Microsoft's Copilot AI is coming to your Office apps - whether you like it or not

Microsoft is getting ready to expand the reach of its Copilot feature set, bringing its AI capabilities to Office apps for anyone currently subscribed to Microsoft 365 Personal or Family.

Today, those features are only available with an extremely pricey Copilot Pro subscription. For Personal and Family subscribers, the upgrade costs an extra $20 monthly, which is more than double the cost of the basic Microsoft 365 subscription.

Also: Microsoft Copilot vs. Copilot Pro: Is the subscription fee worth it?

According to an announcement from Microsoft Asia, the company is making Copilot part of all Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. As part of the deal, those subscriptions will also get access to the Microsoft Designer app for generating images. According to the announcement, current subscribers will automatically get access to Copilot in their apps once they update to the latest version.

For Microsoft 365 Family subscribers, the added features are available only to the primary user and can't be shared with other members.

This isn't an all-you-can-AI deal. As the announcement explains, "Subscribers will receive a monthly allotment of AI credits to use Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Designer. The credits will also apply to apps like Paint, Photos, and Notepad on Windows." The option of a Copilot Pro subscription is available for subscribers who use more than the basic basket of credits.

And while there's no cost to current subscribers for the new features, the upgrade comes with a big gotcha: Subscription prices are going up with the next renewal. In Australia, for example, one user reported that the cost of their subscription had risen to $AU179 this week; the previous price was AU$139.

Also: Your Windows 10 PC can't be upgraded? You have 5 options before support ends in 2025

For those who neither want nor need those AI features, a Microsoft 365 Classic option will be available, at prices that are similar to those in place before the Copilot-driven increase.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, including the US and Western Europe, the free Copilot features aren't available -- yet. But I expect it's only a matter of time before this change expands to additional markets.

It's not unusual for Microsoft to try out new subscription offers on a regional basis before taking them to a worldwide market. That's exactly what this announcement looks like.

Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives

Anyone who's paid attention to Satya Nadella's Microsoft in recent years knows that the company is all in on AI, so it would be odd if there were no plans to roll out a similar feature set to the Microsoft 365 subscription base worldwide. Starting in the APAC region gives the company time to gauge customer reaction and also continue scaling up the capacity of servers that power Copilot features.

This expanded offering is still brand new, but Reddit users from the region have already weighed in with complaints. One asked, rhetorically, "I'm just meant to put up with unwanted bundleware that I never agreed to soaking up CPU cycles on my hardware  … because Microsoft needs to look like [its] AI spend is getting ROI to investors?"

Also: Microsoft introduces 10 AI agents for sales, finance, supply chain in Dynamics 365

Another Reddit user, who's apparently a graduate student in Taiwan, called the new Copilot features a "nightmare," adding that it can't be turned off. "Doesn't Microsoft understand that Graduate/Phd students receive an automatic fail or are charged with academic misconduct for any hint of AI assistance in their writing?"

I've asked Microsoft if it has plans to introduce similar features in the US and other worldwide remarks and will update this post with their response.