To celebrate its 50th anniversary Microsoft has updated its Copilot platform to include new features to make AI even more useful and personal.
Microsoft has gone well beyond its goal of putting a PC in every home and every desk in half a century and today it has bigger ambitions with its Copilot AI companion.
Microsoft’s approach with AI is to make it more personalised and built around a user’s needs and values so it can meet and hopefully exceed their expectations.
But the beauty of Copilot is that customers are using it in their own way and personalising it to their many and varied needs.
New Copilot features will now help you remember and personalise things, take action, be more aware of your surroundings, help you create and edit content as well as helping you with your research and your shopping.
All these features will be rolled out in the coming weeks and months.
MEMORY AND PERSONALISATION
Remembering things is an important skill for a real AI companion and with Memory Copilot can remember things like favourite foods, the films you like, birthdays and other interests.
This means that as you interact with Copilot it will take note of your preferences and build up a richer profile and offer solutions to suit your taste as well as providing timely reminders.
Naturally, Copilot respects your security and privacy and offers the user complete control to choose exactly what type of information you want it to remember about you. You can even opt out entirely.
ACTIONS
A key new feature is Copilot’s ability to act on your behalf.
Copilot can complete tasks behind the scenes like booking event tickets, making dinner reservations or sending a thoughtful gift to a friend or relative.
And once it’s done that it will tick it off your To-Do List.
Copilot it is working with a number of websites and brands across the internet including launch partners like booking.com, Expedia, Kayak, OpenTable and TripAdvisor.
COPILOT VISION
Vision is a new feature in Copilot that is now coming to mobile and Windows that utilises your phone’s camera to interact with the world around you.
Using the Copilot app on your smartphone, users can look at their surroundings and request information, guidance and ideas for what they can do.
A new native Windows app will also allow you to summon Copilot while working across multiple applications, browser tabs or files.
It will be able to read the screen and interact with the content to help you.
The native Copilot app on Windows is available now while Vision will be available first for Windows Insider starting next week and be rolled out even further in the weeks ahead.
PAGES
Another new skill for Copilot is offering users a way to organise mind dumps, notes, content, research and thoughts and content into an organised canvas.
Copilot can then help you organise this information including helping you produce your first rough draught all the way through to your final edit.
PODCASTS
Copilot can also generate AI-powered podcasts to deliver information in a personalised audio format.
Copilot can create a podcast to deliver the results of a query like analysing and comparing options with a vacation or a home purchase.
It can also produce podcasts that you can listen to so it can explain a topic or an area of interest or help you explore a new hobby in an easy to digest form.
SHOPPING
You’ve heard of personal shoppers – now Copilot is yours and it can do the research and even create comparisons and offer advice before you make your final decision.
It will also tell you if the price has dropped or if any sales have started and even allow you to purchase directly from the app.
DEEP RESEARCH
Deep Research is a new feature that allows you engage in complex and multi-step research tasks more efficiently.
Copilot can find, analyse and combine information from online sources or large documents and images.
COPILOT SEARCH
Copilot has combined with Bing to transform web search and bring traditional and generative search results into the same list.
Copilot search can cross check information from multiple sites to ensure accuracy and comprehensive responses directly in Bing as well as citing sources and suggestions if you require further exploration.
