- Microsoft officially unveils Copilot for Windows 11.
- The AI experience will be available starting on September 26, 2023, as part of the Windows 11 23H2 update.
- In addition, the company said that many inbox apps will get AI features, including Paint, Photos, Outlook, and Clipchamp.
- Also, Microsoft 365 Copilot will be available on November 1 for enterprises.
- Bing Chat received several updates, including integration for DALL.E 3 and improved shopping experience.
Microsoft has officially announced the new “Copilot” experience for Windows 11. In addition to the new icon and an interface with minor refinements (from the previous Insider previews), the company said that its new AI companion will be available starting on September 26, 2023, as part of the new Windows 23H2 (2023 Update) features. The chatbot is also expected to be available on Microsoft 365 apps and services, Outlook, and Microsoft Edge (formerly Bing Chat on the browser).
It’s important to make the distinction that Microsoft is officially referring to it as “Copilot,” not “Windows Copilot,” like in the version available through the Windows Insider Program. Also, the company describes the experience as a feature that “uniquely incorporates the context and intelligence of the web, your work data, and what you are doing at the moment on your PC to provide better assistance,” putting your privacy and security at the forefront.
On Windows 11, Copilot is a flyout interface that slights in from the right side when clicking the new button in the Taskbar or using the “Windows key + C” keyboard shortcut. Once in the interface, the experience is consistent across applications and doesn’t overlay on top of other applications. Instead, it pushes the content on the screen to the left, allowing you to interact with the assistant without obscuring existing apps.
Furthermore, in addition to getting complete answers from virtually any topic and the ability to change settings, you will be able to set permissions to allow the AI assistant to access information from your documents, calendars, emails, and data points to help draft different content, including emails.
In other scenarios, the chatbot will reveal itself when needed with a right-click, such as on apps like Outlook and Word.
Copilot AI features for inbox apps
Across the desktop, the company is also updating many of the inbox apps with AI features. For example, the Microsoft Paint app will have the “Creator” feature that uses AI to create images and remove the background from pictures with a single click.
The Photos app will use Copilot AI capabilities to allow you to blur the background on images, and the technology will also be used to search and find images on OneDrive based on the content of the pictures.
On the other hand, the Snipping Tool will integrate OCR (optical character recognition) technology with AI to intelligently extract text from a screenshot and redact text to prevent sharing sensitive information on a screen capture.
Furthermore, an update will also be available for the Clipchamp app, known as auto-compose, an AI feature that will review the videos and quickly suggest filters that will fit your project and other things like highlighting the best moments, inserting transitions, music, and filling up gaps.
The new Copilot feature will be powered by GPT version 4 from OpenAI, but depending on how you use the chatbot, it can use other versions of the technology. For instance, if you change the conversation style from the flyout, Copilot may use a lower version of GPT to respond to a query.
Although it takes a lot of computing power to respond to every query, it appears that Copilot will be available as a free addition to Windows 11. At the time of this writing, Microsoft isn’t sharing details on whether the future will include a paid version of the chatbot or if it’ll be supported with complementary advertisements.
The Copilot version for consumers will be available on September 26 as the feature that will permanently replace the Cortana assistant, while the Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise customers will be available as a paid addon on November 1, 2023, alongside the Microsoft 365 Chat, which is the new digital assistant for workers.
Microsoft says it will continue to add capabilities and connections to Copilot across to the most-used applications over time in service.
Bing Chat AI changes
In related news, Microsoft has also announced some improvements to the Bing Chat experience on the web, including personalized answers, the integration of DALL.E 3 mode, and AI integration shopping.
Bing Chat with personalized answers only means that the chatbot will be able to remember your chats and use that information to deliver more personalized answers based on previous queries.
As part of the Creator features to generate images with a descriptive prompt, Bing is now adding the latest DALL.E 3 model from OpenAI to provide even more creative and realistic images.
Also, for Microsoft Shopping, the company is improving the experience to make it easier to find the right product at the right price, combining the information available on the web with your unique requirements. Even further, you will be able to use a picture as a starting point to find the same or something similar.
Finally, for Microsoft 365 customers (likely to be available only for businesses, not for consumers), the company is also introducing “Copilot Lab,” a new portal that is meant to help users learn the science and how to build prompts to get the best and more accurate answers since how descriptive is the prompt you submit to chatbot the better will be the response.
Compare Copilot vs. Chat Enterprise vs. 365 Copilot
On Windows 11, Copilot will be available for free, offering answers using the Bing Chat service powered by GPT 4 from OpenAI.
Bing Chat Enterprise is similar to the Copilot on Windows 11. However, for this product, Microsoft is adding commercial data protection, and the company won’t be storing any data or using customers’ data to train its AI model. Also, this will be a service only for businesses for $5 per month per user, but the service is included with Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5 subscriptions.
Finally, Microsoft 365 Copilot is similar to Bing Chat Enterprise, but it’s a standalone solution. For this offering, the company is providing responsible AI, more advanced security and privacy features, and regulatory compliance. Then, Microsoft 365 Chat is a tool for the Microsoft 365 Copilot offering that provides the computing power to solve more heavy routine tasks (such as using email, meetings, chats, documents, and more available in the company) on apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and others. Microsoft 365 Copilot will be available on November 1 with a price tag of $30 per user per month.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].