Microsoft (MSFT) announced that consumers and small businesses can now buy subscriptions to access more features of its artificial intelligence Copilot, aiming to drive sales beyond big businesses.。

After launching AI Copilot, a free Bing search engine, last year, Microsoft has now launched a Copilot Pro subscription service for individuals, which costs $20 a month.。

Copilot Pro will add artificial intelligence assistant features such as text drafting and numerical calculations to Microsoft's widely used applications, including Word and Excel。Buyers will be able to access new tools and AI models such as GPT-4 Turbo。

In addition, Microsoft also announced the elimination of the 300-person minimum requirement for purchasing enterprise versions of the software, making the $30 per month per user Copilot service with security controls and Microsoft Teams upgrades available to smaller businesses.。

Microsoft expects almost all business customers to sign up for Copilot, and Jared Spataro, the company's vice president, said in an interview, "I can't imagine a business organization that wouldn't buy at least one Copilot seat to get a sense of it.。"

Microsoft's Copilot Pro will face competition from Google parent Alphabet (GOOG), with both companies pitching artificial intelligence as productivity and cloud software for enterprise customers.。Copilot Pro has also entered the highly competitive consumer market, competing with OpenAI-created ChatGPT Plus, which launched a $20-a-month subscription service about a year ago to provide early access to new features and AI models.。

Spataro says Copilot Pro will stand out because of its integration into "apps that people use every day."。This move marks Microsoft's continuous efforts in the field of artificial intelligence to meet the needs of a wide range of users。