Microsoft announced some changes that affect organizations that haven’t invested in M365 Copilot for their users. Incredible features that were previously locked behind that pricey licensing is now available for all. This article goes through the changes, and what they mean for your business.
Let’s start with the first major announcement: Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. This new offering is designed to empower every employee with AI capabilities, transforming business processes and driving enterprise-wide ROI. It comes with a slew of new or upgraded features over the previous free Copilot experience.
Access to Free AI Chat
One of the most significant benefits for customers without M365 Copilot is the access to free, secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o. This means that even without a paid subscription, users can leverage AI to perform tasks such as market research, document summarization, and meeting preparation. The free chat experience is designed to be safe and secure for business use, ensuring that all employees can work smarter and more collaboratively.
While this wasn’t an entirely new feature, since customers already had a free Copilot available to them, this now is based on GPT-4o, the latest version of OpenAI’s LLM to be added to Copilot. It’s also secured by Enterprise Data Protection.
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Introduction of Pay-As-You-Go Agents
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat introduces pay-as-you-go agents, which are accessible right within the chat. These agents can automate repetitive tasks and business processes, making it easier for employees to focus on more strategic work. For example, a customer service representative can use a CRM agent to retrieve account details before a meeting, while field service agents can access real-time product knowledge stored in SharePoint. This flexibility allows organizations to scale their AI transformation with agents without committing to a full M365 Copilot subscription.
This is a major step in AI, to be clear. Copilot isn’t limited to what it can do with basic knowledge retrieval or even Retrieval Augmented Generation. This isn’t a simple productivity assistant. Agents represent processes. They represent departments. They’re designed to speed up and automate those processes. It’s something we’ve only just started tapping into and will change the way we work.
Enhanced Collaboration with Copilot Pages
Copilot Pages is another feature that benefits customers without M365 Copilot. It enables real-time collaboration on content with both people and AI. Users can add content from Copilot, their files, and the web, making it easier to create comprehensive documents, presentations, and campaigns. This feature is particularly useful for marketing teams, product launches, and social media posts.
Many customers haven’t heard of this feature yet due to the deluge of announcements and feature showcases around the whole Copilot ecosystem. I don’t blame them, but that’s why it’s good to have someone who’s tapped into that world. Copilot pages are yet another way to quickly create content collaboratively to get important work done faster. Plus, it uses one of my favorite products, Loop.
IT Controls and Data Protection
Even without a full M365 Copilot subscription, organizations can benefit from the foundational capabilities of the Copilot Control System. This includes enterprise data protection (EDP) for data privacy and security, as well as the ability to govern access and manage the usage and lifecycle of Copilot and agents. IT admins can build organization-wide agents and manage their deployment, ensuring that all employees can safely and effectively use AI tools.
The Copilot Control System is a new product, but it’s really an aggregation of multiple features that already existed. This is one of those changes I really like. It brings together all the resources you need to manage and monitor Copilot across your organization. It also comes with Viva Insights, a premium analytics platform that is very underutilized.
A Pathway to Full M365 Copilot Adoption
For customers who haven’t yet purchased M365 Copilot, the introduction of Copilot Chat provides a pathway to full adoption. By starting with the free chat experience and pay-as-you-go agents, organizations can gradually scale their AI transformation and realize the enterprise-wide ROI that comes with broad adoption. As they become more comfortable with the capabilities of Copilot Chat, they may choose to upgrade to the full M365 Copilot experience, which includes additional features and deeper integration with Microsoft 365 apps.
Those that don’t due to budget constraints can still leverage Copilot chat and agents in critical processes to save time and money.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is a powerful new tool that democratizes access to AI, enabling every employee to work smarter, faster, and more collaboratively. For customers who haven’t yet purchased M365 Copilot, it offers a valuable opportunity to experience the benefits of AI without a significant upfront investment. By leveraging the free chat experience, pay-as-you-go agents, and enhanced collaboration features, organizations can begin their AI transformation journey and unlock new levels of productivity and efficiency.
