Today, Microsoft launched Copilot Pro, bringing its AI-powered productivity features to mainstream consumers. Available as a $20 per month add-on to Microsoft 365 Personal or Home subscriptions, Copilot Pro injects AI directly into Office apps to help users write faster and work smarter. The key features include AI-generated text suggestions and summaries in Word, automated data analysis and graph creation in Excel, and even entire PowerPoint presentation generation from a text prompt. Copilot can also suggest email replies in Outlook and assist with other productivity tasks. What sets Copilot Pro apart from the free Copilot assistant is its tight integration with Office apps and ability to summarize long Word documents and generate entire decks. The Pro version also offers priority access to the latest AI models from OpenAI, Microsoft's key partner. The regular Copilot uses GPT-4 during non-priority times, while the Copilot Pro aims to serve its users with GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo all the time.

While regular Copilot is available to anyone with a Microsoft account, Copilot Pro is reserved for those with active Microsoft 365 subscriptions. However, it brings previously business-only AI capabilities like PowerPoint generation to mainstream users. Microsoft's Divya Kumar, global head of marketing for search and AI at Microsoft, stated in a discussion for The Verge that Copilot Pro will continue to expand over time: "Given that pattern we've been in, that rolling thunder, you can expect we're going to do the exact same thing for Copilot Pro." So, while the initial launch focuses on core Office apps, expect Copilot Pro to pop up across Microsoft's software and services eventually. For now, it aims to boost productivity for Office power users willing to pay a little extra for AI assistance.