Xbox Cancels Copilot AI Features as New Leadership Shifts Strategy Toward Developer Tools

Your Xbox Won't Get Microsoft Copilot AI Features After All

Microsoft is removing Copilot features from its Xbox mobile app and has canceled plans to bring its AI chatbot to Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. According to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, the previously announced Copilot features no longer align with the gaming brand's recently overhauled plans. It means the end of Copilot integration in the mobile Xbox app, which provided users with advice on how to play, and the end of development for an upcoming console integration. Sharma said in a post on X, "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers." She also explains how new team members, including executives who previously worked on the Microsoft CoreAI team alongside Sharma in her previous role, have moved over to Xbox. Sharma said, "As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." Copilot for Gaming was first announced in 2025, and Microsoft later said it planned to bring it to modern consoles before the end of 2026. The AI integration was to help players interact with an assistant using their voice, including a mode to ask for tips and tricks, reminders about plot points in their current game, and even showing Xbox achievements or recommending new titles based on what they've played previously. Sharma joined the Xbox team in February, following Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer's departure. Since then, we've seen Sharma make sweeping changes to increase Xbox's appeal to gamers, such as reducing a recent price hike for Xbox Game Pass and dropping its "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign. This isn't necessarily the end of AI integrations with Xbox altogether, as Microsoft has spent the last few years finding ways to introduce Copilot into many of its most popular services. However, Xbox is clearly pausing any AI plans to refocus on attracting gamers to its consoles and services.

Xbox will soon be Copilot-free

* Xbox will wind down Copilot on mobile and stop Copilot development for console. * New leadership aims to move Xbox faster, deepen community ties, and fix player/dev friction. * Copilot scale-back echoes Windows changes as Xbox preps Project Helix and a green logo refresh. If you're an Xbox fan, this is definitely good news. Following reports that Microsoft's new Xbox head, Asha Sharma, has hired new Xbox leaders, the leader of all things Xbox at Microsoft has released a brief statement on social media, revealing that, as far as Copilot and AI are concerned, the brand is changing directions. Below is Sharma's full statement posted to X (formerly Twitter): Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers. Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console. Microsoft seems to be backing up its promise to dial back Copilot's integration Sharma is making sweeping changes to Xbox The key takeaway from the statement above is that Copilot is being removed from the Xbox mobile app and that, as far as the brand is concerned, development is ceasing. While Sharma doesn't state it explicitly, it sounds like this also applies to the ROG Xbox Ally X. Back in March, Microsoft revealed that Copilot would run on the Xbox Series X and S, showing how players could use the AI to help them in games. While this sounds like a somewhat novel feature, it likely wouldn't have been integrated into the Xbox Dashboard and the ROG Xbox Ally X's Xbox Mode in an intrusive way, so the fact that work on Copilot's gaming efforts is ending feels like good news, especially as Microsoft gears up to reveal more about Project Helix, its PC-like next-gen console. Given that Sharma shifted to Xbox from being the president of Microsoft's CoreAI product, this is an unexpected move by the recently appointed executive. A few weeks ago, Microsoft confirmed plans to scale back Windows 11's Copilot integration as part of a broader effort to improve the operating system. The tech giant moved uncharacteristically fast to push this plan into action, with minor Copilot features like icons in Windows 11's snipping tool being removed. In other Xbox related news, Microsoft recently launched a minor brand refresh that marks a return to the brand's iconic green logo. Former Xbox leader Phil Spencer retired from the company in February. Microsoft confirms 'Project Helix,' its next-gen Xbox that can also play PC games After months of rumors, it's now clear the tech giant plans to blur the lines between console and PC. Posts By Patrick O'Rourke

Xbox is ditching Microsoft's Copilot AI - Engadget

Microsoft announced plans to start stripping Copilot out of select Windows apps in March after criticism of the company's mishandling of its operating system reached a fever pitch. As it turns out though, Windows isn't the only place where you'll see less Copilot: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has announced that the AI assistant will also be removed from the gaming brand's mobile app and Xbox consoles. Under previous Xbox leadership, Copilot was introduced as a sort of in-game assistant that would be aware of what you're playing and able to offer contextual advice based on what's on your screen. Microsoft launched a beta version of the experience by adding Copilot to the Xbox mobile app in May 2025, but based on a GDC presentation the company gave in March, the plan was to also bring Copilot to Xbox consoles later this year. Those plans apparently "don't align" with where Xbox is headed, Sharma said in a post announcing new hires to the Xbox division. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers," Sharma said. "Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." Before she was tapped to lead Xbox, Sharma was the President of Microsoft's CoreAI division, and several of her new hires are coming from her former team, CNBC reports. That includes Jared Palmer, CoreAI's vice president of product, who's joining Xbox to work on engineering and infrastructure; Tim Allen, CoreAI's vice president of design and research, who'll now lead design at Xbox; and Evan Chaki, a general manager at CoreAI who'll be in charge of a team of engineers tasked with simplifying development. Those hires and Sharma's decision to retire Copilot suggests that AI might not be a big part of the public-facing products Xbox offers, but it could be integrated into how the division is run and the tools it offers to developers. Whether that proves to be positive remains to be seen, but like the recent change to Xbox Game Pass' pricing, it's at least decisive action in Sharma's quest to fix Xbox.

