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

Microsoft has positioned Copilot as the “user interface for artificial intelligence.” The company has already launched several Variables Of the GPT-4o-powered assistant for business and Personal users. Now, as the next step in this work, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is launching – a new version of the free, AI-powered chat experience for businesses, enhanced with agent capabilities.

Available starting today, the offer is designed to give businesses an easy way to explore most, if not all, of the more complete capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is priced at $30 per user per month. Although the trial is free, there is a notable caveat: Agent capabilities that promise to automate tasks will only work on a consumption-based model.

The goal here is pretty clear: Microsoft wants to give its business 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 using Copilot a daily habit for Microsoft 365 users — from customer service representatives to marketing leads to front-line technicians — those users may eventually switch to the paid plan.

This development is not surprising given that Microsoft 365 Copilot has been reported to be rolling out Far from perfectas some companies described it as Expensive and complex to implement Due to security concerns.

For its part, Google is continuing to move forward with its Gemini for Workspace project, positioning it as an affordable and accessible work AI system.

What to expect from Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

Just like the original version, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat will continue to have a chat interface, where users will be able to enter their queries and get answers from the AI.

Under the hood, the model, GPT-4o from OpenAI, will provide web-based information, allowing users to conduct market research or prepare strategy documents. It also supports file uploading, enabling users to search for summaries, analyzes or suggestions from documents, and create images for use cases such as social media marketing.

But the real deal is AI customer support. IT admins can now use Copilot Studio to create domain-specific agents and make them available to employees via Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.

These agents can act as virtual colleagues for employees, helping them automate repetitive tasks, from providing customer information before meetings to monitoring relevant events. It can be grounded using data from the web as well as business data via either Microsoft Graph or third-party graph connectors.

“A customer service representative can ask a CRM agent for account details before a customer meeting, while field service agents can access step-by-step instructions and real-time product knowledge stored in SharePoint,” Microsoft notes in a blog post. mail.

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

Proxies will be accessed on a consumption-based model, with overall usage determined by the number of messages used by the organization.

“You can purchase messages through your existing Copilot Studio meter Microsoft Azurea pay-as-you-go option for $0.01 per message, or via prepaid messaging packages at $200 for 25,000 messages per month.

It’s worth noting here that different types of interactions will use messages differently, with Microsoft Graph-based answers consuming up to 30 messages or 30 cents.

Control Gemini

With this move, Microsoft hopes to extract some money from Microsoft 365 users with basic AI needs while creating an opportunity to convert them into paying customers. It also comes as an antidote to Google Pay with twin assistant

The company led by Sundar Pichai has only Announce Gemini will be available for free within Workspace apps, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat, and Videos. This integration is offered to Workspace Business and Enterprise customers, meaning businesses that pay a base price of $14 per user per month will have access to AI features within their core applications.

In contrast, Microsoft 365 users must subscribe to the full version of Copilot, 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 usage-based AI capabilities. This allows businesses to create custom agents to automate tasks, a feature that does not currently exist in Gemini.

Ultimately, the choice comes down to which ecosystem you’re compatible with and your specific needs. Google’s approach allows for easy access to Gemini within core business applications but lacks proxy capabilities at the moment. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 offers chat features and web agents (on a pay-as-you-go model) but requires a higher investment to unlock AI functionality within its business applications.

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