Microsoft’s Copilot
Since its rollout last year, Microsoft’s Copilot has steadily been grabbing the attention of techies. Initially launched as a chatbot for Microsoft Bing and Edge, it has since been listed as Microsoft’s replacement to the now-discontinued Cortana virtual assistant, and is elementally defined as multi-purpose AI tool.
But as straightforward as these descriptors for Copilot are, confusion over what it is exactly prevails. Its like every time it is brought up, it seems to mean something else.
Is it a product? Is it a type of service? Is it the keyword of a marketing slogan? If you’ve been wondering, read on and find out.
Copilot, in a nutshell
To get to the root of what Copilot is, it needs to be said that the term basically refers to a brand which Microsoft is using as the name for its revue of AI tools and services.
Currently, there are several “copilots” in Microsoft’s portfolio, which are apps that afford users with AI-driven productivity-inclined tools that help them with rudimentary tasks.
In a way, you can say that there’s a “Copilot this” or a “Copilot that” that offers specialized functions and features for users.
From Bing Chat to Copilot
Before Copilot came to be, Microsoft rolled out Bing Chat on February 7, 2023 as a built-in AI chatbot for Microsoft Bing and Edge.
Alternatively referred to as “Bing AI”, its early versions offered functionalities that’re akin to those that’re featured in ChatGPT, as it is proficient in doing specialized searchers, data formatting tasks, coding tasks and other services that’re offered by most AI companions/ AI assistants.
Over the course of 2023, Microsoft took steps to rename the product under the consolidated Copilot branding, in a bid to streamline its product offerings.
Different “copilots” have since been released, but as different as these app-and-service suites could be described, they are largely unified in one regard: they are backed by an AI matrix.
The “Copilot Key”
Early this year, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi announced the forthcoming implementation of the “Copilot key” – which is a new PC keyboard key.
Copilot key’s forthcoming implementation stands out as the first time that Microsoft introduced a keyboard key since the Windows key was included in Microsoft’s “Natural Keyboard” in 1994.
In a demo video, the key is shown in between the right Alt and arrow keys, though its exact positioning will largely be dependent on the size/layout convention of a keyboard.
Tech pundits were quick to characterize the development as a hardware-level update that comes after Microsoft’s several software-level updates, and see it as a sign of how much Microsoft is keen on letting the users of its products utilize Copilot and its AI-backed offerings.
The Different Copilots
Since the later parts of the first quarter of 2023, Microsoft has rolled out different AIbacked tools under the Copilot moniker.
There’s “Microsoft Copilot”, which is basically the original “Bing Chat” that’s updated and integrated into Bing, the firm’s search engine. To access this, you just need to visit www.bing.com, from where you can access its features and functions by clicking on the address bar.
There’s also Copilot in Microsoft Edge, Edge being Microsoft’s search engine. Alternatively referred to as “Edge Copilot”, this version of the AI tool has been integrated into the web browser, and most of its features and functions can be accessed through its built-in sidebar.
Edge Copilot is noted to be “smarter”, in that it functions as an Edge user’s AI assistant which can do more than help with searches, as it can summarize content that it comes by online or even “make” content for users.
There’s also “Microsoft 365 Copilot”, Microsoft 365 being Microsoft’s subscriptionbased productivity suite offering. This Copilot edition can be characterized as a type of specialized “office suite assistant”.
Copilot in Microsoft Word (under Microsoft 356), for example, can be used by users to come up with drafts for articles, apart from help them rewrite certain sections of a document. Copilot in PowerPoint can help users transpose their presentation outlines into actual presentations, apart from help streamline a presentation’s speaker notes.
There’s also “Windows Copilot”, which is basically a Windows OS-integrated edition of the AI tool. Also referred to as “Copilot AI”, the feature was released in September last year as part of the Windows 11 23H2 update.
With Copilot AI, Windows users could use the tool to do various tasks, like summarize web content, come up with articles, or tweak certain operating system settings.
Then there’s “Copilot Pro”, which is essentially a paid subscription-based edition of the AI suite.
This Copilot edition affords subscribers with the “connected Copilot experience” (access to different Copilot features across different compatible devices and apps), access to better AI image creation tools, priority access to new AI models/projects and other perks over non-subscription-based versions.