Xbox Project Helix Will Be Stuffed With AIâ€"but Not the Kind You Hate

Xbox lead vocalist Asha Sharma, despite having spent little more than two months on the job, is already singing sweet music to the long-beleaguered Xbox fanbase. In a post to X on Thursday, Xbox CEO Sharma said, “We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.†The CEO, who previously served as president of product on Microsoft's CoreAI team, added that Gaming Copilot doesn’t “align with where we’re headed.†Sharma has been saying all the right things since she took up the helm, and ending Copilot is certainly the right call. But you shouldn't interpret this as a death knell for all AI on Xboxâ€"especially not the upcoming next-gen Project Helix. Xbox Gaming Copilot launched in beta late last year, but Gizmodo’s own tests found it as useless as a sandbag in a porcupine reserve. The AI was supposed to offer guidance during gameplay using AI image recognition and a chatbot interface. But it often failed to understand the purpose of in-game items or to accurately relay default game controls. And it couldn’t offer an ounce of useful advice on how to adjust a game’s graphics settings to fit a device like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. As part of this new anti-Copilot declaration, the nascent Xbox CEO brought a few of her old buddies from her time on Microsoft’s CoreAI team into the fold. That includes the likes of Jonathan McKay, the former growth head of CoreAI, and Tim Allen, previously GitHub's senior VP of design. Jared Palmer, who served as CoreAI’s VP of product and is now Xbox's VP of engineering, wrote on X that he was “focused on building world-class tools, services, and experiences for developers and players across the Xbox ecosystem.†Inevitably, Palmer and Sharma will run headlong into the ongoing debate over when and how developers should use AI. Take Nvidia’s DLSS 5 as an example of how this can go wrong. Nvidia’s use of generative AI to slopify beloved video game characters was mocked by devs and gamers alike. But not all AI is created equally. There’s a mountain of AI-centric features that players won't ever notice when they load up their future console. The big one is AI-enhanced upscaling, in which software takes a frame rendered at a lower resolution, then expands and fills in pixels so it appears to have been rendered at a higher resolution. This enables better performance for demanding games on lower-end systems. AMD, the company developing the next-generation chip for Project Helix, has already shared its work with Xbox on machine-learning-based upscaling. This upcoming “FSR Diamond†will also integrate additional features like ray regeneration, which helps make ray-traced lighting effects look less grainy. The $900 PlayStation 5 Pro and its recent PSSR update are already taking advantage of enhanced upscaling technology from AMD’s latest FidelityFX Super Resolution, aka FSR, models. FSR Diamond will also integrate controversial AI-centric multi-frame generation, which essentially inserts one or several AI-generated frames between two rendered frames. It’s a way to boost overall frame rates, but it also jacks up latency and makes games feel floatier than they should. PC gamers have been far more vocal about “fake frames†than they are about the proliferation of upscaling.

Microsoft's new Xbox chief nixes Gaming Copilot for mobile and console, shakes up leadership

Microsoft is pulling the plug on its AI-powered Copilot assistant for Xbox, winding down the feature on mobile and canceling its planned launch on consoles. The pullback, announced Tuesday by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, comes barely a year after the company debuted the gaming chatbot as a centerpiece of its AI push into gaming, demonstrating the limits of Microsoft's strategy of embedding AI across its product lineup. Microsoft first unveiled Copilot for Gaming at the Game Developers Conference in March 2025, pitching it as an AI sidekick that could offer gameplay tips, coaching, and recaps of where players left off. A beta launched on the Xbox mobile and PC apps and later on the ROG Xbox Ally handheld. The console version was expected to arrive later this year. Sharma's decision to kill the feature aligns with the AI strategy she outlined in an April 30 post on X, where she said Xbox was "refocusing our AI efforts to solving player problems like enhancing real-time graphics, improving discovery, and deepening personalization." She pointed to Automatic Super Resolution, which boosts image quality and performance in the background, as an example of AI done right -- a contrast with the chatbot approach. It's part of a broader set of changes by Sharma, who told employees in a memo Tuesday that she's overhauling Xbox's leadership team, including bringing in executives from the Microsoft CoreAI engineering group where she previously worked. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers," Sharma wrote on X, noting that the company promoted leaders who helped build Xbox while bringing in new voices to the gaming unit. According to CNBC, which saw the memo, the changes include the addition of four executives from CoreAI: * Jared Palmer, formerly a vice president of product in CoreAI and a senior vice president at GitHub, will work on engineering, developer tools, and infrastructure. * Tim Allen, a vice president of design who previously led design and research at Instacart, will lead Xbox design. * Jonathan McKay, a former Meta director and head of growth for ChatGPT at OpenAI, will lead Xbox growth. * Evan Chaki, a general manager, will run a forward-deployed engineering team focused on simplifying development. In addition, David Schloss, a senior director of product and growth at Instacart, will take charge of Xbox's subscription and cloud business. Two execs with more than two decades each at Microsoft are departing: Kevin Gammill, who oversaw Xbox user experience and game development platforms, and Roanne Sones, who led devices and ecosystem and will take a leave of absence before moving to an advisory role. Sharma took over as Xbox CEO in February, replacing Phil Spencer, who retired after 38 years at the company. She had been running Microsoft's CoreAI product organization and previously served as chief operating officer at Instacart and as a vice president at Meta. Since arriving, she has moved quickly, cutting Game Pass prices, dropping the "Microsoft Gaming" name in favor of Xbox, and adopting daily active players as the division's new internal success metric. The changes come as Xbox faces a sustained revenue slump. Gaming revenue totaled $5.3 billion in the most recent quarter, down from $5.7 billion a year earlier, and has declined in four of the past six quarters. Hardware revenue fell 33%. Microsoft's recent 10-Q filing also disclosed impairment charges in the gaming business, meaning the company has written down the value of some gaming assets, suggesting that parts of its gaming portfolio aren't performing as expected. Sharma described the decision to wind down Copilot on mobile and stop its development for consoles as part of a plan to "retire features that don't align with where we're headed." Her post did not address the status of the Copilot beta on the Xbox PC app or the ROG Xbox Ally handheld. The feature drew skepticism from the start. Gaming writer Thomas Wilde called it "a solution looking for a problem" in a March 2025 analysis on GeekWire, questioning whether players wanted an AI chatbot alongside their games. More recently, Wilde raised additional concerns about the feature pulling guide content from the open internet without attribution, writing that Gaming Copilot was "eating its own seed corn" by undermining the ecosystem of online guides it depended on. The feature's full lifecycle, from announcement to cancellation, spanned roughly 14 months.

