Surprise! Microsoft Copilot Pro is Magical (Premium)

When Microsoft announced Copilot Pro last week, I waded into an unfamiliar new world of AI-based productivity and creativity, and I emerged with a positive new outlook. I was surprised by what I found, in a good way. But my key takeaway is perhaps the biggest surprise. I'm going to keep paying for this thing.

Yes, I hope it gets cheaper: $20 per month is a tough pill to swallow in the context of my Microsoft 365 Family subscription, which comes out to about $8.35 per month and serves me and 5 other people in my extended family. But here's the bottom line: Even if I just used this for one key feature, I can justify this service as a work-related expense. And if that's true, then the other benefits are just icing on the proverbial cake.

I don't have much in the way of comparison here: I've used the free versions of ChatGPT, DALL-E, Microsoft Copilot, of course, and what's now called Image Creator from Designer. But Copilot Pro should also be viewed against OpenAI ChatGPT Plus and maybe that's something I'll look into eventually.

But let's get real here: Microsoft has a dominant and maybe unassailable position in office productivity, and I'm intrigued by how it is integrating native AI capabilities into its core Office applications. This is potentially the big differentiator with ChatGPT Plus and whatever other AI innovations arrive this year from other companies.

The sign-up experience was painful and, frankly, embarrassing. That said, it was also day one, and so after failing spectacularly throughout the day on January 15, when Microsoft first announced the service, I finally gave up and waited until the following morning. And when I tried again that day, I had no issues: Microsoft was happy to take my $20 and I could finally take a look.

Copilot Pro, as you may recall, currently offers three major sets of features: Priority access to Copilot and its GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo capabilities, landscape DALL-E 3 image creation with better performance and 100 "boosts" per day, and integrated Copilot capabilities in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook on Windows, Mac, and iPad. (A fourth new feature, the ability to create custom Copilot GPTs, whatever that means, using what I believe will be a web-based tool called Copilot GPT Builder.)

I had some questions. Now mostly answered.

Microsoft is explicit about which platforms support Copilot integration, as noted above. But wasn't clear to me where I can access the Copilot text and image capabilities. On the web, of course: Both work fine from the Copilot website. But what about the Windows 11 Copilot sidebar? Or the Edge sidebar? Does my Microsoft account sign-in pass through my Pro status and provide me with the appropriate perks in those places too?

According to Microsoft, I can access Copilot Pro using a Copilot app on Windows, Mac, and iPad and the web in "Bing, Edge, and Start." (Start?) But when I fire up Copilot on Windows 11, it displays a Copilot Pro badge,...