Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, seen here in Tokyo, Japan in November of 2018. Microsoft and the U.S. General Services Administration, or GSA, made a deal for the use of the tech company’s suite of apps. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
The U.S. General Services Administration announced a deal with Microsoft on Tuesday that will allow the U.S. government to use the tech companies AI computing applications for free for a year.
“Today, Microsoft and the [GSA] announced a comprehensive agreement to bring a suite of productivity, cloud and AI services, including Microsoft 365 Copilot at no cost for up to 12 months for millions of existing Microsoft G5 users, to help agencies rapidly adopt secure and compliant advanced AI tools that will enhance operations, strengthen security and accelerate innovation for the American people,” Microsoft said in a press release.
Microsoft G5 is its Microsoft 365 platform licensed and secured for governmental use.
“GSA is proud to partner with technology companies, like Microsoft, to advance AI adoption across the federal government, a key priority of the Trump Administration,” said GSA Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian in a separate press release.
“We urge our federal partners to leverage these agreements, providing government workers with transformative AI tools that streamline operations, cut costs, and enhance results,” he added.
The pact will provide cybersecurity and monitoring tools plus Microsoft suite apps like Microsoft 365, Copilot, Azure Cloud Services and Dynamics 365, and could lead to “potential savings of $3.1 billion in the first year,” as per the GSA.
Microsoft further announced it will commit $20 million in additional support services to help federal agencies with implementation and instruction in regard to the applications.
“With this new agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration, including a no-cost Microsoft 365 Copilot offer, we will help federal agencies use AI and digital technologies to improve citizen services, strengthen security, and save taxpayers more than $3 billion in the first year alone,” said Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella in the release.
Other companies such as Google, Anthropic and OpenAI have also recently struck bargain deals with the GSA, but none of those agreements are freebies.