Xbox CEO just scrapped Copilot AI for consoles -- and I couldn't be happier

The shake-up at Microsoft caught a lot of people off guard. When Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond both stepped away from their roles, it marked a major turning point for Xbox. What came next was even more unexpected: Asha Sharma, formerly leading Microsoft's CoreAI product, stepped in as the new EVP and CEO of Xbox. Since taking over, Sharma has moved quickly to reshape the Xbox ecosystem, and early signs are giving gamers a reason to feel optimistic again. Her initial changes include lowering the price of Xbox Game Pass from $29.99 to $22.99 per month, scrapping the "This is an Xbox" campaign, and rolling out long-requested improvements to the Achievements system. Then came another update. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Sharma teased yet another change, one that pushed fan excitement even higher. And honestly, I felt it too. This was the kind of announcement that makes you start paying attention to Xbox again. Copilot AI on consoles will no longer be a thing Sharma made it clear that further development for Microsoft Copilot AI across mobile and consoles has officially been halted for good. Before its cancellation on those devices, this feature was showcased as an AI assistant that could provide players with in-game tips, make game recommendations and even offer predictions for upcoming Xbox showcases. Gaming Copilot is currently available in the Xbox mobile app, on Game Bar for Windows 11 and across the ROG Xbox Ally family of handhelds. Another major change that Sharma has enacted for the Xbox brand is her appointment of new leaders who will assist her in her mission to make Xbox a powerhouse once again. In a memo detailed by IGN, four of those new roles saw positions filled by Sharma's colleagues from her time spent at CoreAI. Those new Xbox leaders include: * Jared Palmer, the new VP of Engineering at Xbox (former CoreAI VP of product) * Tim Allen, the new CVP of Xbox Design (former CoreAI president of design) * Jonathan McKay, the new Xbox Head of Growth (former CoreAI head of growth) * Evan Chaki will "run a team of forward-deployed engineers that will look to simplify development and end repetitive work" (former CoreAI GM of AI innovation) * David Schloss, the new Xbox Head of subscriptions and cloud (former Instacart senior director of product and growth) Kotaku also discovered a bunch of other changes made to Xbox's most important positions: * Jason Ronald will now be "accountable for Project Helix and the Xbox platform" as the new VP of Next Generation at Xbox (former VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystems) * Jason Beaumont will now lead product and also serve as interim head of engineering (former VP of Xbox experiences) * Fatima Kardar will maintain her position as the corporate VP of gaming AI and fulfill her new responsibilities as the head of a "newly formed Personalization org" that will focus on solving player-facing issues like search and discovery. * Jennifer Creegan will now lead Xbox's media business (former VP of strategy, business model, and insights) The takeaway From my perspective, Sharma has made all the right moves so far to rebuild confidence in the Xbox brand. As an Xbox Series X owner and long-time Xbox Game Pass subscriber, I'm genuinely optimistic about what comes next. With major titles like Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Campaign Evolved and a new Fable reportedly on the way, 2026 is shaping up to be a big year. I'm also hoping Clockwork Revolution makes the cut. Dropping Copilot from the core gaming experience also feels like the right call. While I tested the Gaming Copilot feature on mobile and found its recommendations surprisingly useful, most players simply don't need AI to handle tasks they can easily do themselves. The broader gaming audience hasn't exactly been asking for it. Instead, doubling down on first-party studios and focusing on delivering high-quality games -- not forcing AI into places it doesn't belong -- looks like a smarter long-term strategy. If Sharma and her team stay on this path, Xbox could finally regain some serious momentum. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok.

Gamers Cheer as Microsoft Pulls Copilot AI Out of Xbox Entirely

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech It may finally be starting to dawn on Microsoft that shoving AI in its loyal customers' faces at all costs might not be the right move. Among gamers, who have watched the AI industry's run on computer hardware make PC components horrendously unaffordable in a matter of a year or two, AI has turned more into a derogatory slur than a selling point. Microsoft's Xbox CEO Asha Sharma appears to have taken this new reality to heart, announcing in a Tuesday tweet that the ailing gaming platform would "begin winding down" the company's Copilot AI chatbot on mobile and "development" on console. The response was rapturous, to say the least, with netizens jokingly crowning her as the new Xbox savior. The overwhelming positive reaction to Sharma's announcement highlights a massive growing backlash to AI -- and how swinging the other way can make for an easy PR win. Microsoft has plenty of work left to do in that department. It has quickly established itself as a major target of this backlash, earning it the pejorative nickname "Microslop" for stuffing AI features into its Windows operating system. The company first announced Xbox Gaming Copilot in September, an AI feature meant to provide gamers with walkthroughs or a way to get past challenging levels, while recommending other games. In March, roughly a month after Sharma joined the company, the Xbox team promised that the feature would be rolling out "later this year," drawing derision online. "The AI will continue to impose itself until morale improves," one Reddit user joked at the time. "I'm tired boss," another lamented. Apart from pausing Copilot development for Xbox, Sharma announced that Microsoft would be reducing recent price hikes of Xbox's flagship Game Pass subscription service, another move indicating that the new exec was actively listening to user complaints. The subscription has skyrocketed in price over the last year, alienating countless gamers and putting the business into a precarious position. Despite the latest decision, Microsoft still has clear work to do to undo the damage its AI-uber-alles approach has done. "She has a long way to go to win back consumer goodwill for most Xbox fans, but it is nice to see her making an effort I guess," one user wrote.

