Microsoft Copilot - Your everyday AI companion

Microsoft announced new AI features and products in its September event. Microsoft Copilot will be unified across Windows 11, Microsoft 365, Bing, and Edge, as well as new Surface devices. The unified Copilot will incorporate context from the web, your work data, and what you’re currently doing on your computer to provide you with better assistance.

What's going on here?

Microsoft is unifying its AI capabilities into an AI assistant called Microsoft Copilot that works across its products.

What does this mean?

Microsoft is releasing an AI assistant named Copilot that will be integrated across many of its products. Copilot uses context about the user and their work to provide personalized help. It will roll out first in Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and Bing/Edge products starting this fall.

Copilot aims to simplify complicated tasks and reduce cognitive load. It can assist with app usage, content creation, shopping, web searches, and more. Microsoft highlights new AI capabilities coming to Paint, Photos, Notepad, Snipping Tool, and other apps in Windows 11 to enable intelligent editing.

Bing and Edge will offer advanced AI for personalized search results, shopping, and image creation. Bing also integrates DALL-E 3 for higher-quality AI image generation.

For enterprise users, Microsoft 365 Copilot debuts as a standalone chatbot plus integrations with Office apps to automate work. It uses Microsoft Graph to understand organizational data and relationships. Microsoft 365 Chat specifically helps with time-consuming tasks like writing, scheduling, and email triage.

Why should I care?

Copilot brings easy access to advanced AI right in the workspace. It handles repetitive tasks so you can focus on high-value work. Windows 11 aims to be the destination for the best AI experiences on a PC. For consumers, Copilot could enable easier content creation and shopping. For enterprises, it may improve employee productivity and collaboration. However, appropriate use and privacy controls will be important with such a pervasive assistant.