Microsoft is marking its 50th anniversary this year with a significant push in artificial intelligence, highlighted by a series of updates to its AI assistant, Copilot. Unveiled at an event in Redmond, Washington, these enhancements aim to make Copilot a more personalized, intelligent, and proactive tool, bringing it on par with competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini. Here's a breakdown of the top 9 new AI features that are transforming Microsoft Copilot:

1. Personalized Memory: Copilot is gaining the ability to remember key details about you. With your permission, Copilot will retain information about your likes, dislikes, and important details of your life, such as your pet's name, current work projects, or fitness goals. This allows it to provide more tailored responses, suggestions, and reminders over time. You'll have control over the information shared and can manage or delete it through a user-friendly dashboard.

2. Actions on Your Behalf: This new feature enables Copilot to take action on your behalf, completing tasks in the background based on simple chat prompts. For example, you can ask Copilot to book event tickets, make dinner reservations, or send a gift to a friend. Copilot Actions will work across various websites, with launch partners including Booking.com, Expedia, Kayak, OpenTable, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Viator, and Vrbo.

3. Copilot Vision: The AI assistant can now "see" what you see, responding in real-time to create a shared understanding. Copilot Vision is available on mobile and Windows. On mobile, it utilizes your phone's camera to provide an interactive experience with the real world. You can point your camera at an object, such as a plant, and Copilot can provide information about it or offer recommendations. On Windows, Copilot Vision can assist with on-screen tasks, like changing settings or organizing files.

4. AI-Powered Podcasts: Copilot can now generate personalized podcasts based on your interests. You can provide specific content, like a research study, or ask Copilot to pull information from the web to compare vacation plans or home purchases. The podcast format offers an engaging way to consume information, and you can interact with Copilot during playback to learn more and keep the conversation going.

5. Deep Research Capabilities: Copilot is getting enhanced research capabilities that allow it to conduct complex, multi-step research tasks more efficiently. This feature can shave hours off the time it would normally take to complete such tasks. With Deep Research, you have a world-class researcher working alongside you.

6. Pages for Content Organization: Microsoft has introduced "Pages," a feature that transforms notes and ideas into structured canvases that you can refine with Copilot's help. This allows you to organize your thoughts and insights from various conversations and projects into a clear and editable format. Pages are now available in the Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile app.

7. Enhanced File Support: Copilot Chat now offers enhanced support for large files. When using “/” to find and select work files, you'll get more comprehensive summaries for files with a lot of text, such as reports with hundreds of pages or PDFs with extensive terms and conditions. Plain text files in .txt format can now be referenced when drafting with Copilot in Word, making it easier to integrate content seamlessly.

8. Customized Agents: Copilot now lets you access customized agents from the Copilot Chat web tab. These agents are tailored to your organization, integrating work and web knowledge for more relevant insights. You can also create your own custom agents with reasoning capabilities.

9. Personalization and Appearance: Microsoft is exploring ways to personalize Copilot's appearance, giving users the ability to customize the AI assistant visually. This adds a more interactive and individualized experience.

These updates underscore the intense competition among tech giants to build more personalized and capable AI assistants. By adding features like memory, actions, vision, and customizability, Microsoft is positioning Copilot as a versatile AI companion for both personal and professional use.