Xbox CEO scraps Copilot AI for consoles to refocus the platform on gameplay-first experiences

Microsoft's AI push just hit a surprising pause. Surprisingly, though, this time, it's inside Xbox. The company is officially stepping back from one of its most talked-about gaming features, and the timing says a lot about where things are headed. Why did Xbox cancel Copilot AI for gaming? Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has confirmed that Microsoft is ending development of Xbox Copilot AI across both consoles and mobile. The feature was positioned as an AI assistant to help players with tips, guidance, and in-game support, but it will no longer be moving forward. Since replacing Phil Spencer, Asha's focus has been quite clear: reduce friction, move faster, and double down on what players actually care about. In that context, Copilot did not make the cut. Despite the buzz around AI, the feature simply did not align with the current direction (to no one's surprise). Xbox is now trimming ideas that feel more experimental than essential, especially if they do not directly improve gameplay or the player experience. No more AI side quests, back to the main story This move fits into a much larger reset happening inside Xbox. The company has already dropped the "Microsoft Gaming" branding, reorganized teams, and shifted its focus back to a more player-first identity. And that is where things get interesting. Xbox is not abandoning AI entirely, but it is being far more selective about how it shows up in gaming. Instead of flashy, front-facing tools like Copilot, the focus is likely to shift toward what actually matters moment to moment, like performance, personalization, and developer support. There is a bigger philosophy at play here. Xbox has made it clear that games should stay creative and human-driven. AI can help, but it should never take over or strip away what makes games feel alive. Pair that with recent moves like the Game Pass price drop, and things are starting to look like a step in the right direction. Now all that's left is the one thing every gamer is still waiting for... more exclusives.

Xbox officially kills console's AI chatbot in another big shakeup

Microsoft is halting the development of its AI chatbot Copilot for Xbox consoles, according to recently appointed CEO Asha Sharma. The move comes as part of a continued business shift for Xbox under Sharma's leadership, which looks to "retire features that don't align with where we're headed." The announcement came on a day of shakeups for the Xbox brand. Earlier in the day, IGN reported on an internal leadership shift that moves four members of Microsoft's CoreAI team to Xbox. A few hours later, Sharma shared another update on her X account, announcing that Microsoft is halting its plans to integrate Copilot into Xbox. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers," Sharma said. "Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." Rolled out into beta last year, Gaming Copilot was set to bring AI integration to Xbox consoles and the Xbox mobile app. It was described as a gaming "sidekick" that could essentially act as an on-demand guide system. In theory, players could use it to get tips on how to beat a boss in a game, get game recommendations based on their play history, and more. While Gaming Copilot was in beta for the Xbox gaming app, Windows 11 devices, and the ROG Xbox Ally, it had yet to roll out to consoles. It's a sudden shift for Xbox considering that the company still had plans to roll the tech out as recently as March. While speaking at a panel at this year's Game Developers Conference, product manager Sonali Yandav said, "I'm excited to announce that later this year, we will bring Gaming Copilot to the current-generation consoles, and we will continue to bring it to more services that players are playing," according to a report from GamesRadar. Subscribe to the newsletter for Xbox strategy insight Get the newsletter for focused coverage and analysis of Xbox's strategic moves and product decisions, with clear context on what changes mean for players and developers. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. The shift away from Gaming Copilot is just one of many changes to the Xbox business enacted under Sharma, who took over as CEO after Phil Spencer stepped down from the position in February. Since then, Sharma has spearheaded a rebrand, announced Xbox Project Helix, confirmed that the company is reevaluating exclusivity, and raised internal concerns over the price of Xbox Game Pass, slashing the price of Game Pass Ultimate just weeks later. Related New Xbox CEO says Microsoft will 'reevaluate our approach to exclusivity' Microsoft Gaming is dead, long live Xbox? Posts 5

Newly-appointed CEO Asha Sharma is sunsetting Xbox's wildly unpopular AI tool, Copilot, which was designed to be a gaming sidekick

Xbox's newly-appointed head Asha Sharma is sunsetting the company's Copilot initiative, which was once envisioned as an AI-driven "personal gaming sidekick", designed to offer real-time advice in games such as Minecraft. Writing on social media platform X, Sharma admitted Xbox "needs to move faster", and "deepen [its] connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers". Sharma noted the company had recently announced a wave of promotions within Xbox, along with "new voices" to push the company forward. This includes four of Sharma's former colleagues from Microsoft's CoreAI division. "This balance is important as we get the business back on track," Sharma said. In addition to Xbox's leadership reshuffle, Sharma also announced another major change within the company: the end of its unpopular AI tool, Copilot. The Xbox head said Copilot will be "winding down" on mobile, while its console development will stop. Sharma admitted Copilot did not "align" with the direction Xbox is now headed. Sharma also suggested other features that similarly do not align with Xbox's vision under her leadership could also be retired, though no further details were given at this time. While Copilot is ending, it is worth cautioning that Sharma's statement does not mean Xbox is backtracking on its AI plans altogether. Other companies have similarly discontinued less popular initiatives to move its resources elsewhere, a recent example being OpenAI and its text-to-video AI model, Sora, which it 'said goodbye' to in April. This week's news that Xbox is sunsetting Copilot are just the latest in ongoing changes at the company since Sharma took over from Phil Spencer earlier this year. Sharma has also made changes to Xbox's Game Pass model, scrapped the "This is an Xbox" campaign, and started pointing attention to the next generation of Xbox hardware, so far known only as Project Helix. This hardware will "lead in performance", Sharma said, though when exactly we will see it remains something of a mystery. As Sharma continues work on fixing the Xbox brand image, there is a growing call from the BDS movement to boycott the gaming platform due to parent company Microsoft's reported complicity in Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian population and state.

