Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant, is facing challenges in keeping up with its competitors in terms of popularity. According to tech newsletter Newcomer, the number of weekly users of Copilot has remained steady at around 20 million for the past year, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT has reached as high as 400 million weekly users.
The data presented at an annual executive meeting in March by Microsoft’s chief financial officer Amy Hood, as reported by Newcomer, has raised concerns about Microsoft’s AI future. Despite using OpenAI’s models to power Copilot and offering similar features to ChatGPT, Copilot has not been able to attract the same level of interest from users. Even with integration into Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and the Edge browser, Copilot has not seen significant growth in user numbers.
To address these challenges, Microsoft has sought to revamp Copilot, reduce its reliance on OpenAI, and transform the assistant into a more consumer-oriented product. This led to the acqui-hiring of Mustafa Suleyman and his team from Inflection AI. Suleyman, now the CEO of Microsoft AI, has overseen the redesign of Copilot and the introduction of new features, such as the AI’s ability to take action on certain websites. While this signals the beginning of a cohesive vision, it has yet to resonate strongly with Windows users and others.
Microsoft’s substantial investment in OpenAI was intended to support research efforts and gain exclusive access to its models, aiming to compete with Google. However, despite this access, the earlier arrival of ChatGPT seems to have had a more significant impact in attracting users to AI technology. ChatGPT became the preferred AI assistant for many users, and it remains unclear what new features Copilot could introduce to sway them away.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at.
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