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Microsoft Announces Pay-As-You-Go Copilot Chat Agents
Microsoft has introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new AI-powered tool that integrates free and pay-as-you-go agents into its existing free chat experience for Microsoft 365 commercial customers.
According to the company, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat combines advanced AI capabilities with enterprise-grade controls to create a flexible, secure, and scalable solution.
Microsoft's free, secure AI chat, powered by GPT-4, allows users to perform tasks such as market research, strategy development, and document analysis. Users can upload files to summarize key points in Word documents, analyze data in Excel, or enhance PowerPoint presentations. The Copilot Pages feature also supports real-time collaboration between team members and AI.
Copilot Chat's pay-as-you-go agents give enterprise users the ability to use natural language commands to create tools that automate repetitive tasks and improve workflows. For example, customer service representatives can retrieve account details through CRM agents, and field technicians can access step-by-step instructions. The agents are priced on a metered basis, with IT teams maintaining full control over their deployment and management.
In a blog post, Microsoft's Richard Riley explained how the cost-per-use of Copilot Chat will work: "Usage of agents is measured in 'messages,' and total cost is calculated based on the sum of messages used by your organization. You can purchase messages through the Copilot Studio meter in Microsoft Azure, a pay-as-you-go option, for $0.01 per message, or via prepaid message packs priced at $200 for 25,000 messages per month."
The type of response will also determine how many messages are used. Classic answers are predefined, manually created responses that remain static unless updated by developers. These are ideal for scenarios requiring precise and consistent answers and are charged as one message per response.
In contrast, generative answers are dynamically produced based on knowledge sources and the context of the conversation. These responses provide more natural and flexible interactions but are charged as two messages per response.
Tenant Graph grounding provides agents with contextual data from Microsoft Graph, such as files stored in SharePoint and external sources connected via Graph connectors. It excludes personal data like emails and chats. Each knowledge retrieval through Tenant Graph grounding costs 30 messages. While optional, organizations can enable or disable this feature in Copilot Studio.
The rollout of this feature will occur in phases. Billing begins today for new agents using the feature in Copilot Studio, while existing agents that enabled it during the preview will be billed starting Feb. 1. However, Microsoft 365 Copilot users can access Tenant Graph grounding for messages at no extra cost as part of their license.
Microsoft also announced that autonomous actions, a feature enabling agents to automate complex business processes, will transition to a paid preview on Feb. 1. Autonomous actions use AI to trigger workflows, connect data, and orchestrate tasks. These actions, visible in the activity map within generative orchestration mode, will cost 25 messages per action. The move follows strong interest in autonomous capabilities since their public preview launch in November.
For IT teams, Microsoft has included Copilot Chat tools -- such as data protection, agent lifecycle management, and governance tools to ensure secure and compliant use of AI -- within its Copilot Control System.