Microsoft introduced "Mico," an expressive animated avatar for its Copilot AI, during its Copilot fall release event on Thursday. The new visual presence, designed to offer a "warm" and "customizable" interface, is initially available to users in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., marking a notable step in the company's approach to human-AI interaction.
Mico, a name referencing "Microsoft Copilot," is engineered to listen, react, and adjust its colors based on user interactions, according to company statements. The avatar also includes an "Easter egg" feature, allowing it to transform into Microsoft's historical productivity assistant, Clippy, upon specific user taps. Mico is enabled by default when Copilot's voice mode is active, with an option for users to disable the feature.
The fall Copilot update encompassed additional functional enhancements. A "Learn Live" mode has been introduced for U.S. users, enabling Copilot to act as a tutor for various concepts. Microsoft also reported improvements in its AI's capacity to handle health-related inquiries and perform deep research tasks. Future developments include support for long-term memory and connectors to integrate productivity applications such as email and cloud storage.
This move to anthropomorphize AI aligns with a broader industry trend, where major AI developers like OpenAI with ChatGPT and xAI with Grok also offer visual or companion-oriented AI experiences. Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, stated the company's commitment to building "humanist AI" that "gets you back to your life" and "deepens human connection." Furthermore, Microsoft is evolving Copilot's conversational capabilities with a "Real Talk" mode, designed to mirror user communication styles while maintaining its own perspective, thereby potentially challenging user ideas.
The update also extended Copilot's integration into the Microsoft Edge browser, with plans to transform Edge into an "AI browser." This advanced functionality is expected to enable the browser to summarize tabs, compare information, and execute actions such as hotel bookings or form filling. This positions Microsoft Edge to compete directly with other AI-integrated browsers in the market, including OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity's Comet, and Google Chrome, which incorporates its Gemini AI.
