The tech company recently added Copilot to its consumer subscription service for software including Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Australia and several Southeast Asian countries. Along with the AI feature, it raised prices for everyone who uses the service in those countries.

The monthly bill for 365 increased to 16 Australian dollars from A$11 all the while AI was popping up offering them advice.

Some users said on social media that Copilot pop-ups reminded them of Clippy, Microsoft’s widely derided Office helper from the late 1990s, that would frequently offer unsolicited help.

A Microsoft spokesman wouldn’t comment on the strategy behind the forced addition of Copilot in certain regions and whether the company plans a similar approach in other markets.

Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest investor, having plowed close to $14 billion into the ChatGPT maker and  has been trying since early 2023 to use generative AI to gain ground in the market for consumer apps, where it has long struggled.

It first integrated the tech into its Bing search engine as a chat tool, but failed to gain much ground against Google. It later launched Copilot, a chatbot and content generator that integrates with 365 software to help write emails, summarise meetings and create PowerPoint slides.

The premium consumer version of Copilot launched in January at a price of $20 a month in the US which is on top of the roughly $7 monthly fee for an individual subscription to 365.

Vole  is also pushing Copilot to its enterprise software customers at a price of $30 a person. Business clients are the biggest part of Microsoft’s software business.

Businesses have been mixed on Copilot’s usefulness and have questioned whether the AI tools’ outputs are accurate, if it protects their private data and if it is helpful enough to justify the cost.