app
- Agent work will be billed by usage
- Under 7% of Office 365 business seats pay for Copilot, CNBC says
- Microsoft still leans on OpenAI and Anthropic models
Microsoft (MSFT) is rebuilding its Copilot app around chat, coding, and AI agents, with subscription pricing for everyday tools and usage-based charges for coding and agent work. Microsoft shares were up 4.3% at $519.22 as of 12:55 p.m. Eastern time, against Thursday's $497.93 close.
The company announced the new Copilot on Friday in a blog post by Jared Spataro, its chief marketing officer for AI at work. The change is meant to help Microsoft compete in business AI, where Anthropic has been gaining traction, CNBC reported. Of more than 450 million commercial Office 365 seats, fewer than 7% have licenses for Microsoft 365 Copilot, which costs $30 per user per month, according to CNBC.
What is in the new app
The app has three parts: Home, Code, and Autopilot.
Home brings together Chat and Cowork, which can work through tasks such as preparing a customer briefing or drafting a response to a request for proposals. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are built in, so users can have Copilot create and edit documents without switching apps.
Code lets users describe an app, tracker, or dashboard in plain language and have Copilot build it. Microsoft says it uses the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot and runs in an isolated computing environment.
Autopilot, previously called Scout, keeps working on assigned tasks while the user is away. Users can also interact with it through Teams and Outlook.
Home and Code will begin rolling out to customers in Microsoft's Frontier early-access program in the coming weeks. Autopilot's private preview will expand at the end of the month, according to the company.
How the pricing changes
Microsoft is splitting Copilot into two kinds of billing. A per-user subscription will cover Chat and Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Cowork, Code, Autopilot, and frontier models such as OpenAI's Astra and Anthropic's Fable will be billed by usage, according to the post.
"We're holding a very high bar," Jacob Andreou, Microsoft's executive vice president for Copilot, told CNBC. "This product is at its best when it's just optimizing for user value and for the quality of the output and what it's able to deliver." Cost efficiency is less important, he said.
Microsoft still relies on rivals' models
The app leans on models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Code users can pick their model, including a lower-cost one from Microsoft, but the Home tab offers no Microsoft model, CNBC reported. Andreou acknowledged to CNBC that adding coding to the app is an instance of Microsoft playing catch-up.
Microsoft also faces consumer agents such as Meta's (META) Muse, which has risen to the top of Apple's App Store, according to CNBC.
