Microsoft Hopes Hastened AI Rollout, Price Discounts Can Fuel Office 365 Growth
CEO Satya Nadella reorganized who’s in charge of buffing up the crown jewel software, which risks falling behind in the AI boom.
On paper, Informatica, a Redwood City-based cloud software firm with 5,000 white collar employees, is exactly the type of company that should be gung-ho to pay up and buy Microsoft 365 Copilot, the version of the company’s flagship Office software that comes with artificial intelligence features.
And more than a year ago, Informatica did test out 365 Copilot for a handful of its employees, according to CIO Graeme Thompson. But Thompson said he has passed on buying seats primarily because he hasn’t seen uses for the AI that justify the price: at $30 a month per seat, Copilot roughly doubles the baseline cost of Office.
“It’s easy for an employee to say, ‘Yes, this will help me,’ but hard to quantify how. And if they can’t quantify how it’ll help them … it’s not going to be a long discussion” over whether the software is worth paying for, Thompson said.
