Generative AI is now available in many of the productivity apps office workers use every day, from Microsoft Word to Zoom. But how much should businesses expect to pay to provide employees with an AI sidekick?
Generative AI has the potential to boost workplace productivity, automating tasks such as drafting emails and providing meeting summaries. But deciding how much businesses should pay to access these tools can be a conundrum for software vendors.
“This is untested technology, both in terms of what it can do and how you can monetize it,” said Craig Roth, a research vice president at Gartner. “What you see is vendors experimenting: they’re trying [to balance] actually making revenue off of this with trying to negotiate some market positioning and competitive advantage.”
A year on from the launch of ChatGPT 3.5, most office software vendors have at least announced plans to embed generative AI features within their products. In many cases, these tools are now accessible to at least to parts of their customer base.
Notion was one of the first productivity vendors to make its genAI features available, back in February, at an additional $10 per user each month.
Since then, a variety of genAI tools for office apps have hit the market, with varying approaches to how they are sold.
In some cases, a premium is charged. Microsoft, for example, launched its Copilot for Microsoft 365 to large customers in November, with a listed price of $30 per user per month on top of E3 and E5 subscriptions (and a minimum purchase of 300 seats). This provides access to Copilot functionality within its range of office applications, including Word, Outlook, and Teams. The price for smaller businesses is yet to be announced, with an SMB early access program currently underway.
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