Seemingly in response to customer complaints about its Copilot feature, Microsoft appears to be scaling back the presence of AI on Xbox.
Earlier this week, newly appointed Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced that Gaming Copilot–a chatbot built into Xbox’s mobile and PC gaming apps–would be discontinued.
“Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers,” Sharma posted on X. “As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed.”
Sharma took over from former Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in February and has already made significant changes including reshaping the company’s leadership and scrapping the Microsoft Gaming brand.
In Microsoft’s apps, Copilot typically appears as a sidebar featuring an AI assistant in a text box. It offered functions like summarising on-screen content, explaining system settings, or pulling data from online sources into Excel.
Based on a GDC presentation the company gave in March, when Microsoft launched a beta version of Gaming Copilot in the Xbox mobile app in May 2025 the plan was to eventually bring it to Xbox consoles as well. Sharma has since made clear that is no longer the direction Xbox is taking.
Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reorganised the company’s Copilot teams by merging the consumer and enterprise divisions into a single unit in part to reduce redundancy in its AI product strategy.
However, not every user was sold on its usefulness. “I hate the process by which they are cramming it into every single tool, changing it on an almost daily basis and leaving most of the features on by default, leaving administrators and governance people scrambling,” one user commented on Reddit.
“It’s the forced adoption with no proof of usefulness or need that kills me. The hype is all so artificial and without actual material return on investment makes it feel doomed to fail,” another noted.
Some users documented their frustrations in detail. “Copilot suggested that it could create a PowerPoint design for my presentation – so I gave it a presentation I had created and told it to create more pages in the same design language,” a user explained. “Despite trying 5 times it always gave me the same output- totally unrelated to the original presentation.”
The changes could also help reduce confusion–a problem that tech commentator and partner at a global management consulting firm, Tey Bannerman, highlighted by tallying more than 80 distinct Copilot products. Two current employees told The Information that Bannerman’s visual resonated widely within Microsoft.
Additionally, scaling back unpopular Copilots could prove to be a beneficial financial move. Microsoft acknowledged during its quarterly earnings last week that the cost of running some of its Copilot features was weighing on margins in parts of its business. Cutting Copilots, particularly those in Windows that users are not paying extra for, could help ease that pressure. – Inc./TNS