Microsoft ends Copilot AI on Xbox to help 'get the business back on track,' as new CEO simultaneously welcomes AI executives into the fold

Asha Sharma has appointed a number of her former fellows from Microsoft's CoreAI division to leadership positions at Xbox. A CNBC report says there's been a significant leadership shakeup at Microsoft's Xbox division, and if you're not a fan of AI then you might want to avert your eyes. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who came into the role in February after spending two years as president of Microsoft's CoreAI Product division, has tapped at least four of her former CoreAI fellows for key roles in Xbox leadership. Jared Palmer, formerly vice president of CoreAI (and, prior to that, vice president of AI at AI company Vercel), is the new vice president of engineering at Xbox, and a technical advisor to Sharma. In a memo sent to employees, Sharma said Palmer will work "directly with me on our most complex product and engineering problems, with a focus on developer tooling, taste, and infrastructure." Tim Allen, senior vice president of CoreAI Design, will lead design at Xbox, "bringing together product design, design engineering, research, and creative with a fan-first focus." Former CoreAI head of growth Jonathan McKay will take on a similar role at Xbox, while former CoreAI general manager Evan Chaki will lead a new "forward-deployed engineering group focused on removing repetitive work, simplifying development, and improving how we operate." At least one non-Microsoft executive has also been brought aboard the good ship Xbox: David Schloss, previously the senior director of product growth at Instacart, is now head of subscriptions and cloud at Xbox. "We need to evolve how we work and how we are organized across our platform," Sharma wrote in the memo. "Right now, it is too hard to ship impact quickly. We spend too much time inward instead of with the community, and we lack the depth we need in some of the fundamentals." Palmer confirmed his move on X, where he said he'll be "focused on building world-class tools, services, and experiences for developers and players across the Xbox ecosystem." An Xbox representative confirmed with PC Gamer that the CNBC report is accurate. That's a lot of AI horsepower at the top of Xbox, although I wouldn't read too much into it at this point. Talking about "removing repetitive work" and "ship[ping] impact quickly," whatever that means, certainly has a whiff of the ol' AI will save us, but it's not uncommon for executives taking new roles to bring people they're familiar with along with them -- and that's doubly true in cases where the previous leader's strategy has been discredited and abandoned, as is this case here. And in her own message on X confirming the changes, posted a few hours after the Xbos leadership shakeup was first reported, Sharma suggested that Xbox is actually moving back from its focus on AI, or at least slowing it down. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers," Sharma wrote. "Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. "As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." Ending Copilot AI development on Xbox while simultaneously bringing a bunch of CoreAI guys onto the Xbox leadership team is a surprise twist, and I'm really not sure what to make of it -- except that it could be read as Microsoft being pretty serious about an Xbox turnaround: It recognizes that Xbox customers aren't happy, it's got at least some idea as to why, and it's committed to doing something about it. But it could also be taken as merely going with the broader flow at Microsoft, which has recently dialed back on the presence of Copilot in Photos, Notepad, and other elements of Windows. But Microsoft also recently renamed Office to the "Microsoft 365 Copilot app." Make of it what you will, I guess. Sharma has wasted no time putting her stamp on the post-Phil Spencer Xbox world. Along with ending the maligned "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign, she's also overseen a reduction in Game Pass prices (and services) and acknowledged that Microsoft just doesn't have the juice when it comes to PC gaming; at the end of April, after less than three months in the job, Sharma said "player and revenue growth has not yet met our ambition." Given all that, it's clear that Xbox isn't as dead as Seamus Blackley predicted, but I have no doubt we'll be seeing even more big changes coming in the future.

Xbox to remove Copilot from Xbox under new CEO directive

Microsoft plans to remove its Copilot AI assistant from select Windows applications starting in March due to criticisms over its operating system management. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma also announced the discontinuation of Copilot from the gaming brand's mobile app and Xbox consoles. Copilot was initially introduced as an in-game assistant that provided contextual advice during gameplay. A beta version was incorporated into the Xbox mobile app in May 2025, with intentions to extend it to Xbox consoles later this year. Sharma stated that proceeding with these plans "doesn't align" with Xbox's future direction. Sharma emphasized the need for Xbox to innovate more rapidly, strengthen community engagement, and alleviate friction for players and developers. "Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward," she said. The move signals a shift towards retiring features that do not fit with the brand's strategic focus. Sharma's prior experience as President of Microsoft's CoreAI division is reflected in her recent hiring strategy. New team members include Jared Palmer, Vice President of Engineering and Infrastructure; Tim Allen, Head of Design; and Evan Chaki, who will oversee a team simplifying development for Xbox. While the retirement of Copilot indicates that AI may not prominently feature in Xbox's consumer products, it may still play a role in internal operations and developer tools. Sharma's decisions, including adjustments to Xbox Game Pass pricing, underline her decisive approach to enhancing the Xbox brand.

Microsoft scraps Copilot on Xbox consoles in new business reorientation

TL;DR: Microsoft is retiring Xbox's Gaming Copilot AI to focus on optimization and growth amid declining revenues and hardware sales. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma emphasizes speeding up development, strengthening community ties, and addressing player and developer needs while maintaining Copilot AI features on Windows 11 only. Microsoft is officially retiring Gaming Copilot on Xbox consoles and shifting gears to focus on optimization, efficiency, and growth. Xbox is changing. The division today announced a big corporate shake-up that saw two Xbox veterans leaving the group, and five new hires joining the team, including multiple people from Microsoft's OpenAI teams. Also, a former Instacart exec now leads Xbox's subscription and cloud business. This realignment also sees Microsoft scrapping plans that no longer fit its vision, like Copilot AI integration on Xbox consoles. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma today confirmed that the program is being shut down: "As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." Sharma continues, saying that these cuts will help Xbox focus on the things that really matter to the division: "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers. Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track." Copilot's AI-assisted gaming features weren't all that exciting to gamers, and Microsoft apparently will keep its Copilot gaming AI features available on Windows 11, where they are built in on an OS level. With Xbox's revenues falling -$380 million year over year, and the division delivering its weakest hardware sales of the entire 9th console generation, it's fair to say that Xbox currently has more important things to focus on than nascent AI technology that many of its users may not use anyway. We saw proof of concept of Copilot's AI gaming use case a year ago with a Minecraft demo, wherein a user is led by a voiced AI Copilot on what tasks to do in the game. Sharma, aka the "Xboss," has hinted at the health of the Xbox business, saying that margin expansion has been successful, but revenue and users aren't growing. To help kickstart that, Call of Duty has been moved out of Game Pass, an effort that will hopefully drive up Game Pass subscribers (or reduce churn) while also preserving the front-line value of the shooter franchise by moving it back behind a $70 paywall.

