Microsoft released MAI-Transcribe-2, a speech recognition model priced at 10 cents per hour—down from 36 cents five months ago—that includes features like speaker identification and multi-language support that competitors charge extra for. The release signals Microsoft's broader strategy to build its own AI models and reduce dependence on OpenAI after restructuring their partnership.

• The pricing drops transcription costs low enough that it stops being a budget line item for enterprises; a bank processing 100,000 hours annually pays $10,000 instead of $36,000.
• Microsoft bundled premium features into the base product: speaker diarization, word-level timestamps, keyword biasing, code-switching between languages, and output modes for compliance versus readability—capabilities competitors sell separately.
• Three model releases in five months with expanding language coverage (25 to 60 languages) and improving rankings suggest Microsoft has stabilized the architecture and is now scaling aggressively to make transcription a commodity before competitors respond.
• The push toward in-house models reflects Microsoft's renegotiated OpenAI partnership, which ended exclusive access and revenue-sharing, freeing Microsoft to pursue its own frontier AI and cut costs across products like Teams, Word, and Excel.