Microsoft (MSFT) wants you to talk to your computer. No, not by swearing at it when your boss schedules another 8 a.m. meeting. Rather, the tech giant wants you to have actual back-and-forth conversations with your laptop.
Dubbed Copilot Voice and available as part of Microsoft’s latest Copilot AI platform update, the software feature is designed to let you speak directly to your PC and for it to talk back to you.
“We think that Copilot Voice is going to be really a big unlock in terms of how you interface with technology,” Microsoft executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi told Yahoo Finance.
“We now have the most advanced AI models that are really fast. So this is not like the old ‘Hey Siri’ or ‘Hello, Alexa,’” Mehdi said, explaining that Copilot’s AI offers more impressive voice recognition capabilities.
In addition to voice, Microsoft is working on a feature called Copilot Vision that will allow Copilot to see what you’re doing on your screen and answer questions and make suggestions based on the content you’re viewing. Copilot Vision is only available to select Copilot Pro subscribers for the moment, but Microsoft plans to roll it out to all users in the future.
Taken together, Copilot Voice and Copilot Vision hold the promise of a major shift in how we use our PCs and a means for Microsoft to potentially boost PC sales as it continues to ramp up its consumer AI push via its Copilot+PC effort.
But the company is facing ever-growing competition from longtime rivals Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Apple (AAPL), which already offer or are preparing to debut their own AI features. And if Copilot doesn’t catch on among consumers, it could leave an enormous blemish on Microsoft’s efforts to be the go-to AI company.
A computer that can see what you see
Being able to chat with an AI assistant isn’t exactly a wildly new feature. Apple and Google already offer AI helpers that you can speak to, as does Amazon. And with their latest upgrades, Apple’s and Google’s offerings should provide the kind of natural-sounding responses that Microsoft’s Copilot does.
But it’s Copilot’s ability to see what you’re doing on your screen and then talk about that content with you that’s truly intriguing. Copilot Vision is designed to work with Microsoft’s Edge browser and allow you to have discussions with your computer about what new shows to watch when you’re bored.
In a demo Microsoft showed off, Copilot and an off-screen user talked about the available shows and movies on the website Rotten Tomatoes and which ones the user might enjoy. The conversation seemed natural enough, though how well the feature works in the real world versus a quick demo remains to be seen.
Still, it’s easy to see how Copilot Voice and Copilot Vision could change how you use your PC. Imagine dropping a few numbers into a spreadsheet and telling Copilot to put them into an attractive chart or playing an Xbox game and asking Copilot how to get past a particularly difficult boss. That’s the direction Microsoft is heading with these technologies.
And while talking to your computer should prove useful, the company says it has no plans to get rid of the classic keyboard and mouse. Rather, Microsoft says the new features will complement the trusted input devices.
Microsoft isn’t just giving Copilot a voice and vision, though. According to Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, the company wants to give its AI the ability to take actions on your behalf.
“It might proactively reach out to you with a reminder or a word of encouragement on your big day. It might help schedule something for you. It might proactively buy something,” Suleyman explained during a press event announcing Copilot Vision on Tuesday.
“Fundamentally, all of these interfaces are about to be represented by different kinds of conversational AI. And so that’s the big paradigm shift we’re making,” Suleyman added.
Microsoft has major competition, and one big disadvantage
But as interesting as Microsoft’s AI features are, they’re largely meant for the PC. Yes, Microsoft offers a Copilot app for smartphone users, but Android and Apple’s iPhone have their own native AI helpers. And chances are users will stick with those rather than download the Copilot app.
That puts Microsoft at a significant disadvantage in the AI wars. That’s because consumers use their smartphones far more than they use their laptops or desktops. Heck, chances are you’re reading this very article on your smartphone.
That means users will spend more time interacting with Apple’s and Google’s offerings than Microsoft’s Copilot. Microsoft will undoubtedly benefit from the fact that its Copilot software is also built into its enterprise offerings, but on the consumer side, it will face an uphill battle when it comes to taking on Google’s Gemini and Apple’s Apple Intelligence.
Google is also aiming to roll out its own AI vision software called Project Astra that will allow users’ smartphones to see and understand the world around them. Apple is also working on a similar feature. But Apple’s AI platform is still in its early stages, with the company set to roll out more features in the coming months and across 2025.
Microsoft also has the benefit of its relationship with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which will help boost the Windows maker’s portfolio of AI offerings. But the company will need to ensure its AI efforts take off among consumers before Google or Apple steal the spotlight.
If it can’t do that and it doesn’t deliver on its promises of making your laptop speak, its AI services could end up in danger of going the way of another famous Microsoft helper: the long-gone Clippy assistant for Microsoft Office.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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