Microsoft unveils new Copilot Pro subscription service that boosts AI assistant in Windows 11 for $20 per month
Microsoft takes Windows Copilot to the next level with Windows Copilot Pro, bringing Microsoft 365 Copilot to businesses of all sizes.
Windows Copilot and 365 Copilot are Microsoft’s latest AI digital assistants to help users with all kinds of tasks and projects we were introduced to last year, and they get a big boost with next-level AI functionality.
Microsoft is officially introducing Copilot Pro, which individual users can subscribe to starting today, January 16, for $20 per month (per user).
With this version of Copilot, individuals can improve their productivity and user experience with the best that Copilot has to offer in AI features, capabilities, performance speed, and access to Copilot during peak hours.
This also gives users with a Personal or Home subscription access to Copilot Pro in Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, OneNote and available for PowerPoint on PC, Mac and iPad. This is similar to the existing Microsoft 365 Copilot for business customers, which requires an enterprise subscription, but now these Copilot AI capabilities will also be available to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers.
The crème de la Copilot on offer
If you choose to sign up for Copilot Pro, you’ll get priority access to the latest OpenAI models, like OpenAI’s state-of-the-art GPT-4 Turbo, and you’ll be able to build and customize your own Copilot GPT bot to a topic of your choice .
Copilot Pro gives users more choice over the hows and whats of Copilot Pro, allowing them to switch between models and try different options to optimize their experience.
Users can build and style these personalized Copilot GPTs in a brand new Copilot GPT Builder (similar to the commercial version launched last year) by answering a few simple prompts, and Microsoft assures us that this will happen soon.
You can also look forward to an upgrade to Microsoft’s AI image generation with Designer’s Image Creator (formerly known as Bing Image Creator). With Copilot Pro you get a hundred boosts (accelerated image generation processes), more image details and quality, and landscape image format.
Along with the introduction of Copilot Pro for individual use, Copilot for Microsoft 365 will be available to more types of commercial customers, especially small and medium businesses. Going forward, there is no employee minimum, lower requirements, and more availability of Copilot subscriptions through Microsoft partners.
New upgrades for Copilot and a new Copilot app
For users who want to continue experimenting with Copilot for free, there is also something to be aware of. The free version of Copilot gets Copilot GPTs that allow you to customize and fine-tune a Copilot so you can discuss a particular topic of your choice. Today you should be able to see some of the topics already available, such as fitness, travel, cooking and more.
Together with these developments, Copilot will receive an iOS app and an Android appand Copilot is coming to the Microsoft 365 mobile app. These new apps let you run a single AI on your devices, analyzing information about your internet usage, your PC usage, and the apps you use to make help context-specific.
The Copilot app comes equipped with the same powerful tools that the PC version benefits from, such as GPT-4, the image creation capabilities of Dall-E 3, and the ability to input and edit your own images in Copilot let them respond.
Copilot will be added to the Microsoft 365 app on both iOS and Android devices over the next month for users with a Microsoft account, and these users will be able to export the content they generate as a Word or PDF document . Microsoft’s vision for this is that you can summon Copilot almost instantly, as soon as you need it, and regardless of what device you’re currently using.
Microsoft is just getting started
It also looks like there are many more Copilot Pro features in the pipeline – similar to how we’ve seen multiple improvements to the standard version of Copilot in Windows 11. Divya Kumar shared this while speaking to The Verge, referring to the Microsoft’s recent release schedule like ‘rolling thunder’.
With Copilot Pro, Microsoft wants to attract the attention of “power users such as makers, researchers, programmers and others” who may be interested in the latest innovations that it, together with its collaborator OpenAI, has to offer.
Microsoft recently overtook Apple as the most valuable company in the world, and it shows no signs of losing its momentum. Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, claims that Copilot “empowers every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” If there’s a reason why you need or even need digital help or advice, it’s clear how much Microsoft wants to be there to accommodate it.