The cost of artificial intelligence will start to be felt with the next round of price increases for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans: the best-known productivity suite, known for decades as MS Office, has long since had its name updated. Available as a multi-platform and cloud subscription.
Currently in Italy, Microsoft 365 Personal costs €69 per year or €7 per month, while the Family plan costs €10 per month or €99 per year. The price increase reported by ZDNet will not bother users who want to use the new generative AI tools offered by Copilot and Designer, which will be included in the productivity suite and are the main reason for the price increase.
The latest generation of technology costs money, and artificial intelligence in particular requires huge data centers and supercomputers that are expensive to build and operate. Currently, the price increase affects Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, but is likely to expand to other countries soon.
In countries where Microsoft 365 price increases have been announced (it varies from state to state), Microsoft is notifying users of Personal and Family plans about the new productivity features and AI tools included.
In Word, Copilot can instantly generate summaries, outlines, and full drafts, and even generate images to enrich documents. In Excel, it helps analyze data and generate charts and formulas on request. In PowerPoint, Copilot generates templates to help speed up your work, including text, visuals, and speaker notes.
In Outlook, Copilot summarizes the entire message thread and creates a draft with suggestions for writing clear emails. In OneNote, Copilot can organize notes, doodles, and notes, turning them into organized information, lists, draft plans, insights, and new ideas. Microsoft Designer is an AI model that generates images and illustrations that can be used in various software in the Microsoft 365 suite.
Artificial intelligence costs money and is coin-operated
Please note that unlike the more expensive Copilot Pro subscription plan (which has unlimited AI capabilities), in the new Family and Pro plans, users have a limited number of tokens available for various Copilots, and points accrue based on usage. In the family plan, only the primary user can use AI and Copilot.
Microsoft 365 Classic without Copilot AI
The good news is that Microsoft won’t force all users to pay more for Copilot, Designer and AI features. Those not interested will be able to continue using Microsoft 365 Classic without AI features, which will remain at the same price as current Home and Personal subscriptions. Microsoft 365 subscriptions can also be purchased at a discount from this Amazon page.
All news talking about Microsoft comes from this page, but for news about artificial intelligence we refer to the dedicated section of Macitynet.
