Official: You Can Now Get Early Access to the Next Version of Logos

For me in my use case, the summarize feature alone is a huge time saver when I am shifting through journal articles or monographs.

If this is already this useful as an 'early access' product, the future is bright.

I was hoping this would be the case, but it has not been usable for me so far.  Even trying summarize a 15 page chapter in a simple monograph has given me the dreaded “too many pages to summarize” message. Logos support replied to me, saying this is not a bug, but a natural limitation of their AI, meaning it’s not something that’s going to be “fixed.”  Not sure how people are using it on entire journal articles, which are typically 25+ pages, when it cant even do single chapters of popular level monographs?

I was hoping this would be the case, but it has not been usable for me so far.  Even trying summarize a 15 page chapter in a simple monograph has given me the dreaded “too many pages to summarize” message. Logos support replied to me, saying this is not a bug, but a natural limitation of their AI, meaning it’s not something that’s going to be “fixed.”

Have you tried it recently?

Mark posted on Friday - https://community.logos.com/forums/p/221871/1299058.aspx#1299058 - that they now support summarizing much longer articles.

Good to know.  I haven’t tried it since my free trial ran out last month, and I just didn’t find any useful features, given the limitations of AI summarize at the time.  If I ever receive another free trial offer I will give it another try to see if the way AI summarize now works changes my mind about subscribing.

it would still be helpful if they could come up with a page count or word count limitation that could be posted as a guideline.

I have tried out the new AI features.  Here's my opinion:

• Logos is making a mistake moving to a (primarily?) subscription model that's going to hurt them long term.  People today have subscription fatigue and are much less likely to sign up if it's a subscription rather than a purchase.  With a purchase, you feel you're making an investment with every purchase.  With a subscription, you feel much less commitment to a product.  Since Logos is also continuing to sell resources, this makes their marketing far more confusing.  I imagine trying to explain to someone what they should buy and attaching a subscription to a commentary purchase makes it far less compelling.
• I would rather have no AI features at all than have to pay a monthly subscription for the latest features.  The AI features were not very useful, especially if you have used Logos with a (free) ChatGPT window open next to it.  You can already copy, paste, and summarize.  I did not find the AI search very useful (maybe it will get better?), and the sermon assistant is easily accomplished in ChatGPT apart from Logos.  I can see how it would be helpful for people who have never actively used ChatGPT as a tool, but learning to use ChatGPT gives you 85% of the added benefit of Logos Pro, which decreases its value significantly.
• The fact that you're including instant light/dark mode in Pro doesn't make sense.  This is not an AI feature and is simply holding back a feature from users who don't subscribe.  If this is indicative of Logos' future direction, then this is very disappointing.  Logos has always promised that the engine is free to use for your purchased resources.  How is this not part of the engine?  
• I own the majority of commentaries and resources included in Pro, and yet I get no discount or dynamic pricing on a subscription.  How does this make sense for someone like me who has invested so much in Logos?  I think you're going to frustrate your primary user base by making this move.  

Personally, I will not be getting a subscription, and at this point, I will not be recommending Logos until we see how this pans out.  I'm hoping that the subscription model will fizzle, and we'll go back to purchasing feature updates as before.  If that happens, I'll continue to commend Logos as a good investment.  Until then, I'm not so sure.  That's my 2 cents. 

Well said! 

Seriously Faithlife, what is this: https://www.logos.com/early-access/faq?utm_campaign=promo-earlyaccess&utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_content=05282024_Logos_ENG_EN_Subscription-Comms-VIPs&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2flogos.com%2fearly-access%2ffaq&utm_id=211051&sfmc_id=38902612

These subscriptions will replace Preaching Suite, Faithlife Connect, and other Logos feature sets."

I understand we got an email saying: 

Perpetual access. We’ve received an overwhelming response that our customers want to buy forever-access to Logos features. Our team is taking all your feedback into account, and we are excited to announce perpetual feature licensing, in some form, will be a component of our new subscription model. However, the focus will be on the subscription product. We’re still working out the details, so stay tuned. As always, the content you’ve purchased is yours forever and accessible with or without a subscription."

