At its annual Ignite developer conference on November 16, 2023, Microsoft announced it was renaming its AI-powered chatbot Bing Chat to Copilot in Bing. The premium corporate version, previously named Bing Chat Enterprise, has also been rebranded as just Copilot.
According to Microsoft, the goal behind this renaming is to create a unified brand and user experience for both regular consumers and enterprise customers using its AI assistant technology. However, critics speculate the change is an attempt by Microsoft to distance the chatbot from the Bing search engine, which failed to gain any market share against Google in the six months after Bing Chat first launched.
Expanded Availability
In addition to the rebranding, Microsoft revealed it is greatly expanding access to the newly christened Copilot assistant. Starting December 1st, corporate users signing into Bing using their Microsoft Entra ID will receive the benefits of “commercial data protection” when interacting with Copilot in Bing. This means their data will not be saved or used to train AI models by Microsoft, and Microsoft will not have access to it.
Furthermore, Copilot will now ship with a wide range of Microsoft’s enterprise subscription plans, including Microsoft 365 E, E5, Business Premium, and Business Standard, at no additional cost. It will also be included in Microsoft 365 F3 starting December 1st. For customers not on these plans, Copilot will be available for individual purchase at $5 per month.
According to Microsoft, Copilot will update its terms and conditions on December 1st to reflect its official general availability as a product from Microsoft. As part of this, it will inherit the universal license terms for Microsoft’s other online services. Microsoft states it will continue expanding eligibility for Copilot with commercial data protection to more and more Entra ID users in the future at no extra cost.
In addition to being accessible through Copilot.Microsoft.com and Bing, Copilot can now be used directly within Windows as well, thanks to its expanded integration.
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