Microsoft’s newest artificial intelligence-powered tool, dubbed Windows Copilot, is set to debut in a Windows preview version this summer. With an easy-to-spot blue ribbon icon in the task bar, users will be able to access a simple chat interface, enabling functions like switching to dark mode and executing complex tasks with the help of AI. With this addition to Windows, Microsoft is bringing the power of AI to millions of users around the world, a development CEO Satya Nadella believes is as consequential as the arrival of the internet and the iPhone.
Google has adopted a different approach, restricting its chatbot technology to its Bard software and implementing it more subtly within other services such as Gmail and search. However, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s marketing chief for consumer products, promotes the idea that AI is most efficient when integrated with mainstream tools. He believes that Microsoft’s Copilot will help make AI much more accessible and consumer-friendly, allowing users to ask questions and receive search-like answers in a single place.
Moreover, Microsoft is making AI features available for its Office suite of productivity tools and introducing plugin technology for its Bing and Windows Copilot software. OpenAI, which Microsoft has partly funded, is providing the powerful language processing technology that powers the Copilot feature. As evidenced by the introduction of AI-boosted search results and chatbot to Bing, usage of this search engine has broken the 100 million user mark.
The company’s marketing chief also believes that the Windows Copilot will help address a common user interface issue – the difficult task of figuring out how to set up various features like snapping a window to one side of the laptop screen. With this AI, users can now simply type their request and get a fast response.
With AI at the heart of Microsoft’s core products, use of this technology is becoming increasingly common. This widens the potential applications of intelligent tools, such as Adobe’s recent release of a Photoshop beta version that generates imagery with the help of AI. Together, these developments are making AI an integral part of major tech products, and set the stage for more advanced AI tools and Artificial Intelligence applications in the near future.
