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Microsoft is charging some of its largest customers up to 40% more to test AI features in its Office 365 productivity suite, although it’s still unclear whether those features, or price jacks, are coming to all its business clients.
The Information reported that more than 600 large Office 365 customers are “expected to test” the AI-powered Copilot features, while 100 or more are already paying flat fees of $100,000 per year for up to 1,000 users, citing a “person with direct knowledge of the pilot program.” According to The Information, that’s a 40% price premium over the classic version.
While The Information couldn’t determine if all participants in the trial are paying the same fees or how much it costs the tech giant to run AI server farms to power them—but at $100k a pop, a test involving 600 customers would generate $60 million in revenue. As the site noted, Microsoft has not made any hard revenue projections for AI-assisted office software. (Its rollout of early AI features in Bing is another story; Microsoft estimated it would pocket $2 billion for each 1% of search share it gains.)
“Microsoft is not disclosing the cost or terms of the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program externally,” Microsoft spokesperson Hanna Williams told IT Brew via email.
The Information’s source added company brass haven’t yet decided whether it will sell AI as an optional add-on to Office 365, or make the whole thing a bundle which will cost current clients more to renew when their contracts run out. Copilot debuted in March and boasts features like drafting documents, creating PowerPoint presentations from other files, and instructing users how to use the trickier parts of Excel. But, like Clippy, its much-reviled forebear, it won't always get things right. “Sometimes Copilot will get it right. Other times it will be usefully wrong," Jared Spataro, corporate VP for Microsoft 365, admitted while introducing the product. The more things change...
For better or worse, Clippy, the mascot of the original Microsoft Assistant plug-in that debuted in 1997, won’t be making a comeback.