Nothing beats getting your money’s worth. Whether you get an amazing jacket on sale, a great price on car maintenance from a source that only you know about, or a piece of software that makes everything you do easier, you know value when you see it.
As Microsoft rolls out the new AI powered Copilot program they’ve developed for the Microsoft 365 suite of programs and applications, the question of Copilot pricing and the value you can get for that price has become a hot talking point.
In order to determine the value of this new Microsoft 365 Copilot, we have to look at the breadth and depth of its functions as well as its announced pricing to determine if this new intelligent assistant program gives you enough bang for your buck.
So what is this new Copilot capable of? Microsoft 365 includes a lot of important applications and programs - how many of those can Copilot help you operate optimally? And, when all is said and done, how much will it cost you?
What Exactly Is Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Before diving into Copilot pricing, we need to understand just what it can do for your users. AI is no longer a foreign concept to the average consumer, but how has Microsoft leveraged AI to make it a valuable resource for its licensees?
On a basic layman’s term level, Copilot is a lot like Clippy - Microsoft’s long-gone cartoon paperclip that would answer user questions about how to perform certain functions in Word or Excel. Copilot is actually significantly more complex than that, but thinking of Clippy is actually a good place to start.
Clippy was limited in that if it didn’t recognize specific keywords in a user query, it was unlikely the user would get the information they needed right away. They might have to dig for it. Clippy couldn’t recognize and interpret conversational prompts or suggest courses of action based on context.
The new Copilot for M365 does not have those limitations. It is as far beyond Clippy as a human is beyond an ant - Copilot is not some anthropomorphic cartoon representation of an FAQ section.
Copilot and Copilot for M365 are implementations of large language model, generative AI programs. The base for both was developed by Microsoft using the GPT4 model from OpenAI. This is the same engine that powers ChatGPT and all the myriad derivations that have risen to prominence in the last few years.
The versatility of this new Copilot is a part of its appeal and is the largest factor when looking at its value compared to its price. So just how versatile is it?
Benefits Across the Microsoft 365 Suite
Any observation about the value of a Copilot for M365 has to take into account just how many key programs are included in an enterprise-level license of Microsoft 365. Microsoft has been such a massive presence in the world of software that it can be easy to forget how integral so many of their programs are to how the business world operates.
From creating documents in Word to the value of Excel’s spreadsheets to creating presentations with PowerPoint to organizing schedules and communicating internally and externally with Outlook to meeting through Teams and much more, Microsoft 365 is integral to operating in the professional world.
Copilot for M365 adds value to every one of the individual programs in the Microsoft 365 suite. Here are just a few examples of how Copilot can contribute to your team’s usage of Microsoft 365:
- Create drafts of documents based on data from internal documents and spreadsheets or based on an outline you have created
- Take variables from spreadsheets and create analytical models or project the impact of any variable you choose based on past performance and trends
- Create and consolidate presentation slides based on key data you have provided to the Copilot
- Adjust the tone of an email based on the person with whom you are corresponding
- Summarize emails and flag important items when returning from a vacation or illness
- Summarize previous meetings in order to ensure that talking points for the next meeting will be relevant and useful
These functions are just the start of what Copilot for M365 is capable of. Everything on this list are tasks that can take a long time for a human team member to accomplish, but Copilot does them in seconds.
By taking these time consuming tasks off the plate of your team members, they can focus on higher level tasks that require creative and critical thinking.
So how much is a massive improvement in efficiency, creativity from your team, and unity of information across applications and programs worth to you? Because when we talk about the price of Copilot for M365, that’s what we’re talking about.
Copilot Pricing
After looking at a brief overview of some of the functions of this program, we can look at the cost of Copilot and more accurately assess its value. So, considering the costs of development and the range of functionality, how has Microsoft set its Copilot pricing?
The initial Copilot for M365 license cost announced by Microsoft is $30 per user per month. There is no way around the fact that that’s not cheap. But we must remember what we get for that price!
Copilot is designed to work with Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, and E5 packages. So when you consider how much your organization depends on the massive swath of programs available from those packages and take into account how much Copilot can interact with every single one of those programs—the price starts to make sense.
Additionally, the Copilot for M365 cost includes the security functions of the program that protect the data to and from the model from any external eyes. That includes Microsoft! Some AI programs require a specific tier of service to keep user data out of the public repository of information used to teach the next generation of AI. That doesn’t happen here. The pricing announced by Microsoft covers functions for every aspect of Microsoft 365 and data security. So when you think about the value, you need to take that into account.
Is Copilot for M365 Worth the Price?
In the end, you have to answer that question for yourself and your organization. As with any new or newly evolving technology, it is the responsibility of the consumer to determine if the cost is appropriate for the potential benefits.
That means you have to decide if $30 per user per month for a program that can vastly improve the efficiency of every single user across every part of your organization while maintaining robust security and ensuring accurate information across departments is worth it to you.
Do you want your team to be able to work faster without sacrificing accuracy? Do you want the great people you have hired to focus on creative and critical thinking instead of getting bogged down in time-consuming, but necessary tasks? How much is that worth to you?
These are the questions demanded by Microsoft’s pricing of Copilot for M365. The answers will vary from one organization to the next.
Artificial intelligence is here to stay. How long are you going to wait to start getting value from it?
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