The AI assistant had its character stripped in pursuit of a extra constant expertise.
Copilot is getting yet one more visible overhaul as Microsoft reconsiders its strategy to AI throughout Home windows and its numerous apps. The brand new modifications are targeted on the model of Copilot accessible in Microsoft 365, and visually streamline the AI assistant to utilizing it extra constant throughout apps like Phrase, PowerPoint and Excel.
Probably the most hanging distinction in Copilot’s new look is how little shade it has. You may nonetheless get Copilot to supply full-color outputs and it’ll reference different apps by their colourful app icons. By default, although, the Copilot interface is now a largely black and white, text-forward affair. A part of this transformation was pushed by a want to make the whole lot extra readable and responsive, however Microsoft suggests it is also reflective of an try to “craft intelligence that feels current however not imposing.”
Microsoft has launched a brand new design for Copilot pic.twitter.com/Bxdg6dKbfZ
— Andreas Storm (@avstorm) Might 28, 2026
That strategy additionally applies to the tweaks Microsoft querying the AI assistant itself. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app and the Copilot expertise in Microsoft apps characteristic a brand new “immediate floor” that modifications measurement and divulges new features as you sort. You may enter a purely text-based request to Copilot and it’ll reply, however if you happen to consult with the AI assistant’s different abilities, like the flexibility to analysis or visualize, the textual content field will unfurl menu choices for choosing information or guiding Copilot’s visible responses. The app’s new facet panels and menus, which collapse when not in use, are one other instance of this strategy. Importantly, these modifications additionally apply to how Copilot seems in apps like Phrase. The AI is now out there in a constant location throughout all Microsoft 365 apps — a facet pane — and works equally to the standalone Copilot app.
The one wrinkle to Microsoft’s Copilot redesign is that, not less than for now, it is restricted to the corporate’s productiveness software program. The extra consumer-friendly Copilot that was launched in 2024 and lives in Microsoft’s cellular app remains to be shiny, colourful and (often) blobby. It is attainable this extra buttoned-up look will make the soar to different variations of Copilot in some unspecified time in the future, however that will depend upon the place Microsoft’s AI plans land.
The corporate has dedicated to being extra considerate about the place Copilot and AI options seem in Home windows 11 and even began pulling Copilot out of sure apps. It is also altering what AI fashions it makes use of. After being an early investor in OpenAI and a beneficiary of its GPT fashions, the 2 corporations have redefined their partnership. Microsoft has now began rolling out its personal in-house AI fashions and investing in different AI corporations. A visible redesign is not a repair for the problems Home windows customers had with Copilot, but it surely does seem to be an indication that Microsoft’s AI technique may be very a lot in flux.
