Microsoft is Turning its Copilot Chatbot Into an AI Companion

Earlier this year, Microsoft created a new “Microsoft AI” subsidiary” led by DeepMind and Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. This new organizational structure marked the company’s ambition to build world-class AI products, with Microsoft Copilot spearheading that effort.

Today, Microsoft detailed the “next phase” for its Copilot assistant, which will evolve into an “AI companion for everyone.” Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI detailed its ambitious vision for an AI assistant that will be able to help users throughout the day and get used to their personal habits. And yes, this is will be quite different from the existing chatbots that can answer questions using personal information as well as web sources. And most of us probably aren’t ready for this yet.

“With your permission, Copilot will ultimately be able to act on your behalf, smoothing life’s complexities and giving you more time to focus on what matters to you,” Suleyman explained. “It will be an advocate for you in many of life’s most important moments. It’ll accompany you to that doctor’s appointment, taking notes and following up at the right time. It’ll share the load of planning and preparing for your child’s birthday party. And it’ll be there at the end of the day to help you think through a tricky life decision.”

It’s safe to expect that Microsoft’s AI competitors are also working on the ultimate AI assistant that users won’t be able to live without. While we’re still far from that reality, Copilot’s next phase will start with a redesigned assistant with new capabilities such as voice and vision. This new Copilot experience is launching today on the web, mobile, and Windows, plus a new Copilot experience that’s rolling out in WhatsApp later today.

Here are the new features you can expect with this new Copilot experience:

Copilot Daily: This feature will offer a personalized summary of news and weather information from partners, which can be read out loud with different voice options. Copilot Daily is rolling out today in the US and the UK, with more countries and personalization options coming soon.

Copilot Voice: Copilot can now talk with four English voices to choose from. Copilot can only do voice chat with users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US for now, with more regions and languages coming soon.

Personalized Discover: The AI assistant can now help users get started with its various features with a new guide and conversation starters. This feature can be customized with users’ personal information, and it can be disabled in Settings. Microsoft is currently working to make it available in Europe and the UK.

Better Microsoft Edge integration: Edge users will be able to access the AI assistant by just typing @copilot in the browser’s address bar.

Think Deeper: This experimental feature is available today via Microsoft’s new Copilot Labs portal, which is only available for Copilot Pro subscribers. When enabled, it will allow the AI assistant to answer more complex questions with step-by-step answers. Think Deeper will roll out today to a limited number of Copilot Pro users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.

Copilot Vision: This is another experimental feature that Microsoft will soon make available via its new Copilot Labs portal. It will let Copilot analyze what users see in real-time on their PC screen or their phone camera and use that information to offer context-based suggestions. Copilot Vision won’t store any personal data, and it also won’t work on paywalled and sensitive content. It will first be available for a limited number of Copilot Pro subscribers in the US.

While this isn’t directly related to Copilot, Microsoft is also expanding access to Bing Generative Search in the US today. The feature is still in development, and puts generative AI results at the top of the search results page, similar to Google’s Search Generative Experience.

“This is the beginning of a fundamental shift in what’s possible for all of us,” Suleyman said today. “It’s a long journey that will take years. With our latest updates to Copilot, you are seeing only the first careful steps in this direction.”