5 ways Windows 11's Copilot Al assistant will make your life easier

Windows Copilot debuted in June. But what kind of a PC will it require?

- MARK HACHMAN

Microsoft offered its first look in May at Windows Copilot, an AI-powered assistant that appears to be a one-stop shop for managing all sorts of tasks within Windows 11.

Microsoft showed Windows Copilot (fave. co/3N0trzG) standing in for Bing Chat (fave.co/ 3JYcfu4), the AI chatbot that’s rivaled OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the main AI assistant of the Web. But Windows Copilot appears to be much more, as a concierge of sorts for everything your PC and its apps can do. There’s a real question, however, of what class of hardware

Windows Copilot will demand—and in May Microsoft offered the first hints of how it may manage the diversity of PCs that wish to run it.

Windows Copilot, at least at that first glimpse, appears to be a sidebar that for right now will open up as a column on the right side of your screen, where your Windows notifications typically reside. While Copilot leans heavily on text, Microsoft showed it interacting with photos and even files.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella introduced the following video at his opening keynote, and chief product officer Panos Panay played it again during his keynote address as well. It’s a short overview of Windows Copilot’s capabilities, before Panay offered more of a hands-on demonstration later on in his speech.

REPLACE BING CHAT

We’ve already seen Bing Chat, Microsoft’s AI-powered chatbot, in Windows—kind of (fave.co/3JYcfu4). Windows Copilot looks like the more sophisticated version we originally anticipated. The video opens by claiming Copilot will offer “answers to complex questions,” such as “help me plan my fishing trip.” That sounds like Bing Chat to us.