In the age of AI, LLM-based services offer countless possibilities. Big tech companies are trying to make things less overwhelming and more user-friendly by developing AI-powered assistants that you can talk to, ask questions to, and request actions from. Google has Gemini, OpenAI has ChatGPT, and Microsoft has Copilot. Now, Microsoft has announced a redesigned Copilot with several new features.
Microsoft’s redesigned Copilot assistant is more powerful and intuitive
For many, starting with AI can be overwhelming. The experience is similar to when you first accessed the Internet. There are so many possibilities that you don’t know where to start. Assistants like Copilot allow you to harness the power of AI without having to know everything that’s behind it. Companies want you to forget about prompts and talk in natural language with their assistants. They also want the UI of their services to be as accessible as possible.
Microsoft’s redesigned Copilot aims to both make things easier and offer a more powerful experience. Microsoft took advantage of the expertise of Inflection AI staff to create a completely new UI in which cards are the protagonists. Now, instead of just a screen with a field to write prompts, Copilot will offer a whole personalized home screen with recommendations. The recommendations will be based on people’s habits, routines, and daily use.
Now with advanced conversational and visual capabilities
With Copilot Voice, Microsoft enhanced its assistant’s conversational capabilities. The Redmond giant is one of the largest investors in OpenAI, so they have access to certain technologies. This has enabled the company to equip Copilot with advanced conversational capabilities similar to those of ChatGPT. In other words, you can have natural conversations with the assistant and even interrupt it while it responds. Users will be able to choose between four voice tone options to suit their tastes.
The redesigned Copilot also brings improved “visual” capabilities with Copilot Vision. Users will now have the ability to let the assistant “see” the content on their screen, allowing them to ask related questions. You can combine this feature with Copilot Voice for a seamless and smooth experience. For example, you can tell the assistant to search for a particular product. You can also request that it search for similar product options.
Microsoft demonstrated a particular use case for Copilot Vision. The company showed photos of handwritten recipes, in which the assistant identified the food and provided how long it would take to cook it.
It’s noteworthy that Copilot Vision’s capabilities work entirely offline. The assistant will not upload the images it “sees” from your browsing sessions to the cloud. Additionally, sessions are ephemeral, swiftly disappearing from your computer’s storage once you are done. If you don’t already trust Copilot Vision, you can choose not to use it at all, as it’s optional. Microsoft is especially careful about privacy and trust following the big backlash that Windows Recall received.
Additionally, not all websites will support Copilot Vision. Microsoft is working individually with e-commerce platforms to support Copilot’s visual capabilities in a safe manner. Copilot also won’t work on pages with payment and sensitive data fields. A new “Copilot Daily” feature acts like an AI-powered newscaster. The assistant will offer you a voice summary of the most important news stories in the style of a TV presenter. At first, it will only support Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst, and Financial Times as sources.
“Think Deeper” enables more complex answers
If you’re looking for more complex answers, Microsoft has you covered too. “Think Deeper” enables the assistant to spend more time responding to your requests, resulting in an output that provides more detailed answers to complex questions. It’s especially useful when making comparisons that require considering multiple parameters. For example, if you want to move and are unsure between two specific locations, “Think Deeper” will first be available experimentally through Copilot Labs.
You can try out the redesigned Copilot experience on your PC or smartphone right now. You can access it from the mobile app, from copilot.microsoft.com, or from the Copilot for Windows app. There are some features that won’t be available to everyone, though. The advanced conversational experience will be accessible in English in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Meanwhile, the AI-powered newscaster will be available in the US and UK. Lastly, Copilot Vision will reach select Copilot Pro subscribers in the US.
