Microsoft announced a major overhaul of its Copilot AI platform Thursday, merging its separate consumer and business applications while cutting several underperforming features. The consolidation, first reported by GeekWire and detailed in Microsoft’s support documentation, will see the consumer Copilot app and Microsoft 365 Copilot app combine into a single unified experience.
Among the features being retired by August 18 are Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs experimental features, Deep Research, and Mico, the animated floating blob character that served as Copilot’s mascot. For business users, Microsoft’s Researcher tool will serve as a partial replacement for the Deep Research feature.
The move comes as Microsoft EVP Jacob Andreou, who oversees Copilot, wrote in an internal memo that the app needed to earn the right to exist in customers’ lives by moving on from features that failed to gain traction. Microsoft acknowledged that its previous strategy of maintaining separate personal and professional AI products was too complex to compete effectively against ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
The consolidation mirrors similar moves across the AI industry. Anthropic recently merged its Cowork product into Claude’s main chat interface, while OpenAI folded its Operator agentic feature directly into ChatGPT. Google has been adding specialized capabilities like combined deep research and web browsing to its Gemini app.
Microsoft described AI two years ago as a generational shift it wanted to lead, but the Copilot overhaul suggests the company is still searching for the right formula. The decision to cut features like AI-generated podcasts and Mico, which felt like an AI-era version of the ill-fated Clippy assistant, signals a more pragmatic approach to product development.
For enterprise customers, the merger simplifies the Copilot experience by removing the need to navigate between separate apps for personal and professional use. The transition may cause temporary disruptions, with Microsoft warning that some features could disappear temporarily and files generated by the standalone Copilot app will be migrated to OneDrive.
Sources: TechCrunch, GeekWire
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