"We need to evolve" - Xbox CEO Asha Sharma shakes up video game division by bringing new AI leads into leadership roles

Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma has announced a major shake-up to the upper management of Microsoft's gaming division, bringing in several new staff into leadership roles. Many of them have come from AI-focused roles. In an internal memo released on Tuesday, Sharma explained the decision as part of a push to revitalise the gaming company, which has struggled in recent years. "We need to evolve how we work and how we are organized across our platform," Sharma wrote. "Right now, it is too hard to ship impact quickly. We spend too much time inward instead of with the community, and we lack the depth we need in some of the fundamentals." What's interesting with these new Xbox staff are the past involvement many (but not all) of them have with AI projects at Microsoft. These new leads, and their former roles, are as follows: Jared Palmer - former CoreAI vice president of product and a senior vice president of GitHub - is joining the technical team and will be involved in matters of "taste" according to Sharma's memo. Tim Allen - formerly a CoreAI vice president of design as well as senior vice president of design and research at GitHub - will lead design at Xbox. Jonathan McKay - previously a director at Meta and head of growth for ChatGPT and OpenAI - will take the role of head of growth at Xbox. Evan Chaki - formerly a general manager at CoreAI - will now run a team of engineers aiming to streamline development at Xbox. David Schloss - once Instacart's senior director of product and growth - is taking the reins of the subscription and cloud departments of Xbox. With these new staff, a few mainstays at Xbox will be leaving or having their roles change. This includes corporate vice president Kevin Gammill, who was working on the Xbox user experience team, who is leaving this role. As is Roanne Sones, corporate vice president for Xbox devices and ecosystem, who will be shifting to a Xbox advisor role after a leave of absence. While many of these new leadership staff have experience in the AI sector, it's worth noting that Xbox has also announced the end of Copilot gaming support development for both Xbox consoles and mobile. While not an outright step back on generative AI as a whole, it does indicate a shift away from the established strategy. This is not the first big shift Sharma has initiated at Xbox. She's refused to rule out exclusive console games, saying she wants to "make the right decision, not the fastest decision". She's written an open letter around the future with Matt Booty, addressing AI fears due to her previous background working with the technology. Sharma has hinted at the memory cost problem and its impact on the upcoming Xbox Helix console, and it leaked internal memos spoken about how Game Pass had gotten too expensive for players.

Xbox Is Getting Rid of Its AI Chatbot. Users Don't Seem to Mind

Seemingly in response to customer complaints about its Copilot feature, Microsoft appears to be scaling back the presence of AI on Xbox. Earlier this week, newly appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced that Gaming Copilot -- a chatbot built into Xbox's mobile and PC gaming apps -- would be discontinued. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers," Sharma posted on X. "As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed." Sharma took over from former Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in February and has already made significant changes including reshaping the company's leadership and scrapping the Microsoft Gaming brand.

Xbox Boss on Microsoft AI: "We will stop development of Copilot on console" - Phandroid

Back in early 2026, Microsoft and Xbox announced that the platform will be bringing new updates to Gaming Copilot for the Xbox mobile app, which will provide interested users with a means to integrate AI into their gaming sessions. That said however, it looks like the company's now shifting gears with regards to its AI strategy for gaming, or rather putting a stop to it. Posting on her official social media page, Xbox boss Asha Sharma announced that Microsoft will end the development of Copilot on its Xbox consoles, in addition to the gradual "winding down" of Copilot for mobile devices. She states: Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers. Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console. As far as the "console wars" are concerned, Xbox hasn't exactly had a smooth ride these past few years especially with competition from Sony's extremely-popular PlayStation 5 series systems. That said, it looks like Microsoft's Xbox division is determined to win back fans following big promises on the platform's future, which includes the upcoming Project Helix system, as well as a major pivot towards its branding strategy, to name a couple. Going back to the new Copilot announcement, it's certainly taken some by surprise given Microsoft's push on its AI services, which itself has received considerable pushback from some users lately. Of course at this point it's too early to tell how Xbox as a whole will move forward, but so far management seems to be saying all the right things, especially for fans.

Microsoft Kills The Copilot AI For Xbox Nobody Wanted

CEO Asha Sharma said the unpopular AI tool doesn't "align" with the gaming platform's mission A Microsoft presentation on Gaming Copilot was my last talk at GDC 2026 before flying back home that night. It laid out ways that the company was trying to use AI and LLM models to improve playing on Xbox. I wrote at the time that the goal of the presentation was to "make gaming AI on Xbox sound less scary to an audience skeptical of its potential." But when I shared a clip online of what it sounds like when you ask Copilot for help in a game like Sea of Thieves, many gamers, including Xbox fans, were immediately repulsed. Less than two months later, Microsoft is killing the initiative. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers," recently appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wrote on X on May 5. "Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." It's the latest popular move by an executive who's moving fast to, in the words of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, "win back fans." It's also an unexpected one coming from a non-Xbox native who joined from Microsoft's CoreAI division. Copilot always seemed like an awkward fit for Xbox, especially after average consumers had already rejected it on PC. It's not clear where that leaves the company's big bets on AI to reshape the economy, but it's a the most notable boondoggle yet that Sharma's thrown in the bin. Xbox isn't abandoning AI entirely. AutoSR, a feature to have hardware automatically optimize performance to achieve better trade-offs between resolution and framerate, just recently rolled out on the ROG Xbox Ally X for users in the Xbox Insider testing program. It's unclear if that will still come to console later this year as previously planned. But AutoSR is a much more obvious fit for the platform as Microsoft tries to figure out what belongs, and what doesn't, moving forward.

