Microsoft Is Hiking Up the Price of Its Powerful New Office Software
New Microsoft features are running up a big bill for some customers.
Ever since the big tech names entered the generative AI race, the logical next step was integration. A step beyond an AI-powered chatbot would be an AI-powered assistant, bringing all the power of something like ChatGPT directly to your emails and spreadsheets.
Google was the first to announce an integration of generative AI across its suite of apps; at its flagship I/O event May 10, the company announced that AI assistants are coming to the G-Suite, from Gmail to Docs and Sheets.
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(MSFT) - Get Free Report followed suit at its own flagship event May 23, announcing Windows Copilot, a generative AI assistant that will be optimized across Microsoft's Office software.
Though still in its testing phase, some of Microsoft's biggest customers have begun using the new AI-optimized Office products.
Per reporting by The Information, 100 of these customers are paying an annual fee of $100,000 for up to 1,000 users to access this latest AI-optimized software.
The cost represents a 40% increase compared to the non-AI version of Office for companies with 1,000 users, according to The Information.
It's not clear when exactly Microsoft will move out of beta testing and roll out Copilot to all users, though the tech giant said it will be coming at some point later in the year.
“This new generation of AI will remove the drudgery of work and unleash creativity,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO said earlier in May. “There’s an enormous opportunity for AI-powered tools to help alleviate digital debt, build AI aptitude and empower employees.”
Google Labs, on the other hand, is currently allowing users to join a waiting list where they can eventually test out some of its new generative AI features for free.
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Source: TheStreet
