Microsoft Tries, Again, to Get People Using ChatGPT-Style Chatbot

Microsoft Corp. is renaming its main chatbot for businesses, ramping up efforts to persuade people to use the software maker’s closest rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. 

Microsoft Copilot will become Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, the company said Wednesday, the second rebranding since the artificially intelligent assistant debuted in 2023 as Bing Chat Enterprise. 

The chatbot, which is free to all buyers of Microsoft’s main workplace software bundle, can synthesize data pulled from the web, analyze documents and suggest replies to customer service calls, among other things. But the assistant has taken a back seat to other Copilots embedded in individual productivity apps like Word and Excel, according to Jared Spataro, who oversees Microsoft’s workplace AI tools.  

“Most people don’t know that they do have it and it’s not something that we’ve done a lot of marketing around,” he said. “We definitely wanted to raise the visibility.” 

The assistant, which can be accessed in a web browser or smartphone app, has some limitations. It can’t transcribe a Microsoft Teams conference call or prioritize unread messages in an email inbox. Those tasks and others that tap into Microsoft’s ubiquitous workplace applications require a subscription to Microsoft 365 Copilot, which costs users $30 a month. 

But Spataro said Microsoft was beefing up the capabilities of the chat-window-based Copilot, including letting users access agents, autonomous bots programmed to perform specific tasks like fetching customer account details or technical specs. The company will charge users a nominal sum for such access. For example, a request for a custom answer from the agent’s underlying large language model will cost two cents while tapping into Microsoft app data will cost 30 cents. 

The pricing appears to undercut Salesforce Inc., which is pushing its own set of agents that the company says will initially cost about $2 per conversation. ServiceNow Inc., Workday Inc., HubSpot Inc. and SAP SE are also among the cadre of software companies now emphasizing AI bots capable of fetching information and taking actions on a user’s behalf.

Microsoft’s offering is “an on-ramp and an easy way to get started with no to low commitment,” Spataro said.