Copilot invades Microsoft 365 Personal and Family for an extra three bucks a month

Copilot is coming to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family, and Vulture Central has had some hands-on experience with the generative AI assistant's attempts to be helpful.

There is a price to be paid to have the generative AI assistant shoved into the personal productivity apps – an extra $3 per month.

Don't want Copilot, which also brings Microsoft Designer to M365, and don't want to pay? Microsoft says: "Existing subscribers with recurring billing enabled with Microsoft can switch to plans without Copilot or AI credits like our Basic plan, or, for a limited time, to new Personal Classic or Family Classic plans."

It adds that existing subscribers "won't experience the price increase" until their next renewal, but those on recurring billing will need to actively make the switch.

So it can be avoided, but the direction of travel is clear – evolved Clippy will be popping up on a family or friend's computer sooner or later.

This hack became aware of Copilot's arrival yesterday as the assistant suddenly turned up in a family member's copy of Word, prompting an immediate call for support and a "wtf is this?" reaction. On the plus side, it also allowed some unexpected hands-on time with the functionality.

Without a warning or an option to opt-in, every document now starts with a helpful "Select the icon or press Alt + I to draft with Copilot" as the first line of a blank document, complete with a dingbat Copilot icon. Click the icon, and there are a bunch of options to meddle with your work or generate "polished" text.

Microsoft's feedback forums notes this has been rolling out for a few months on Word. While no one asked for the assistant, there doesn't appear to be a straightforward way to get rid of it.

To be fair to Microsoft, some users seemed happy with the assistant's arrival. However, a large number were most definitely not amused and quite vocal in their displeasure.

One user described the omnipresent Copilot draft icon as "intensely annoying." Another described it as "distracting" and "infuriating." One user summed it up with: "Absolutely bad form, forcing this on us and not giving us the option to turn it off."

Microsoft said it was "committed to giving our customers control over their experience and know there are times when AI assistance isn't desired (like in some academic scenarios), so we're adding settings in apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that allow you to disable or enable Copilot as needed."

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However, this writer was unable to find any such setting at the time of writing, and the experience should be opt-in rather than require the user to hunt around Word's options and settings looking for a way to disable it.

In an interview with The Verge, Gareth Oystryk, senior director of marketing for Copilot Pro and Microsoft 365, said: "The most interesting piece of feedback we learned is that there are times where our users want to turn off Copilot."

Indeed.

We asked one of Microsoft's other Copilots how to turn off the feature. The generative AI assistant appeared to sympathize with our plight and said: "It looks like you're not alone with this issue. As of now, there's no direct way to disable or remove the 'Draft with Copilot' feature from Microsoft Word. This might be frustrating if it disrupts your workflow."

We also asked Microsoft for comment, but other than an auto-reply, the company did not respond.

The advice from Copilot for users irritated by the change in Word? Roll back to a previous version. That might fix it.

Or perhaps it's time to consider an alternative. ®