Windows Copilot will bring AI inside Windows 11

Windows Copilot will usher an AI assistant into Windows 11, eight years after Microsoft launched its Cortana assistant alongside Windows 10—then killed it.

Windows Copilot will debut in June, Microsoft will announce this week at its Build developer conference, as a preview for Windows 11. That will most likely set up Windows Copilot for a potential feature release in the fall, though Microsoft hasn’t said when it will release the new feature.

It’s no surprise that AI has emerged as a top priority at Microsoft. However, Microsoft has introduced AI to its users first as a web service with Bing Chat, integrating AI within the Edge Copilot, then adapting it via the Microsoft 365 Copilot to Office apps like Word, Excel, and Teams, and later to Edge. The Windows Copilot sounds more like the latter feature, with Bing Chat’s AI personality potentially dialed way down in favor of a more matter-of-fact assistant. You can expect to see more and more AI integrated into basic Windows services and apps, as Microsoft pushes the throttle to the floor.

“Windows will be the first PC platform to centralize AI assistance with the introduction of Windows Copilot,” Microsoft said as the Microsoft Build conference kicked off. “Together, with Bing Chat and first- and third-party plugins, users can focus on bringing their ideas to life, completing complex projects, and collaborating instead of spending energy finding, launching, and working across multiple applications.”

Microsoft has managed to pull Bing Chat into Windows 11, though it feels a little deceitful. Windows 11 now includes a shortcut to Bing Chat within the Windows 11 search box, but it’s just a link to the Bing.com website which opens Microsoft Edge.

Windows Copilot, meanwhile, sounds like much more of a productivity assistant. “Windows Copilot can be docked in a side pane so that it stays persistent next to any of a user’s apps, always there to provide assistance no matter what they’re doing—getting inspired, planning, communicating, creating,” Microsoft says.

It’s ironic, of course, because AI has been a central feature in Windows before. Windows 10 launched with Cortana as part of the operating system, writing emails on command, setting reminders, and reading emails. But Cortana’s role within Windows steadily diminished, and today the assistant is little more than an app that you can launch like any other. Was Cortana simply ahead of what consumers wanted, or will Copilot and Cortana eventually merge?