Dive Brief:
- Microsoft plans to launch a pay-as-you-go Copilot plan for organizations looking to try out AI agents, according to a Wednesday announcement.
- The offering, dubbed Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o and enables users to automate repetitive tasks. Customers can create agents in Copilot Studio that act independently, leveraging third party data, web data or shared data.
- Microsoft said the flexible plan can serve as an “on-ramp” for users to easily access and engage with AI agents as part of Copilot’s capabilities. The pay-as-you-go plan does not include access to Copilot in Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Image generation and file upload limits apply.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft’s newest AI offering comes as businesses are underlining the need for guardrails on tech spend. Analysts and industry experts sounded the alarm last year on cost creep related to AI usage.
Nearly 4 in 5 U.S.-based organizations experienced higher software costs in 2024, according to a Forrester report published in July. The majority of tech leaders blamed new features, like AI, for the increase.
Adding the technology to workflows is a challenge, too. Nearly three-quarters of IT leaders agree that Copilot users find it difficult to integrate the tool into their daily routine, according to a Gartner pulse survey of 123 IT leaders. More than one-third recognized Copilot’s benefits but thought the tool was unlikely to live up to its promises.
Surging costs have dampened some of generative AI’s hype, especially as businesses grappled with ROI, adding pressure for CIOs to demonstrate the value of the costly initiatives.
The majority of corporate executives plan to invest between $50 million and $250 million in generative AI in the next year, according to a KPMG survey. More than 80% of organizations are exploring or piloting AI agents.
Microsoft expanded its agent portfolio in November during the company’s Ignite 2024 conference, adding capabilities to ease development and strengthen security controls. Toyota Motor Corporation was one of the technology’s early adopters and rolled out nine agents to facilitate knowledge sharing.
While enterprise interest in agents exists, most CIOs say they have work to do before jumping in. Nearly 9 in 10 organizations admit to needing tech stack upgrades, according to a Tray.ai survey.
Vendors are likely to step in and try to bridge gaps to boost adoption in 2025.
