Microsoft Unveils Ambitious Upgrades to Copilot: Your New AI Companion

Windows Copilot aims to be your best friend forever, but can you trust it?

If you're someone who was upset about Windows Recall, look away now. Microsoft Copilot is more than just a tool-it's designed to learn your preferences and tastes, and even anticipate your needs by buying stuff. Whew! That's a big concept to try and get your head around. But that's what Microsoft is trying to do, as it transitions to the next stages of its Copilot assistant. We've used the term "assistant" rather loosely over the past few years. In part, that's due to the aspirational marketing of companies like Google and its "Google Assistant," which has provided answers to spoken questions and not much more. And we will tolerate those machines anticipating some of our preferences: autofilling commands, suggesting movies, and even automatically ordering refills as we run out of ink or milk. Knowing that we typically order orange chicken over chow mein? OK, fine. Microsoft's, um, thinking different. It wants to proactively offer you reminders and suggestions. How? By assigning a Copilot a "memory": your nephew's birthday and what gifts he might like, the foods you enjoy, and what movies you like. It all sounds very much like an advertising profile, and that's probably what it is. And if Microsoft's Copilot starts to recognize you as a person, Microsoft hopes you might begin to think of Copilot as a unique individual, too. "As we explore the full range of what true personalization means, we are experimenting with new ways for you to interact with your Copilot," Microsoft said. "For example, what if your Copilot had an appearance and you could shape and form it to be whatever you want? We're early in this thinking, but soon you'll have the ability to personalize Copilot and interact with your AI companion in a fun way while it offers advice and support when you want it. You can strike up a conversation with Copilot and now have an entertaining appearance that's unique to you." Creepy? Well, let's put it this way: someone will use that term. But there's more. Microsoft would like Copilot to finally realize its agentic aspirations. Remember how ChatGPT was supposed to search out an open table at your favorite restaurant? Through partnerships with 1-800-Flowers.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Kayak, OpenTable, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Viator, and Vrbo. Microsoft wants to make that a reality. Not only will it know what flowers your wife likes, but it could remember her birthday and order some, too. "Use simple chat prompts to ask Copilot to book event tickets, grab dinner reservations, or send a thoughtful gift to a friend, and it will check that task off your list," Microsoft said in a blog post. It's unclear, however, how much Microsoft will allow Copilot to actually make transactions on your behalf. In the demonstrations Microsoft showed, the user always made the final purchase. Whether that will end up being the case is anyone's guess. Microsoft does already have some shopping skills, however, since it has the ability to track prices and alert you during a key sale. Those sorts of agentic actions would be handy during the closing seconds of an eBay bidding war. For some users, none of this will matter. Microsoft took pains to reassure users that they could control which types of information Copilot remembers about them and even opt out entirely. But anyone who's simply clicked and clicked and clicked again through the dozens of screens that make up the setup process in a Windows PC probably knows that it's rather easy to simply hurriedly agree to Microsoft slurping up your personal data. Those users will probably remember Recall, the Microsoft indexing tool that constantly snapped photos of your desktop before archiving them and allowing you to search the results. (Recall was revamped and then re-released for Copilot+ PCs.) Even though Recall and the updated Copilot are two different things, some users are sure to see the updated Copilot as additional evidence of Microsoft trying to intrude in your privacy, once again. "Every day we hear the most incredible stories about the many and varied ways people enjoy Copilot," Mustafa Suleyman said. "So, as we continue on our journey to create a Copilot for everyone, we're focusing on one critical goal: to make it truly yours. Each will have its own unique style and blend of attributes that distinctly suit each and every one of us. All the while, we'll stick to our core promise. You remain in control; you are the pilot, and you make the calls and set the boundaries." That sounds promising, but your memory probably goes back a year or two when Microsoft debuted Bing Search, then Copilot, and weathered a firestorm of highly personable Microsoft chatbots doing strange things like inquiring about the status of a person's marriage. Now Copilot is about as bland as it can be. So can the new Copilot walk the line between a companionable assistant and one that tries just a little too hard to be your friend? History says no. But Microsoft sounds like it wants to take a shot at it. Hold on tight.

I didn't care about Copilot, but this massive upgrade could make Microsoft's AI the personal assistant I've always wanted

Let me preface this by saying, that when I say I don't care about Copilot, I mean it. I've not owned a Windows PC since 2006, and I've never even installed the Copilot app on my Mac, iPhone, or even Android device. I write about AI for a living, but there are very few AI tools I actually use in my daily life. Usually, I test them for work, come up with article ideas, and write about experiences with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini - but I rarely use AI in my spare time. Microsoft's Copilot is an AI tool that I've neglected, not only in my home life but also at work. I rarely cover Copilot, and when I do it's usually just a brief news story here or there. Anyways, you get the idea Copilot just isn't really an AI chatbot that was on my radar. But after Microsoft's 50th Anniversary Copilot Event, that's all changed. Copilot is often seen as a business tool rather than a consumer product. So much so, in fact, that I fully expected Microsoft's Copilot event to center around business use and barely touch on what that means for a consumer. I couldn't have been more wrong. At Microsoft's event today, the company showcased a new vision for Copilot, which it now calls 'Your AI Companion', and I think it's time I take notice. Today, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, Microsoft highlighted that the company's future is very much counting on software like Copilot, and that's a very exciting thing. The company announced major upgrades to the AI chatbot including a memory, similar to that found in Gemini and ChatGPT, meaning Copilot will learn important information about you. Microsoft says Copilot can now "learn who you are deeply." In a blog post announcing the new features, CEO of Microsoft AI Mustafa Suleyman said, "With your permission, Copilot will now remember what you talk about, so it learns your likes and dislikes and details about your life: the name of your dog, that tricky project at work, what keeps you motivated to stick to your new workout routine." Elsewhere Copilot is getting vision, giving the AI on-screen awareness in Windows and access to your camera in mobile apps similar to Apple's Visual Intelligence or Google's Lens. Microsoft announced much more at today's event, and you can read about it all in detail here. It's the agentic capabilities called "Actions", however, that really stand out and make me interested in giving Copilot a shot at becoming my daily AI driver. My dream AI scenario is a personal assistant that does the mundane in my life so I can focus on the things that matter. Whether it's filling out calendar entries, telling me when to leave for an appointment, or booking my next beard trim, I want AI to alleviate a little bit of the stress of life so I have one less thing to think about. Apple Intelligence-powered Siri looked like my ideal scenario when it was showcased at WWDC 2024, but with WWDC 2025 fast approaching we've still not seen a tech demo to prove it's actually capable of what's advertised. Today, Microsoft's Copilot announcement with an emphasis on an AI companion piques my interest and makes me wonder if the company to fulfill my AI want will ultimately be the Seattle tech giant. It's hard to know for sure, considering I've not tested any of the newly announced Copilot features yet. But you better believe the first thing I'm going to do as soon as Copilot's update is available, is use it in my daily life. I want to leave you with another quote from the CEO of Microsoft AI. He said, "The important point is that throughout Copilot is more than an AI, it's yours. It remembers not just what you said, but who you are. Copilot helps you stay organized, think clearly, and learn more intuitively." I've been burnt before by putting trust in AI marketing campaigns but Microsoft's Copilot announcements today make me excited for the future, and I can't wait to see if it can live up to the billing.