The new Xbox boss just gave fans the best news ever | Stuff

Microsoft is ditching the integration of Copilot AI across the gaming platform. The new boss of Xbox has announced that Copilot AI will not be jammed into the console gaming experience and will be put out to pasture on mobile... and can I get a hell yeah? Asha Sharma continued her hot run of form since taking charge of Microsoft's ailing gaming division by ruling out AI infecting the next-generation Xbox console, as well as the current Xbox Series X|S machines. Sharma said the feature is not aligned with where Xbox is heading, and for that we are all very much enthused. In a post on X, she writes: "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers. Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. "As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." You'll also notice Sharma has shaken up the leadership side of the business and in a memo so staff published by CNBC, she wrote: "We need to evolve how we work and how we are organised across our platform. Right now, it is too hard to ship impact quickly. We spend too much time inward instead of with the community, and we lack the depth we need in some of the fundamentals." She said she was "bringing in new leaders with consumer and technical expertise we do not yet have." It has been an impactful few weeks for Sharma, since the announcement she was taking over from long time Xbox platform chief Phil Spencer. She has lowered the price of Xbox Game Pass, returned to the Xbox-focused brand identity and hinted that exclusive first party games may be coming back in house.

Microsoft finally admits everyone hates Copilot: Xbox CEO confirms it's "winding down" Copilot on mobile and ending it on console

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is now addressing reports of major leadership changes at the publisher which see some of her past colleagues at Instacart, Meta, and Microsoft's own CoreAI product stepping in as two 24-year veterans leave their positions. Sharma explains this executive overhaul - Xbox's second upheaval since February, if you count Sharma's own appointment - is only a part of Xbox's metamorphosis, as Microsoft also prepares to scale down its Copilot AI assistant. Like Google's Gemini and other, increasingly intrusive AI bots, Copilot is accessible through most Microsoft products, including as a phone app, and Xbox announced in March that the AI assistant would also arrive on "current-generation consoles" by the end of 2026. So, this is devastating if you wanted a condescending robot to tell you how to walk in Sea of Thieves, but Sharma writes on Twitter that Microsoft "will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." The new CEO unfortunately adopts some The Social Networkian speech while describing her other plans for Xbox - "Xbox needs to move faster," she says, "and address friction for both players and developers" - but I understand her reliance on the old Silicon Valley prayer to "move fast, break things" when observing the current state of Xbox. Quarterly hardware sales are down 33%, overall revenue dropped 9% year-on-year, and Sharma recently worried in an internal memo, "Game Pass has become too expensive for players," before lancing the swelling price tag herself. Xbox, in some ways, is already a broken business - now it needs Sharma to work fast, and she is. Sharma recently made the quick decision to abandon the Microsoft Gaming name and return to "Xbox." Out of apparent commitment to this name and its association with Microsoft as a major console manufacturer, Sharma now explains on Twitter, "Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward." In addition to gathering a crew of new hires, including former ChatGPT leader Jonathan McKay and Instacart senior director of product growth David Schloss, Xbox has promoted Project Helix lead Jason Ronald, The Verge reports. "This balance is important as we get the business back on track," Sharma adds. And about those former AI executives she's recruited despite Xbox dropping Copilot, according to her April 30 tweet, Xbox will instead be "refocusing our AI efforts to solving player problems like enhancing real-time graphics."

Xbox CEO Pulls the Plug on Copilot for Xbox and Honestly Nobody's Mourning

Within months of stepping into the CEO role, Asha Sharma has now axed the Copilot system on console and mobile. The Gaming Copilot, dubbed the new personal AI companion for Xbox gamers, is set to disappear soon, as the new Xbox CEO aims to take Xbox back to its glory days. After years of struggle, Xbox is on the right track under the leadership of Asha Sharma, and 2026 might be its biggest year yet. The new chief has been making drastic changes to Xbox after replacing Phil Spencer, and her latest action is to shut down the troublesome Gaming Copilot on mobile and console. "We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console," said Asha in an X post earlier today. This comes as part of the new shift at the studios, where Xbox pioneers have been promoted. And more new members from the Core AI department have joined in the Xbox revolution. When Asha Sharma, the former president of Microsoft's Core AI product, took charge as the new Xbox CEO in February, every Xbox console owner was concerned about whether the new chief would ram AI down our throats. However, Asha Sharma has been making it clear since day one that there will be no soulless AI slop in the Xbox gaming ecosystem from now on. The new chief has been addressing the issues raised among players and devs. It's great to see that the chief is not just ready to but also actively retiring features that don't align with Xbox's future. Everyone is now praising the cancellation of Gaming Copilot on social media platforms, and not a single soul is mourning the termination. The new CEO strives to strengthen the relationship with the Xbox audience, which is clearly reflected in her latest actions. This is yet another step in the right direction for Xbox to return to its prime. Back in the day, whenever new Xbox news came out, we always knew it was going to be something bad. I, for one, am so glad that those times are behind us now. With the Gaming Copilot for consoles and mobile officially sunsetted, everyone can now let out a sigh of relief. Is it just me, or is everyone feeling like that Thanos resting meme right now? Let us know your thoughts about Xbox finally shelving the Gaming Copilot in the comments below.

