Microsoft announces GitHub Copilot for Business

Microsoft announces GitHub Copilot for Business

Microsoft has announced that GitHub Copilot is now generally available to businesses. Up until now, the Copilot was available only for individuals, and according to Microsoft, the AI tool helped developers code 55 percent faster. The Redmond tech giant now wants businesses to enjoy the benefits individuals have been enjoying, plus more.

GitHub Copilot for Business has everything that the Individuals plan offer. On top of what's already on offer with the Individuals subscription, the Business plan has features such as Simple license management, Organization-wide policy management, "Industry-leading" privacy, and Corporate proxy support. Copilot for Business costs $19 per user per month.

For those who do not know, GitHub Copilot is an AI programming tool that provides code suggestions from within your text editor based on context from comments. Powered by OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot is available as an extension in several IDEs (Integrated development environment), including Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, and more.

Besides Copilot for Business, Microsoft has also announced "a more advanced OpenAI model and new capabilities" for organizations to reap "greater benefits." The new capabilities include:

• A more powerful AI model: New modeling algorithms improve the quality of code suggestions.
• AI-based security vulnerability filtering: GitHub Copilot automatically blocks common insecure code suggestions by targeting issues such as hardcoded credentials, SQL injections, and path injections.
• VPN proxy support: GitHub Copilot works with VPNs, including with self-signed certificates, so developers can use it in any working environment.
• Simple sign-up: Any company can quickly purchase Copilot for Business licenses online, and easily assign seats—even if they don’t use the GitHub platform for their source code.

Microsoft also teased what's next for AI-assisted programming in GitHub. The software giant has promised to "integrate AI into every aspect of the developer experience" to help further transform developers' productivity.