Microsoft's Copilot super app comes with a meter attached

Microsoft has unveiled its shiny new Copilot super app alongside an “evolved” pricing model to go with it, which means that customers will keep paying for a subscription and then cough up more when they want the really clever stuff. The company outlined the changes alongside its expanded vision for Copilot, which is being turned …

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

The "evolving" is their ability to charge suckers for useless crap!

[David 132]

Also evolving is their beancounters' grasp of just how much money they're losing on AI right now, with massive hardware costs and artificially low user pricing.

[Like a badger]

Well, the result will be that business users costs will suddenly shoot up, and customers' bean counters will realise how much is being spent for little return. What will happen then is that customers will ration Copilot usage, or limit the number of Copilot licences circulating, and there will be "helpful advice" from management that AI should only be used where there is a clear business benefit. MS will then find that usage reduces and so does their revenue from Copilot.

I wonder if the rather good cartoons that Copilot created the other day to liven up my otherwise dull-as-ditchwater presentation will count as a business benefit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like my company is way ahead of the curve - we are banned from using AI and all AI system access is blocked by the firewalls Mind you, this is more for security reasons, but I'm betting the beancounters won't have complained.

[Mark #255]

If "ai" truly could replace a £50k employee, then you know that the ai company is going to want to charge £49k (plus change) for that.

[Regomised]

Then six months later put the price up to £55k...

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe a return to fixed price meat bags/low value human capital ??

They mainly suck it up when given extra work to do:

[Randy Hudson]

It's 2026, and you still haven't tried AI?

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

The only thing "evolving" is their methods for parting fools and suckers from their money.

[PCScreenOnly]

CoPilot

Just tell me how to change my licenses NOT to include it (I did not pay for it, so do not want but MS have activated it on my Family subscriptions) and how to remove this thing from any device without having to faff and find it via whatever setting or tool I need t download

I can image the average joe bloggs suddenly getting one or two of MS's useage bills as neither of their systems agree, so billing the user must therefore be the right thing to do

[Like a badger]

Re: CoPilot

I don't know how of if you can remove it mid-year, but last year when I renewed the Family sub, there was no option for the non-AI plan shown on the renewal screen, it was intentionally hidden and didn't appear unless the customer selected the "cancel my sub" option, as I did. I hope the CMA fine them a good amount for their underhand practices, but fear that they'll get fined a few thousand quid, far less than Microsoft made from the tactic.

[David 132]

Re: CoPilot

Pffft, opting out of CoPilot is perfectly simple and straightforward. You just have to correctly answer "Are you sure you don't want to not take advantage of this opportunity to decline to miss out on the option to avoid the termination of the non-binding contractually mandatory CoPilot feature?"

And your answer has to be sent by recorded snail to their customer opt-out processing team (a subdivision of the Vogon central bureaucracy) and processed in triplicate before Friday November 17, 1780.

Honestly, I don't see what all the fuss is about.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

Re: CoPilot

I'm surprised that they don't make your PC coin operated like an old payphone.

"I'm sorry, your three minutes are up. Please deposit the contents of your wallet to continue or lose all your data."

[spireite]

Re: CoPilot

That question can be simply replaced with "Has your bank account run out of cash?"

[NXM]

Re: CoPilot

@David 132, you are Sir Humphrey and I claim my £5.

[PCScreenOnly]

Re: CoPilot

I had about 4 years worth - all black friday deals, so good for a few years and no copilot. Now I get it regardless.

[PCScreenOnly]

Re: CoPilot

just checked word/excel and the bloody option for copilot was enabled AGAIN

[Excused Boots]

Re: CoPilot

Re. Copilot

Fuck right off.

That is all, as you were.

[Andy Non]

Re: CoPilot

I'm looking to buy a new laptop. Amongst all the blurb "has a dedicated CoPilot key to access..." Nope, next laptop. I'll just install Linux Mint on it anyway but don't want a CoPilot key taunting me.

And why the feck do most new laptops come without a charger nowadays, leaving you to try to source one that is compatible?

[David Hicklin]

Re: CoPilot

> And why the feck do most new laptops come without a charger nowadays, leaving you to try to source one that is compatible?

I suspect they all charge via USB-C these days and everyone is assumed to have a suitable USB-C charger on hand already, all in the name of being kind to the environment maximising their profits as I bet the price was not reduced by the cost of the charger !

[Regomised]

Re: CoPilot

You'll probably find they all have a Copilot key!

As regards the chargers, it's a new EU regulation (UK has a similar one), which allegedly aims to reduce waste by mandating that chargers have to be an optional extra. Of course the computer companies have no objection as it's cheaper for them while at the same time allowing them to burnish their 'green' credentials!

[Neil Barnes]

Re: CoPilot

It's all fine in theory, but SWMBO's new laptop just arrived complete with a USB charger. In Germany, which I'm pretty sure is in Europe.

[Regomised]

Re: CoPilot

It seems to be being phased in with new models.

[IGotOut]

...will need to know how much it costs.

Easy.

More. Much more.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: .More. Much More

so much more that is blows your budget right out of the water for the next two years and then you find the results are even more shite than you thought possible.

That's MS for you. Money, Money, your money is ours so pay up now sucker.... Right Now or we nuke everything you have stored in one-drive.

[Regomised]

Re: ...will need to know how much it costs.

Yes, but the actual pricing model will remain opaque so that it's difficult to predict until that massive bill lands!

[Long John Silver]

What wonders does Copilot perform?

How did business and individuals manage without it during the pre-AI Dark Ages?

[UCAP]

Re: What wonders does Copilot perform?

Perfectly well to be honest.

[K555]

Re: What wonders does Copilot perform?

I'd say that pre AI we barely muddled along and just hoped to make it to the end of the day without making any disastrous decisions.

Now we have bots to make disastrous decisions on our behalf, which is most liberating.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What wonders does Copilot perform?

Businesses had staff. They now don't have those staff and have overworked the remaining ones into leaving. individuals rarely needed it in the first place.

It's like a drug dealer. Would you like some crack to make you happy? I'm happy now, why would I need crack? It's nice and cheap. Then the addiction sets in and it's not so cheap anymore. If you want to go back to the original happy you are going to have withdrawal symptoms. You never realised you didn't need crack in the first place till it's too late.

[David Hicklin]

Re: What wonders does Copilot perform?

That was my take on when people crowed about being able to summarise an email.....like email has been in general use since the early 1990's (so lets say 35 years) - how the hell have they coped in the meantime ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Model Choice

"Users can pick which model they want, or leave it to Auto, which chooses based on accuracy, speed, and cost."

Surely you'd want 100% accuracy every time? What's the point of using something if it is guaranteed not to give the correct answer every time unless you pay more?

[Andy Non]

Re: Model Choice

That sounds like a good question for CoPilot.

[Tron]

This is not complicated.

You used to pay your staff to do stuff.

Now you are paying MS to do it, and you are paying your staff to correct it.

So you are paying twice for what you used to pay once for.

And AI has proved itself by delivering a ROI to Microsoft.

Simples..

[Bebu sa Ware]

"Two per cent for looking in the mirror twice"

This "an evolved pricing model" reminded me of the "Master of the House" from Les Mis.

"When it comes to fixing prices

There are lots of tricks he knows

How it all increases

All them bits and pieces

… It's amazing how it grows"

[Irongut]

Copilot is already the worst way to use an LLM, making it more expensive should help people realise that faster and move to another supplier. Well done MS.