Microsoft has given its consumer Copilot, an artificial intelligence assistant, a more amiable voice in its latest update, with the chatbot also capable of analysing web pages for interested users as they browse.
The US software maker now has “an entire army” of creative directors – among them psychologists, novelists and comedians – finessing the tone and style of Copilot to distinguish it, Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, told Reuters in an interview.
In one demonstration of the updated Copilot, a consumer asked what housewarming gift to buy at a grocery store for a friend. After some back-and-forth, Copilot said aloud: “Italian (olive) oils are the hot stuff right now. Tuscan’s my go-to. Super peppery.”
The feature rollout, starting yesterday, is one of the first that Suleyman has overseen since Microsoft created his division in March to focus on consumer products and technology research.
Long identified with business software, Microsoft has had a much harder road in the consumer realm. Its Bing search engine, for instance, is still dwarfed by Google.
Suleyman is hoping for a bigger splash with Copilot, which launched last year in a crowded field of AI chatbots, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Copilot’s newly fashioned voice capabilities make it seem much more of an active listener, giving verbal cues like ‘cool’ and ‘huh,’ Suleyman said.
Underlying the product are Microsoft AI, or ‘MAI,’ models, plus a technology suite from partner OpenAI, Suleyman said.
Suleyman added that consumers who spend $20 monthly for Copilot Pro can start testing a ‘Think Deeper’ feature that reasons through choices, like whether to move to one city or another.
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