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While Microsoft’s Copilot may be most familiar as an officemate right now, the tech giant wants its AI assistant to be of more use off the clock, too.
At a 50th anniversary event in Redmond, Washington, this week, Microsoft touted a slew of consumer-focused improvements to its Copilot product, including personalized memory and the ability to help with tasks like shopping and booking reservations.
Copilot will also have more integration with Bing search and Deep Research, and custom podcast generation—Microsoft suggests creating a podcast to digest information on a “vacation plan or home purchase,” for instance.
Despite making early headway into consumer AI with Bing search and its OpenAI partnership, Microsoft’s enterprise dominance has meant a heavy workplace focus for Copilot thus far, as Microsoft has woven the assistant across its productivity software suite. Much of its branding has focused on business-centric uses.
But the company has been working to shore up the consumer side as well. Last year, it poached former Inflection CEO Mustafa Suleyman and many of his startup colleagues to bring their know-how developing emotionally intelligent chatbots to Microsoft’s consumer AI business (Inflection has since pivoted to enterprise).
Microsoft’s decision to put the consumer chatbot front and center at its golden anniversary event may also speak to how much of a priority it is for the company.
Speaking at the Microsoft HQ event this week, Suleyman said he eventually envisions every Copilot being molded by the memory it has of each user, and even a unique visual form and name. He demonstrated some early work that Microsoft is doing on cartoonish avatars that might be the customizable face of each user’s Copilot.
“Ultimately, I think there are going to be as many Copilots as there are people using them. Each is going to have its own style and tone and, of course, its own name.”
Patrick Kulp
Bill Gates sought to position Copilot as the next big chapter in the company’s 50-year history.
“We’re forging our way to the ultimate vision of the computer as almost your companion,” Gates said on stage.
Constant companion: While Microsoft’s 50th anniversary press materials never mention the word “agent,” the new Actions features seem to draw from the same well as its workplace agents. Actions can be anything from booking concert tickets or dinner reservations to sending “a thoughtful gift to a friend.”
Actions also seem to be focused heavily on the travel space, judging from the list of launch partners, which includes 1-800-Flowers, Booking.com, Expedia, Kayak, OpenTable, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Viator, and Vrbo. Travel is an appealing target for consumer-focused agents, but Priceline CEO Brett Keller has previously said that the “ultimate agentic flow” will be trickier to pull off than it might seem.
Another area seen as ripe for AI helpers is shopping, where companies like Amazon, Perplexity, and Google are all offering tools. Microsoft said Copilot’s updated shopping features will track price drops and sales, offer advice, and compare products.
Microsoft is also expanding Copilot Vision to Windows and mobile, further integrating Copilot and Bing search, and offering a podcast generation tool to compete with products like Google’s NotebookLM.
“Years ago, Bill laid out a bold ambition, which at the time probably felt like a pretty crazy dream, to put a PC on every desk and in every home,” Suleyman said. “Today, we’re creating a Copilot for everyone.”