The AI assistant had its character stripped in pursuit of a extra constant expertise.
Copilot is getting yet another visual overhaul as Microsoft reconsiders its approach to AI throughout Home windows and its varied apps. The brand new adjustments 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.
Essentially the most putting distinction in Copilot’s new look is how little colour it has. You possibly can nonetheless get Copilot to provide 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 modification was pushed by a want to make every thing 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) May 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 function a brand new “immediate floor” that adjustments dimension and divulges new capabilities as you kind. You possibly can enter a purely text-based request to Copilot and it’ll reply, however when you confer with the AI assistant’s different expertise, like the power to analysis or visualize, the textual content field will unfurl menu choices for choosing recordsdata 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 adjustments additionally apply to how Copilot seems in apps like Phrase. The AI is now obtainable 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 introduced in 2024 and lives in Microsoft’s cellular app remains to be shiny, colourful and (occasionally) blobby. It is attainable this extra buttoned-up look will make the soar to different variations of Copilot sooner or later, however that will rely 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 certain 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 own in-house AI models and investing in other AI companies. A visible redesign is not a repair for the problems Home windows customers had with Copilot, however it does seem to be an indication that Microsoft’s AI technique could be very a lot in flux.
