At its 50th anniversary event, Microsoft welcomed us ‘to the era of AI companions’ and showed off intriguing Copilot features it says are the ‘very first glimmers’ of what its AI can do.
As a part of its 50th anniversary celebration this month, Microsoft rolled out several updates to its Copilot AI, including additional vision, shopping, research, and podcast features. But what interested me most was the firm’s discussion of how Copilot will remember what you tell it and offer a more personalized experience, becoming « Your AI Companion. »
These new features are meant for the consumer versions of Copilot, with most things rolling out first on the web version, followed by the iOS and Android apps. Some features are specific to the Windows app, but I was surprised to see that many of the new features are not in that app yet. In passing, Microsoft mentioned some new features for the Microsoft 365 enterprise version of Copilot, but I expect we’ll hear more about that at next month’s Build conference.
In his opening remarks, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked about « democratizing » AI just like it did with the PC. Microsoft is « not defined by what we build, but what we enable others to build », he said. That include a demo of « vibe coding » with GitHub Copilot to recreate the BASIC Interpreter for the Altair in just a few minutes.
« Microsoft started out as a tools company 50 years ago, and is now a platform company where everyone can be a developer », according to Nadella. Upcoming developer tools include agent mode, MCP support, Copilot code review, and tools for building multiple agents.
« Welcome to the era of AI companions and of Copilots », added Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. « Everyone is about to have a world expert in their pocket, a teacher, a creative sounding board, a project manager, a researcher, a chief of staff. It’s a truly magical amount of capability working for you. »
New Copilot features are the « very first glimmers of what this is going to feel like in practice. »
Suleyman showed off Copilot creating « magazine-style cards » that illustrated options for planning a birthday party, and Actions, where Copilot can do things such as buying tickets, making reservations, or ordering a ride home.
