Microsoft has detailed a new form of software licence it offers to non-human users.
Revealed in April, the new Microsoft 365 E3 – Unattended License “permits usage of Office client applications with service or other non-user accounts, which is common for automation process execution.” Microsoft explains scenarios such as Excel using an API to ingest data that appears in custom cells relied upon by other applications.
Reminds me of a few years back when Microsoft specifically included "all connected computers" in its enterprise licensing count costs including Linux desktops. Problem is once you have bought license subscriptions the conditions can change (ie. SQL databases and CPU/core counts) and costs go up which you can do absolutely nothing about unless you migrate to other technology. And you’ll find that mysteriously some of these costs are cheaper if you use the cloud service… but the cloud service is even more difficult to back out of in future…
See Non-human Microsoft Office users get their own special licences
Automated operators can pay up like anyone – or anything – else