Jan 15 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) 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.

The free service, Copilot Chat, which uses OpenAI's GPT-4,

lets users create AI agents using natural languages such as

English and Mandarin for tasks such as market research, writing

strategy documents and preparing for meetings.

However, features including summarizing and transcribing

Teams calls and creating PowerPoint slides require a $30 monthly

Microsoft ( MSFT ) 365 Copilot subscription.

Microsoft ( MSFT ), like other big technology companies, is under

pressure to show returns on its hefty investments in AI, as the

software giant is set to spend about $80 billion during its

current fiscal year on data centers and AI infrastructure.

After a Gartner report last year raised doubts about

Copilot's adoption, Microsoft ( MSFT ) has been pushing its uptake.

In November, Microsoft ( MSFT ) began allowing customers to create

autonomous agents requiring minimal human intervention, a

strategy which some analysts say could offer tech companies a

simpler path to monetization.