Microsoft pitches Copilot as “UI for AI.” The company has already launched a few variants of GPT-4o-powered assistant for business and personal user. Now, as the next step in this work, it is launching Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat — a rebranded version of the free AI 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 capabilities of the more fully featured Microsoft 365 Copilot, priced at $30 per user per month. Although the experience is free, there is one notable caveat: Agent capabilities that promise task automation only work in a consumption-based model.

The goal here is very clear: 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 using Copilot a daily habit among Microsoft 365 users – from customer service representatives to leads of marketing to frontline technicians – users may eventually revert to a paid plan.

This development is not a surprise given that the launch of Microsoft 365 Copilot is reported to be far from perfectwith some businesses describing it as expensive and complex to implement due to security concerns.

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

What to expect from Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

Like the original version, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat will continue to have a chat interface, where users can input their questions and get answers from AI.

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

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

These agents can serve as virtual teammates for employees, helping them automate repetitive tasks, from providing customer information before meetings to monitoring related events. They can be grounded with data from the web as well as work data through Microsoft Graph or third-party graph connectors.

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

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

Agents can be accessed in a consumption-based model, with the total usage determined according to the number of messages used by an organization.

“You can buy messages even Copilot Studio meter on Microsoft Azurea pay-as-you-go option, for $0.01/message, or through a pre-paid message pack priced at $200 for 25,000 messages/month,” the company said in a separate post.

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

Gemini dominance is taken away

With this move, Microsoft hopes to squeeze some money from Microsoft 365 users with basic AI needs while creating an opportunity to convert them into paying customers. It also comes as a counter to Google’s push to Gemini HEALTH

The company led by Sundar Pichai recently Office has partnered that Gemini can be used 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 that pay a base price of $14 per user per month get 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 such as Teams, Outlook , Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

But Microsoft differentiates itself by offering agent-based capabilities using AI. This allows enterprises to create custom agents for task automation – a feature currently lacking in Gemini.

Ultimately, the choice depends on the ecosystem you fit into and your specific needs. Google’s approach enables easy access to Gemini within key business applications but lacks agent capabilities at the moment. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 provides web-based chat and agent features (in a pay-as-you-go model) but requires a higher investment to unlock AI functionality within its work apps.