Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat which brings its free chat experience for Microsoft 365 commercial customers to a broader base. The catch is that there are pay-as-you-go agent capabilities.
The news comes as Google Workspace dumped Gemini add-ons in favor of an increase in pricing. Google's model, which follows the playbook of Zoom and Adobe, is cleaner.
Microsoft's move is designed to bring copilots and agents to a broader base of employees. Copilot Chat can enable an entire workforce to use AI chat powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o, agents that are easily accessible and IT controls.
That last item is going to be critical since Microsoft has a consumption plan for Copilot Chat that will impact how enterprises approach agent democratization (and AI agent sprawl).
In a blog post, Microsoft outlined a few pay-as-you go agent scenarios. Agents created in Microsoft Copilot Studio will be available from Copilot Chat. Usage of agents is measured by messages and total cost is based on the sum of messages used by an enterprise. You can pay a penny per message or use pre-paid message packs via Azure at $200 for 25,000 messages a month.
Microsoft charges for agent responses and whether they are predefined, generated, grounded with information from Microsoft Graph and autonomous. Here's a breakdown:
Enterprises are going to have to experiment with consumption costs and models and what happens if agents are allowed to be created by an entire workforce. Microsoft outlined the following scenario:
- A hypothetical agent might answer questions from customers on a website. Yesterday, it consumed 500 classic answers and 2,000 generative answers. Therefore, it would cost 4,500 messages, equivalent to $45 for that day.
- A hypothetical agent in Copilot Chat uses data stored in Microsoft Graph to answer employee questions about HR policies. Yesterday, the agent consumed 200 generative answers and 200 tenant Graph grounding for messages. Therefore, it would cost 6,400 messages or $64 for that day.
- A hypothetical autonomous agent responds to and routes inbound sales orders from customers. Yesterday, it consumed 100 generative answers, 100 tenant Graph grounding for messages, and 800 autonomous actions. Therefore, it would cost 23,200 messages or $232 for that day.
It's unclear how this model will play out for customers. One thing is clear: Your software vendors will be trying out a variety of agentic AI models throughout the year.
