Microsoft (MSFT) on Friday unveiled a revamped version of its Copilot software, combining its chat, coding, and agentic capabilities into a single package, which it calls Autopilot.
The platform is designed to serve as a kind of one-stop shop for your work needs, such as preparing a pitch document or putting together a spreadsheet and then have AI reason over the data to provide users with insights they may not see.
But to ensure it wins over customers, CEO Satya Nadella says, Microsoft will need to win users' trust.
"Trust is going to be the biggest issue for us," Nadella told Deirdre Bosa.
"Can I really trust [AI] with all of my credentials when it does autonomous activity? How do I make sure that this is something that I can feel that I'm in control of? And in the enterprise, this is everything," he said.
The new Copilot also has two different billing options: standard per-user plans for general AI work and a pay-as-you-go offering for performing long-tail, multi-step agentic work.
Nadella says the dual offerings will prove to be especially beneficial to users as AI model makers and providers slowly reduce customer subsidies.
"The way I think about our subscriptions [is] it's ultimately going to deliver more value every day of the week as models improve. And then on top of that, we have usage-based functionality that any user at any time can use with no limits," the CEO explained.
"And so that combination gives us, I think, the right business model to be able to both deliver broad access, deliver the [return on investment] that's expected, and most importantly, continuously be aligned with where customers will see value."
Microsoft says Copilot will automatically route user prompts to the best available model from OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) and Anthropic (ANTH.PVT), though you'll also be able to manually choose models. The company says it will add additional options from other model makers in the future.
The Windows maker says that the per-seat option will have token limits that most people will never hit.
Those that need further capabilities, however, can opt for usage-based billing.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley*.*
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