Microsoft is revamping its Copilot personal AI assistant with a new design and features including a daily news summary, natural voice interactions, and the ability for the AI to act as a companion when browsing the web.
The release points to its larger vision for consumer artificial intelligence services under Mustafa Suleyman, the DeepMind co-founder and former Google vice president who was named CEO of Microsoft AI earlier this year.
“We are not creating a static tool so much as establishing a dynamic, emergent, and evolving interaction. It will provide you with unwavering support to help you show up the way you really want in your everyday life, a new means of facilitating human connections and accomplishments alike,” Suleyman wrote Tuesday morning.
Microsoft faces the difficult challenge of standing out in a field where core AI features are becoming table stakes, competing against the likes of Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT, from its partner, OpenAI.
But like the Microsoft 365 Copilot service specifically for businesses, the company has the advantage of using its existing platforms to increase the use of Copilot for personal use. Copilot is available from the Windows taskbar, with dedicated hardware keys on modern laptops and Windows keyboards, and from the sidebar of the Microsoft Edge browser.
Starting today, Microsoft is releasing the new Copilot interface and features in its apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and the Copilot web portal.
Two new features stand out:
Copilot’s voice is designed for easier conversations, more powerful conversations, faster responses and more user power. to interrupt and restart the conversation.
Copilot Daily is an audio feature that provides users with a daily report, including news, weather and other information to start the day.
Microsoft says it is working with Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst Magazines, USA TODAY Network and the Financial Times on the Copilot Daily feature and plans to add more news sources over time.
The company said it will pay its production partners, but did not disclose specific financial terms. Microsoft cited its revenue sharing with publishers through MSN as an example of its work with news media.
In addition, the company says it will launch Copilot Labs, where users will have access to test features before the general release. Two features were announced under this umbrella: Microsoft Copilot features
Copilot Vision allows an AI assistant to view and interpret content on a computer screen and provide assistance and suggestions. (This is similar to a new AI model announced by the Allen Institute for AI last week.)
Think Deeper is a mode designed to handle more complex questions. It takes extra time to provide detailed answers for difficult situations such as comparing different options or dilemmas faced by the user.
Microsoft is making Copilot Labs available to users of its $20/month Copilot Pro subscription service.
The company also made a series of announcements related to new Copilot+ PCs, including improved Windows search capabilities, the ability to upscale image resolution in the Photos app, and a preview of a feature called “Click to Do,” which puts an overlay on the screen to suggest quick actions that the user can take.
The flagship feature of Copilot+ PCs, Recall, was delayed due to privacy and security concerns, which the company sought to address in an announcement last week. Memory is now scheduled to be released to Windows Insiders in October for Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, and in November for Intel- and AMD-powered Copilot+ PCs.
