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Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for all businesses, large and small by John Callaham In November 2023, Microsoft officially launched Copilot for Microsoft 365 Enterprise customers, specifically for large companies that had signed up for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 enterprise plans. The cost to access the Copilot generative AI features was set up as $30 a month per person. Today, Microsoft announced an expansion of that effort. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for all businesses, both big and small. Now, customers with Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard plans can add Copilot and all of its features and uses. Like the Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans, the smaller Business Premium and Business Standard plans are $30 a month per person. Not only is the service expanding to more businesses, but Microsoft is also ditching the previous 300-seat minimum to get Copilot added to a Microsoft 365 business subscription. Now, there is no minimal seat amount needed, which means a single person who runs a business on their own can add Copilot with just one seat required. If any customers are still on the older Office 365 E3 and E5 plans, they can also access Copilot for the first time without the need to have a Microsoft 365 account. Finally, any commercial business customers can go through the many different Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partners to subscribe to Copilot for Microsoft 365. Microsoft also offered up an update on Copilot for Microsoft 365 since it launched in November. Since it became generally available in late 2023, the list of companies that use the service has expanded to include Visa, BP, Honda, Pfizer, Accenture, KPMG, and PwC. These new announcements come on the same day as Microsoft's reveal of Copilot Pro. It will give individuals more features and more powerful access to the Copilot AI compared to the current free version for the cost of $20 a month.

Microsoft 365 is becoming more expensive for commercial customers by Usama Jawad Microsoft 365 was launched in 2017 as an evolution of Office 365, which was announced in 2010. In the past decade or so, Microsoft has introduced several new features, capabilities, and enhancements to its offering - with the most recent one that we reported being integration of Universal Print with OneDrive. All of these changes have come at no additional cost to the core product. However, this is set to change soon as the company has announced that it is making Microsoft 365 pricier for commercial customers. Microsoft explains that in the past ten years or so, it has added multiple new capabilities to its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 offerings without a price hike. Since announcing Microsoft 365 alone, the company has added 1,400 new capabilities to three domains. These include communication and collaboration, security and compliance, and AI and automation. 24 apps have been introduced across various Microsoft 365 offerings as well. As such, the Redmond tech giant believes that it is time to increase the price for its 300 million paid seats in the commercial space. The cost hike will be applicable from March 1, 2022 and will impact Microsoft 365 configurations as follows: Microsoft 365 Business Basic: From $5 to $6 per user Microsoft 365 Business Premium: From $20 to $22 Office 365 E1: From $8 to $10 Office 365 E3: From $20 to $23 Office 365 E5: From $35 to $38 Microsoft 365 E3: From $32 to $36 Microsoft says that these pricing adjustments will be applied globally. It is important to note that education and consumer offerings are not affected by this change. To sweeten the pot a bit, the tech giant says that it will be introducing unlimited dial-in connectivity for Teams in light of the fact that people sometimes take meetings on the go and do not always have satisfactory internet stability. This will be available to enterprise, business, frontline, and government offerings within the next few months.

Microsoft offers 25% discount on Microsoft 365 Business Premium for SMBs by João Carrasqueira This week is Thanksgiving week in the United States, which means it's also Black Friday week, with discounts starting to pop up across different retailers for various products. What some might not know is that it's also Small Business Saturday week, and that comes with its own discounts, at least from Microsoft. The Redmond company has announced that, starting today and until November 30, small and medium-sized business (SMBs) can get a 25% discount on Microsoft 365 Business Premium for the first 25 seats. This plan is a rebranding of Microsoft 365 Business - the name change happened back in April - and it usually costs $20 per user per month on an annual commitment. With the discount, it comes down to $15. Microsoft 365 Business Premium is Microsoft's most complete package for businesses, including Intune and Azure Information Protection. These two things are the only major differences between Business Premium and Business Standard, with both including the major desktop Office apps, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint. If you're interested, you can compare all Microsoft 365 Business plans here. The deal is only available in the United States, but on the bright side, you can get the discount even if you need more than 25 seats - but only those 25 will be discounted.