Microsoft Introduces Copilot Update as Nadella Highlights ‘AI Platform Shift’
Microsoft is now betting on “humanist AI.”
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Microsoft on Thursday announced Copilot Fall Release, introducing 12 new AI features designed to make its assistant more social, personalized, and proactive. The update arrived as CEO Satya Nadella highlighted in his annual letter to shareholders that the company is “at the heart of a generational moment in technology,” driven by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence.
The release expands Copilot beyond one-on-one interaction to group collaboration through a new feature called Groups, which enables up to 32 people to brainstorm, plan, or co-write together while the AI summarizes discussions and divides tasks.
Another addition, Imagine, lets users explore and remix AI-generated creations collaboratively, highlighting Microsoft’s focus on “AI that connects people.”
Personalization also takes center stage with Mico, a new animated visual companion designed to make AI conversations more natural and responsive. Copilot now features long-term memory, allowing users to store and recall contextual details, like goals, anniversaries, or projects, while retaining full control over data edits or deletions.
The update deepens Copilot’s integration across Edge, Windows 11, and cloud services. In Edge, Copilot Mode can now reason over open tabs and perform tasks like summarizing content or booking hotels. Windows users can activate the assistant hands-free with the wake phrase “Hey Copilot.” The system can summarize files, resume tasks, and guide users visually through troubleshooting or creative workflows.
Other updates include Proactive Actions, which anticipates next steps based on user activity; connectors to link Gmail, Google Drive, and Outlook data; and new tools for health and education, such as Copilot for Health, which references credible sources like Harvard Health, and Learn Live, a voice-enabled tutoring mode that promotes conceptual learning over rote answers.
The company said the rollout begins in the US and will expand to the UK, Canada, and other markets in the coming weeks.
Nadella’s Annual Letter
In his 2025 annual letter, Satya Nadella framed the past year as one of record growth and technological transformation, with revenue reaching $281.7 billion, up 15 percent from the previous year, and Azure surpassing $75 billion in annual revenue.
Calling this era the “AI platform shift,” Nadella wrote that AI is “radically changing every layer of the tech stack,” and positioned Microsoft’s focus on three priorities: security, quality, and AI innovation. He cited the company’s Secure Future Initiative and Quality Excellence Initiative as key to maintaining global reliability while scaling AI infrastructure across six continents and over 400 data centers.
The letter highlighted the launch of Microsoft’s first in-house foundation models, MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1 Preview, and the expansion of its Copilot family, now with more than 100 million monthly active users. Nadella also detailed Microsoft’s investments in AI skills and sustainability, including a $4 billion, five-year commitment to equip 20 million people with AI credentials and advance digital access in schools and nonprofits.
“We must earn our permission to operate every day, in every country, every community, and every customer interaction,” Nadella wrote, urging employees to “think in decades but execute in quarters.”
