Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary with a significant expansion of Copilot’s capabilities, introducing several new features that position the AI chatbot as a formidable competitor to ChatGPT and Gemini. These enhancements transform Copilot from a simple assistant into a proactive digital companion capable of performing complex tasks.
Here’s a detailed look at the eight major new features coming to Microsoft Copilot:
- Copilot Actions allows the AI to complete tasks on your behalf across various websites. This functionality enables Copilot to book event tickets, make dinner reservations, and even send gifts to friends. Microsoft has partnered with popular platforms including Booking.com, Kayak, Expedia, OpenTable, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Viator, and Vrbo to enhance this feature’s reach.
- Copilot Vision transforms your smartphone camera into an information-gathering tool. By analyzing what your camera sees, Copilot can provide relevant information about objects in view. For example, pointing your camera at a plant might yield care recommendations or identification details. This feature works with both live camera feeds and existing photos or videos from your camera roll, and is available on both Android and iOS.
- Windows Integration expands Copilot’s functionality across the Windows operating system. The native Copilot app can now work seamlessly across multiple applications, tabs, and files without requiring users to switch contexts. Accessing Copilot is simple with the Alt+Space keyboard shortcut, and voice commands can be activated by holding these keys for two seconds.
- Memory and Personalization enables Copilot to remember important details from previous conversations, such as your preferences for food, entertainment, and other personal choices. This cumulative knowledge allows for increasingly personalized interactions over time, including tailored suggestions and timely reminders. Microsoft emphasizes that users maintain control over what information is stored.
- Custom Appearance lets users personalize how Copilot presents itself. This customization extends to nostalgic options, with Microsoft specifically mentioning the possibility of bringing back Clippy, the beloved (or notorious) assistant from earlier Office versions.
- Pages helps organize scattered information into coherent collections. This feature can gather notes, content, and research into a unified canvas, supporting the entire creative process from initial drafting to final edits.
- Podcasts feature creates AI-generated audio content based on your interests and research. Similar to Google’s NotebookLM functionality, this feature can transform written content into listenable formats. Users can have Copilot compare vacation options or summarize website content in an audio format, making information consumption more flexible.
- Shopping Assistance turns Copilot into a digital retail companion. Beyond basic product research and comparison, the AI can provide shopping advice, alert users about price drops, and even complete purchases directly within the app.
Apart from that, Microsoft introduced two further significant enhancements. Deep Research feature will make Copilot capable of executing broad internet queries, search very long documents and images, and provide in-depth reports on topics. That is somewhat replicated in functionality with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Finally, Copilot Search in Bing integrates AI results in Microsoft’s own search engine. Similar to Google’s AI summary, the integration will provide users with results in the form of comprehensive answers to search queries with the appropriate citations. Microsoft says the feature is being rolled out gradually and may not be available to everyone right away.
These features embody Microsoft’s focus on advancing the technology of AI assistants while keeping users firmly in control of personal information. As these features roll out, Copilot will be able to be increasingly integrated into users’ lives, performing increasingly sophisticated tasks between devices and platforms.
That the announcement comes on the company’s 50th anniversary is reflective of the company’s unrelenting pursuit of innovation and its vision for the application of AI-based computing in the future.
