Microsoft employees demonstrate Copilot after an event highlighting the AI tool on April 4, 2025 in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft also celebrated its 50th anniversary. — AFP
Microsoft Corp, determined to hold its ground in artificial intelligence, will soon let consumers tailor the Copilot digital assistant to their own needs.
The chatbot will be able to record user preferences – such as favourite foods or movies or past vacations – and carry that knowledge into future conversations. The functions, rolling out in the coming months, echo efforts by rival chatbot makers to bake personalisation into their products.
"You can now let Copilot live up to its name,” Mustafa Suleyman, who leads Microsoft’s consumer AI work, said at an event at on Friday marking the 50th anniversary of the company’s founding.
The Redmond, Washington-based company earns the vast majority of its revenue from sales to businesses and is racing to build out Copilot-branded AI tools in its portfolio of corporate software. Chief executive Satya Nadella recruited Suleyman to build out an AI franchise for consumers.
Suleyman, who co-founded Google’s DeepMind, has said that making chatbots useful beyond transitory conversations requires the ability to adapt to users’ tastes and needs. "I think that this will completely change the way that we use computers forever,” he said of more advanced, personalized AI.
Alphabet Inc’s Google announced last month that its Gemini assistant would be able to draw on individuals’ search history. OpenAI customers can feed interests and preferences into ChatGPT. Amazon’s Alexa+, which is starting to roll out to Echo smart speaker owners, can draw on shoppers’ purchase and video streaming histories.
Microsoft says users will have the ability to choose which types of information Copilot recalls, or opt out of personalisation entirely.
Friday’s event, held in a large tent set up in a field on a recently renovated corner of Microsoft’s headquarters campus, was part product launch, part nostalgia fest. Among the employees and alumni in attendance were co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer, making a rare appearance at a Microsoft gathering.
Ballmer at one point led the crowd in a chant of "50 more!” – Bloomberg