As a person who loves to use Logos, do not do subscription-only model that replaces feature sets. You can do both, but don't limit it to just that!

Also, this:

The three subscription tiers are designed to fit the main ways people use Logos: small group prep (Logos Premium), sermon prep (Logos Pro), and academic and original language study (Logos Max).

What? So now as someone who is academic, a pastor, and one who leads small groups, he or she has to get more than one subscription to get the full use of new feature-sets? 

I think Nathanael King is right:

Logos is making a mistake moving to a (primarily?) subscription model that's going to hurt them long term.  People today have subscription fatigue and are much less likely to sign up if it's a subscription rather than a purchase.  With a purchase, you feel you're making an investment with every purchase.  With a subscription, you feel much less commitment to a product.  Since Logos is also continuing to sell resources, this makes their marketing far more confusing.  I imagine trying to explain to someone what they should buy and attaching a subscription to a commentary purchase makes it far less compelling.

The subscription tiers will build on each other, so you can subscribe to the largest one that meets your needs (and get all the "lower" tiers included).

Will there be a discount on a one-year subscription like Logos Connect?

Thank you Bradley I didn't see that in the email or FAQ page, but that sounds good. 

I personally don't like subscriptions but if there is an "annual" or "biannual" discount option that has perpetual licensing, I guess it ends up being similar to the old way. The added benefit would be regular updates and access to features that can't be owned at the moment like AI stuff. It is a different model, but the outcome is close (at least appears to be in writing).

It would be nice to know more on the perpetual access. Is the license based on subscription time, price (accounting for discounts too), something else, or a combination? Also, I understand it is difficult to state what will be considered perpetual in the early stages, but are there classifications of features that will be considered "ownable" and others not (ex: outsourced [ex..the current AI tokens] vs insourced features)?

Again thank you.

Hey Mark,

I'm a retired data analyst.  I purchased and maintained Logos 7 to present. Please confirm my understanding of Logos long term marketing plan.

1.  If you don't have full-feature logos, get it now before all "features" are consumed by the subscription based usage plan.

2.  If you do have Logos 10 full-feature, be informed, all future "feature" upgrades will only be available via a subscription based plan(s).

I'm old school - sorry, I don't appreciate Microsoft Office 365.  I maintain the latest Microsoft Office Pro - so I'm not tied to an internet link, and more importantly, for security reasons there are some computer activities that are not allowed to have any external communication links.

That said, Logos serves two constituent groups.  A.  The professional academic who understands the software development process and cost associated with bring this product to the user.  B. The non-profit / religious entity (pastors / elders / deacons / lay leaders) who earns well below the mean income and has become accustom to non-profit pricing of Microsoft (which is a lose leader / philanthropic sector of an enormous organization).

Threading the marketing challenge between these two groups and staying in business becomes an oxymoron.  Neither group is large enough to grow (much less) sustain Logos, while a marketing plan that caters to one, offends the other. 

I love Logos software.  I spend several hours / day using it.  It has become an invaluable tool, like a phone or car.  I feel like I'm being backed into a corner, held hostage to the "cloud" based storage of my labor and now the fundamental core engine is becoming more and more dependent on internet continuity that is not conveniently backed up locally and dependent on Faithlife's ability to navigate the market and stay in business.  Should Faithlife fail or my ability to pay the monthly subscription - what happens to a lifetime of work?  How does one pass along any legacy?  My warm fuzzy confidence is waning.

Agreed.  Future purchasable features is a big one for me too. 

Agreed.  Future purchasable features is a big one for me too. 

Agreed.  Future purchasable features is a big one for me too. 

Ok, I was pretty doom and gloom about AI in general, but now that I've tried it in Logos, the smart search and summarize are brilliant tools, nice work Logos.

Also after seeing what Sermon Audio is doing with AI it is great to see how Christians are using technology like this to the glory of God.

Is there a way to toggle the AI off so I can see the differences in results?

It seems to lead to different results. I am unsure if "better" or not yet (undecided), but it is interesting how it leads to unique findings.

The ALL Search also accesses un-owned books in the Logos catalog.

 I was tempted to buy more books through the ALL search. I no longer use it. I search my books.