GRTV News - Gaming Copilot for Xbox has been cancelled

"Hello everyone and welcome back to another GRTV News, today we're going to be talking a little bit about Xbox. A few different changes have been made in regards to the management decisions of Xbox, a few different leaders have been added to the executive team, but also some changes have been made in regards to what Xbox is looking to offer in the future including more retcons of previous decisions made by the former leadership of Xbox. So there was these plans to bring co-pilot to Xbox as a sort of a complementary way to give gamers an opportunity to use AI to their advantage. We're seeing it with lots of different people using it, I think Razer have an AI companion that can help you with your video gaming." "So yeah, Asha Sharma cancels gaming co-pilot for Xbox before it even launched and she reveals that she has also promoted leaders who help build Xbox which could hopefully mean a more passionate team going forward. The still relatively new head of Xbox, Asha Sharma has been on the job for just over two months and is already shaking up the organisation in a big way, often in a manner that has been well received by fans. And now she's at it again with a move that we think very few will object to. Through social media she has announced that she is restructuring the Xbox team and has promoted leaders who help build Xbox while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. We don't know if this has any connection to the meeting with Xbox creator Seamus Blackley which we reported on the other day but it certainly seems like there will be more passionate Xbox employees moving forward. Sharma also writes that you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed and specifically mentions that she will stop development of co-pilot on console." "As recently as the first half of March, shortly after Phil Spencer stepped down, Microsoft announced the gaming co-pilot feature which was intended to be a sort of digital sidekick while you play. The idea was that you could get AI assistants in, for example Elden Ring or help finding something in Resident Evil Requiem. Now it's clear that the concept is being scrapped before it even got off the ground. Anyone who was worried that former AI chief Asha Sharma would flood Xbox with AI seems to have been way off the mark. As you'll notice, she also writes, begin to retire. So it sounds like this is the first Xbox feature she's scrapping but not necessarily the last." "Now to build on this, we do know some of the executive roles that have been filled. Many of them are from AI teams from Microsoft which is... You know, Asha Sharma's made a lot of good decisions so I don't want to say it's concerning. But when you see so many AI people coming into Xbox, you do start begging the question as to what's going on a little bit." "But I do think this move particularly with scrapping the co-pilot thing is a very smart move. I think that it's for the benefit of players and for the Xbox fans and I think it's for the benefit of the platform as a whole because I don't think we really needed it ever. AI is a brilliant tool for a lot of different reasons and it has such a bright future ahead of it in the ways that it can be utilised. But not by taking away some of the creativity and the core decision making and agency that people have. That's what this is looking to do. Games aren't supposed to be incredibly easy. They're supposed to give you that little bit of challenge and ask you to jump over hurdles and push you. That's what the idea of them are. And if you want the help you can go out and find it but what you don't need is a constant hint system that just answers every question you ever might have. There needs to be that level of taking a step-by-step approach and tackling the situation at hand. So I think this is a terrible idea to ever put or to ever think about bringing a co-pilot feature or a co-pilot companion to help with playing video games. So I'm glad that it's going away but I can't imagine though that Microsoft bringing Ashish Sharma over and Xbox or Microsoft bringing over all these other AI ex-employees and putting them in the Xbox team and then saying that they're completely done with AI's venture into Xbox. There will be more AI stuff. I think it'll perhaps just be used in a different way. Hopefully in a way that benefits consumers. Maybe by really, really tripling down on backwards compatibility or something."

Xbox CEO Pulls the Plug on Copilot for Console, Admits Microsoft's AI 'Doesn't Align' With Xbox

Shortly after the new leadership cabinet for Xbox chief executive officer Asha Sharma was made public, Sharma took to her personal X (formerly Twitter) account to comment on the appointments but also to reveal another change regarding Xbox's direction. Microsoft's Copilot AI, which had been introduced into the gaming ecosystem as Gaming Copilot through the mobile Xbox app and the Xbox PC app, is seemingly something that no longer aligns with platform's direction. "Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers," Sharma began in her statement. "Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed." "We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console." The knowledge of less Generative AI (GenAI) and AI in general in the Xbox platform has, unsurprisingly, been received very positively so far, with plenty of positive responses to Sharma's announcement. It directly countered earlier fears that rose with the reveal of her new hires, since most of them came from her former team on the CoreAI side of Microsoft. Sharma hasn't been in the role long enough to make a mark on Xbox's revenue, but she's more than made a mark on the platform's image, and has definitely walked the walk so far on taking a personal lead to rebrand Xbox. She's only had the job for two months, and already we've seen major changes to Xbox and a new sense of energy shot into the platform, as Sharma looks to set up her tenure for success.

Asha Sharma cancels Gaming Copilot for Xbox before it even launched

The still relatively new head of Xbox, Asha Sharma, has been on the job for just over two months and has already shaken up the organization in a big way, often in a manner that has been well-received by fans. And now she's at it again with a move that we think very few will object to. Through social media, she has announced that she is restructuring the Xbox team and has "promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward". We don't know if this has any connection to the meeting with Xbox creator Seamus Blackley (which we reported on the other day), but it certainly seems like there will be more passionate Xbox employees moving forward. Sharma also writes that "you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed" and specifically mentions that she "will stop development of Copilot on console". As recently as the first half of March (shortly after Phil Spencer stepped down), Microsoft announced the Gaming Copilot feature, which was intended to be a sort of digital sidekick while you play. The idea was that you could get AI assistance in, for example, Elden Ring or help finding something in Resident Evil Requiem. Now it's clear that the concept is being scrapped before it even got off the ground. Anyone who was worried that former AI chief Asha Sharma would flood Xbox with AI seems to have been way off the mark. As you may notice, she also writes "begin retire," so it sounds like this is the first Xbox feature she's scrapping, but not necessarily the last.