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Copilot for M365 Licensing Updates

Copilot for Microsoft 365

Microsoft has been announcing updates to the Copilot for M365 functionality, both in their Wave 2 launch and during Ignite.  Here is a summary of what new features are expected:

Copilot Pages—a dynamic, persistent canvas designed for multiplayer AI collaboration

Improvements to the existing copilots:          

  • Copilot in Excel will work with data outside of tables now, and includes Copilot in Excel with Python

  • Copilot in PowerPoint includes a Narrative builder feature to assist with building drafts

  • Copilot in Teams can now reason over both the meeting transcript and the meeting chat to give you a complete picture of what was discussed

  • Copilot in Outlook introduced Prioritize my Inbox, which helps you analyzing your inbox based on both the content of your email and the context of your role

  • Copilot in Word will enable you to quickly reference not only web data and work data like Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, and encrypted documents but also emails and meetings

  • Copilot in OneDrive is now generally available and will assist with finding information in your OneDrive account, like comparing files and summarizing information without having to open the documents.

Copilot Agents – New out-of-the-box, purpose-built agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot will take on unique roles, working alongside or on behalf of a team or organization to handle simple, mundane tasks as well as complex, multi-step business processes.  These agents will be offered for SharePoint, an Employee Self-Service Agent through Business Chat, a Teams Facilitator Agent and an Interpreter Agent, and a Project Manager Agent.  These can be customized through Copilot Studio as well.

Copilot Actions, which is still in public preview will allow for tasks to be delegated to Copilot.  These tasks can include actions like requesting status updates or agenda items from team members, compiling reports and scheduling emails or chats in Teams.  These prompts can be automated or used on demand. 

With these feature updates, there is also some licensing related updates as well, specifically for CSP customers.  Copilot for M365, while still not offered on a month-to-month commitment term through CSP is now offered with a monthly billing on an annual basis option, which will cost a 5% premium over the upfront payment option.

Microsoft has also introduced a pay as you go model for Copilot Studio.  The current model was to commit to messages in increments of 25,000 per month.  Each of these capacity packs cost $200USD/month, but the new option of consumption-based charges through Azure would charge $0.01 USD per message.  This new consumption-based model can be layered on top of the capacity packs and used to address overages as well.

If you have any licensing questions we are here to help. Please contact us and we would be happy to assist.