Three new ways small and medium-sized businesses can purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot

In today’s fast-paced market, agility is a key to success. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need an AI solution that helps them work smarter. Microsoft 365 Copilot can help increase productivity, reduce costs, and accelerate time to market, making it a strategic investment for growth. Findings from a recent study¹ project that over a three-year period, businesses can experience a return on investment of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMBs ranging from 132% to 353%.²

Since making Microsoft 365 Copilot generally available for small and medium-sized businesses in January, we’ve been making efforts to enhance every aspect of the Copilot experience, from purchase, to deployment, to daily use at work. Most recently, at Microsoft Ignite 2024, we announced new capabilities to transform business processes with agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio, Copilot Actions, and the Copilot Control System.

We’ve also heard your feedback for more flexible purchase options, and we’re pleased to announce three new flexible purchasing options, making Copilot even more accessible and tailored to the unique needs of SMBs.

Matching AI investments and cash flow needs with more flexible billing

We’re making monthly billing available for annual term subscriptions of Copilot. You can now choose to pay monthly instead of making a full annual payment upfront, allowing for more manageable monthly payments. This flexibility can help SMBs manage their cash flow more effectively and make it easier to budget for their AI investments. This new billing option is available for subscriptions of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service.

Enabling the secure use of AI at work today—with self-service purchase

Microsoft 365 Copilot is also available for self-service purchase, enabling Microsoft 365 business users to buy it for their existing plans using a credit card. To get started, simply click on “Add Copilot to your Microsoft plan”. Microsoft 365 admins will be notified of purchases and will be able to manage them in the admin center. This self-service option empowers businesses to quickly and easily access the AI tools they need to enhance productivity and drive growth.

Facilitating Copilot access through in-app purchases and license requests

In the coming days, Microsoft 365 business users will be able to purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot in the flow of their work. You’ll be able to purchase a Copilot license when you are signed in with a Microsoft Entra account into Microsoft Copilot, making the purchasing process seamless and convenient. Alternatively, to help admins assign unused licenses or purchase additional ones, you’ll also be able to send a license request to your admin. Microsoft 365 admins will manage license requests in the admin center, ensuring that businesses can scale their AI usage as needed.

Make your business stand out

Copilot can be a game-changer for SMBs looking to gain a competitive advantage. With 80% of SMB employees already bringing their own AI tools to work, now is the perfect time to embrace it. ³ Our customers are already transforming their work with Copilot. They tell us how Copilot is empowering their businesses to be more agile and to free up their employees’ time to focus on strategic work, where it matters the most.

The team at Newman’s Own, a US food company, has discovered that using Copilot in the flow of work lets them work smarter, not harder. By relying on Copilot to help with creative ideation, they’ve been able to triple the number of campaigns they run in a month.

“Using Copilot and AI to its fullest potential so we can be smarter than our competition is a key piece of our recipe for success.”

— David Best, President and CEO, Newman’s Own

The Rider Firm, a UK bicycle manufacturer, has a workforce managing systems and e-commerce that is distributed across three time zones. Copilot helped them consolidate their product specification data into a massive spreadsheet that they then fed into their website. This allows their customers to more easily find the exact part they need.

“It would have been very difficult for us to do all that without help, so it’s been great having Copilot to be a really smart Excel wizard for us. Basically, it’s brought down the number of people I have to ask for help in Excel to zero.”

— Stan Bolyarov, Solutions Architect, The Rider Firm

The product development group at Japan software developer, PKSHA, has found that Copilot allows them to be even better at consolidating customers’ product needs so that they can respond more quickly with developing new product improvements.

“With Copilot, I feel that I am now more creative than I was before. We generate new ideas quickly. As a result, we focus on the new features we should develop for our customers.”

— Mr. Hiroshi Kato, Software Engineer, PKSHA Technology

Get started with Copilot now

Microsoft 365 Copilot delivers powerful AI-driven insights directly within the tools you use every day, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. By integrating seamlessly with your work data and leveraging more than 1,400 pre-built connectors, Copilot helps you understand your unique work context from data across your business applications. Copilot helps you supercharge employee productivity and creativity and transform business processes.  

Copilot also inherits your Microsoft 365 tenant security, permissions, policies, and admin controls, adhering to enterprise-level data protection and governance standards that align with Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to responsible AI. To help business leaders accelerate adoption, measure AI impact, and quantify business value, Copilot includes access to tools, such as the Copilot Prompt Gallery, Microsoft Copilot Dashboard and the Microsoft Copilot Academy.

Our new and flexible purchasing options can make it easier to integrate this powerful AI assistant into your work, helping you enhance productivity and align with your business’s financial needs. Explore these new Copilot purchase options and revolutionize your business.

Find out more about Microsoft 365 Copilot or reach out to a Microsoft Cloud Solution Partner. You can learn about the Getting Started with Microsoft 365 Copilot 15% off offer from a partner or purchase it in the admin center.⁴

Learn how to make Copilot part of your everyday business activities by exploring the Copilot Success Kit for Small and Medium-Sized Business, and follow our Work Smarter blog series.

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Sources:

1. “New Technology: The Projected Total Economic Impact™: Of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMB,” a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft. Results are based on Microsoft 365 Copilot customer interviews and surveys of over 200 companies with up to 300 employees across various industries, from retail to financial services.
2. Forrester modeled a range of projected low-, medium-, and high-impact outcomes based on evaluated risk. This financial analysis projects that the composite organization accrues the following three-year net present value (NPV) for each scenario by enabling Microsoft 365 Copilot: 
   • Projected high impact of a $955,000 NPV and projected ROI of 353%.
   • Projected medium impact of a $658,000 NPV and projected ROI of 243%.
   • Projected low impact of a $358,000 NPV and projected ROI of 132%.
3. Workers worldwide are embracing AI, especially in small and medium-size businesses. In May 2024, we published the 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, a joint report from Microsoft and LinkedIn that looked at how AI will reshape work and the labor market broadly. We surveyed 31,000 people across 31 countries and identified labor and hiring trends from LinkedIn.
4. May not be combined with other offers. Microsoft reserves the right to modify or discontinue offers at any time. Other exclusions and limits may apply.