Early adopters of Microsoft's AI bot wonder if it's worth the money

Artificial-intelligence aide handles email, meetings and other things but its price, limited use have some skeptical

- Tom Dotan

Microsoft's new artificial intelligence assistant for its best testers for more than six months and their reviews are in: useful, but often doesn't live up to its price.

The company is hoping for one of its biggest hits in decades with Copilot for Microsoft 365, an AI upgrade that plugs into Word, Outlook and Teams. It uses the same technology as OpenAI's ChatGPT and can summarize emails, generate text and create documents based on natural language prompts.

Companies involved in testing say their employees have been clamoring to test the tool- at least initially. So far, the shortcomings with software including Excel and PowerPoint and its tendency to make mistakes have given some testers pause about whether, at $30 a head, it is worth the price.

"I wouldn't say we're ready to spend $30 per user for every user in the company," said Sharon Mandell, the chief information officer at networking hardware company Juniper Networks, which has been testing Copilot since November selling software has been in the hands of Microsoft has said that early demand from users is unprecedented and the companies testing it have found it valuable. The company hasn't shared specifics about sign-ups.

The company has bet billions notably through its $13 billion investment in OpenAI-that it can lead the way in AI. Its shares have soared on the belief that the technology will turbocharge its revenue, making it the most valuable company in the world . On Sunday, it showed its first Super Bowl ad in four years, touting Copilot as a tool that can help young people realize their entrepreneurial dreams.

"Copilot has to be a success for the stock to work," said Rishi Jaluria, an analyst with RBC Capital.

During Microsoft's recent earnings call, Copilot was mentioned more than 50 times. Chief Executive Satya Nadella likened it to the adoption of the personal computer in workplaces.