Microsoft launches Copilot Chat with AI agents; take that, Gemini!

Microsoft has been positioning Copilot as the “UI for AI.” The company has already released several variations of the GPT-4o powered assistant for business and personal users. Now, as the next step in this work, it is launching Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – a rebranded version of its free AI chat experience for businesses, enhanced with agent capabilities.

Available starting today, the offering is designed to give businesses an easy way to explore most, if not all, of the capabilities of the full-featured Microsoft 365 Copilot , which is priced at $30 per user per month. Although the experience is free, there is a specific caveat: The agent capabilities that promise task automation will only work on a consumption-based model.

The goal here is quite obvious: Microsoft wants to give its commercial customers a taste of what it has to offer in the paid version of Copilot. If, with powerful features like agents, the company can make the use of Copilot a daily routine of Microsoft 365 users – from customer service representatives to marketing directors to front-line technicians – those users may switch to the paid plan finally.

This development is not surprising since it has been reported that the release of Microsoft 365 Copilot far from perfectwith some companies defining it as expensive and complex to implement due to security concerns.

For its part, Google continues to move forward with Gemini for Workspace, positioning it as an affordable, accessible AI for work.

What to expect from Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

Just like the original version, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat will have a chat interface, where users will be able to submit their questions and receive answers from AI.

The model under the hood, GPT-4o from OpenAI, provides web-based information, allowing users to conduct market research or prepare strategy documents. It even supports file uploads, allows users to search for summaries, analyzes or recommendations from documents, and generates images for use cases such as social media marketing.

But the real deal is the support for AI agents. IT administrators can now use Copilot Studio to build campus-specific agents and make them available to employees through Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.

These agents can act as virtual teammates for employees, helping them automate repetitive tasks, from providing customer information before meetings to tracking relevant events. They can be established using data from the web as well as operational data either through Microsoft Graph or third-party graph connectors.

“A customer service representative can request account details from a customer relationship management (CRM) agent before a customer meeting, and field service representatives can access step-by-step guidance and real-time product knowledge stored in SharePoint,” Microsoft said. ' noted in her blog mail.

By enabling agents within Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, Microsoft wants to show businesses the value that its AI offerings bring. However, this experience will not be completely free.

The agents will be accessible on a consumption-based model, with the total usage determined by the number of messages used by a group.

“You can buy messages through the Copilot Studio meter in Microsoft Azureoption to pay as you go, for $0.01/message, or through a prepaid message package priced at $200 for 25,000 messages/month,” the company notes in a separate post.

It's worth noting here that different types of interactions use messages differently, with responses based on Microsoft Graph taking up to 30 messages or 30 cents.

Download the series Gemini

With this move, Microsoft hopes to squeeze some money out of Microsoft 365 users with basic AI needs while creating an opportunity to convert them into paying customers. It also comes against Google's push with the Gemini an assistant

The company is led by Sundar Pichai name Gemini will be available for free within its Workspace apps, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat and Vids. This integration is offered to Workspace Business and Enterprise customers, meaning companies paying a base price of $14 per user per month can access AI features within the core applications they have

In contrast, Microsoft 365 users must subscribe to the full Copilot version, priced at $30 per user per month, to access AI features within apps like Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint .

But Microsoft differentiates itself by offering application-based agent AI capabilities. This allows businesses to create custom agents for task automation – a feature that Gemini currently lacks.

In the end, the choice depends on the ecosystem you are with according to your specific needs. Google's approach provides easy access to Gemini within essential business apps but lacks agent capabilities for now. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 provides web-based chat and agent features (on a pay-as-you-go model) but requires a higher investment to unlock AI functionality within its work apps .