Microsoft on Wednesday rolled out a chat service allowing businesses to use on-demand AI agents for routine tasks, betting on the pay-as-you-go model to drive up the adoption of the technology.

Microsoft is adding a new wrinkle to Microsoft 365 Copilot, its AI service for businesses, with a free chat experience that includes the ability to create and use AI agents on a pay-as-you-go basis inside organizations.

Microsoft is relaunching its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat today, complete with the ability to use AI agents. Copilot Chat is Microsoft’s latest attempt to get people used to using AI at work and relying on it enough to tempt them into paying $30 per month to get the full Microsoft 365 Copilot.

M365 Copilot Chat is a chat interface powered by OpenAI’s GPT4o that serves up responses based on web data (rather than information held in the Microsoft Graph, as per the paid M365 Copilot subscription). It also includes features such as Copilot Pages and image generation, as well as data protection and IT admin controls at no cost to users.

Microsoft is taking a bold step forward in the enterprise AI space with its new Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. This updated service introduces AI agents that can automate repetitive tasks, alongside a pay-as-you-go pricing model,