Microsoft set to unveil ‘Wave 2’ of Copilot later this month: What to expect

ChatGPT’s success prompted many companies to launch their own AI chatbots. Microsoft’s rendition, Copilot, became the most worthy competitor, even lapping ChatGPT’s capabilities in many use cases. However, recent updates to ChatGPT caused it to reclaim its throne, and it looks like Microsoft has plans to reestablish its competitive edge. 

Microsoft announced it will hold a live-streamed event titled “Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2,” which will focus on the next phase of “Copilot Innovation,” according to the event’s details.

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The live stream will be held on LinkedIn and be held on September 16, 11 AM ET/8 AM PT. The event speakers will be Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, and Jared Sparato, Microsoft CVP, AI at Work. If you want to attend the live stream, you can visit the LinkedIn posting to RSVP. 

In the comment section for the posting, Microsoft hinted at the event’s content, inviting the public to join the event “to discover the next phase of Copilot for work.”

The aforementioned reference to “Copilot for work” and Microsoft 365 Copilot in the event title signals that the event will include new features and capabilities to Microsoft Copilot’s Enterprise offerings, which currently include Copilot assistance embedded throughout the Microsoft Office apps. 

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is offered for $30 per user per month, and the license cost is for a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. The hefty price has been a deterrent for many, especially since whether the benefits outweigh the cost is still in question. Therefore, Microsoft will likely make the investment more enticing at the event. 

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It is also in Microsoft’s interest to make its Copilot consumer offerings more attractive to users, especially since it lost the competitive edge to ChatGPT after it got an LLM upgrade and access to the internet, which is what made Copilot a better option at the beginning. 

For example, the free version of Copilot could use an upgrade, as it runs on a version of OpenAI’s GPT-4 architecture, while the free version of ChatGPT runs on GPT-4o, OpenAI’s most advanced model. 

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The most distinguishing feature of Microsoft’s Copilot Pro offering, which costs $20 per month, is its ability to assist within the Microsoft 365 apps. However, for users who don’t regularly use the Microsoft 365 apps, there isn’t much of an incentive to subscribe right now. 

If you can’t tune into the event, no worries, ZDNET will be covering all the news.