Key insights
- Microsoft introduces new Copilot features such as Copilot Voice for natural conversations.
- Copilot Daily provides news and weather summaries in your chosen language with personalized options.
- Personalized Discover uses user data to suggest activities, while Copilot Labs offers experimental features.
We've heard rumors and rumors about Microsoft revamping Copilot, but we didn't know all the details. Luckily, Microsoft has given us all the information about its plans with its AI assistant. It turns out that the Redmond giant has a lot of features hidden under its sleeves, and now it's ready to unveil all the new features that you can try out right now.
Microsoft is introducing a ton of new Copilot features that are available now
Image credit: Microsoft
In the press release, Microsoft reveals what we have been suspecting for a few days. The plan is to make Copilot less of a teacher and more of a personal assistant:
For Copilot, this means taking the first steps toward creating an AI companion that will always be by your side and in your corner, helping you feel smarter and more supported through natural conversations. As we take the first steps on this journey, we're updating the core experience and adding a variety of new features.
So what does Microsoft have in store for this new “AI Companion” plan? Let's dive in.
A full list of all new Copilot features is now available
Image credit: Microsoft
First, Microsoft adds Copilot voice. This feature gives the AI companion a choice of four different voices, making it feel less like a robot and more like a real person. This is likely Microsoft's way of pushing the idea of letting people have “natural conversations” with the bot. It is currently only available in English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Next up is a feature we suspected Microsoft was building into its AI assistant: Copilot Daily. There's a trend emerging in the AI space where companies are turning their AI bots into glorified news readers rather than passive assistants, and it seems Microsoft wants in on it with Copilot Daily:
Copilot Daily helps you start your morning with a roundup of the news and weather, all read in your favorite Copilot voice. More options like reminders are coming soon. It's an antidote to that familiar feeling of information overload. Clean, simple and easy to digest. Copilot Daily only uses authorized content sources. We work with partners such as Reuters, Axel Springer and Hearst Magazine and plan to add more sources over time. We will be adding more personalization and controls to Copilot Daily over time.
This feels like assistants on your phone, adding a weather forecast and reminder breakdown to your alarm, in addition to leveraging AI's ability to quickly summarize data to create a newsfeed for users. It will be interesting to see how good this news is, considering that Microsoft suggests that it refers to a select whitelist of sources. Rollout of this feature begins today in the US and UK, with additional countries to follow later.
Next we have Personalized discovery. This seems like a way to get started with Copilot if you're not sure what you can do with it. Microsoft says it can see what you've done on other Microsoft services “with your permission” to get an idea of what you want to achieve.
Copilot in Microsoft Edge receives a slight functional optimization. The company says it will behave essentially as it always has, except that with this update you'll be able to access it by typing @copilot in the address bar.
Copilot Labs is a new Copilot Pro benefit that allows people to try out some experimental features for the AI assistant. Next week, Microsoft hopes to deploy two features in the labs: Copilot visionthat can analyze your desktop or photos to help you make decisions, and Think deeperwhich supposedly helps Copilot solve complex tasks like math problems. Copilot Vision will come “in the future,” while Think Deeper should be available starting today.