Microsoft Copilot has reached its latest milestone: iOS and Android. The artist formerly known as Bing Chat quietly announced over the holidays it’s now available across these ubiquitous mobile operating systems, thus planting itself more securely in the hands and pockets of consumers everywhere.
Backing up, what is Copilot? Based on ChatGPT, it’s Microsoft’s AI chat agent, which carries GPT’s underlying capabilities but with additional AI learning that’s fueled by Microsoft’s unique software and use cases. This gives Copilot strong positioning to gain utility over time (more on that in a bit).
But the most notable thing about Copilot is its go-to-market story. It was one of the first chatbots – then named Bing Chat – out of the gate in the current wave of large-language-model-driven conversational AI. This timing, in addition to an investment in OpenAI, has made Microsoft a primary player in AI.
But as noted, the Bing Chat brand didn’t stick around for long. Microsoft – presumably thinking the name was too narrow and Bing-focused – rebranded to Copilot in November. This gives it more elbow room as a persistent AI layer that underpins and increasingly integrates with Microsoft’s product suite.
Polished & Accessible
Back to the latest iOS and Android moves, Copilot now has its own native apps on iOS and Android (and iPadOS). This doesn’t change much in terms of Copilot’s functionality but it brings it into a more polished and accessible app form. Mobile users could previously access it through the Bing or Edge mobile apps.
With its own app, it now can offer faster access through mobile users’ home screens. This should elevate Copilot in terms of usage share and engagement, given that quick access is aligned with its use case. In other words, like search, it’s about quickly gaining access to answers and information on the go.
Beyond search-centric use cases like getting questions answered, Copilot (like ChatGPT itself) is positioned to do other daily tasks like draft emails. This list continues to grow, despite hallucinations and mishaps, including everything from writing movie scripts to website copy to updating your resume.
Copilot is also expanding from conversational AI to its cousin, Generative AI. Specifically, Copilot’s image creator feature, powered by DALL-E 3, lets users generate visuals. These generative AI use cases likewise continue to expand, including everything from blog post images to a logo for your business.
As an additional enticement for downloading the Copilot app, Microsoft says that it’s a backdoor way to get free access to OpenAI’s GPT-4. Otherwise, OpenAI’s own Chat GPT native app runs on GPT 3.5, while GPT-4 is a paid upsell. All the above has driven 1.5 million downloads for the Copilot app already.
Timing is Everything
Backing up, as Yext CDO Christian Ward reminded us at Localogy Place in October, Chatbots were prevalent as user-facing customer service agents prior to the current wave of conversational AI. But with the rise of GPT-based conversational AI, the bar has been considerably raised – and AI demand with it.
In that sequence of events, Microsoft has timed its market entrance quite effectively. This includes gaining ground on Google in search market share, and better positioning Bing as an informational resource. From this, it saw tangible wins such as Bing’s recent enterprise deals with Snap and others.
But it goes beyond Bing. Microsoft’s true opportunity with Bing Chat… err, CoPilot… is to integrate chat agents across its prize ponies. We’re talking Microsoft Office, Windows OS, and Edge browser to name a few. With Office for example, CoPilot uplevels user assistance and automation (insert Clippy Joke).
All the above puts Microsoft in prime position for the AI era, now advanced one step further with CoPilot’s native iOS and Android apps. We expect more chess moves from Microsoft throughout 2024, many of which we’ll get to hear about firsthand at April’s L24 conference. More on that soon.
