It was inevitable: Microsoft plans to carve out space on the Windows 11 taskbar for Copilot, while adding “Hey Copilot” as a wake word to trigger interactions with its AI.
While the company isn’t making any overt changes to the branding of Windows 11, its executives this week spoke about reinventing the “AI PC,” the first generation of PCs it launched with early NPUs. Microsoft plans to make PCs smarter, including agents that can take actions and granting Copilot Vision more powers.
Adding Copilot to the taskbar will actually be the most visible change to the Windows 11 user interface. However, it’s not the one Microsoft is focusing on. Now, it’s time to talk to your PC again.
More from Microsoft on the changes coming to Copilot:
- If every PC is now an AI PC, is Microsoft’s Copilot+ brand doomed?
- Meet Copilot Actions, Windows 11’s most revolutionary AI feature yet
- Microsoft supercharges Copilot with Google integration
Yusuf Mehdi, the consumer chief marketing officer and executive vice president for Microsoft, said that the first priority of these new AI PCs was voice. “You should be able to interact with it naturally in text and primarily with voice,” he said in a briefing with reporters. “So you should be able to talk to your PC, have it understand you, and then be able to have magic happen from that, as easy as just talking to it.”
“Voice will now become the third input mechanism to use in your PC,” Mehdi added. “It doesn’t replace the keyboard, but it will be an additive thing.”
Mark Hachman / IDG
With Windows 10 transitioning into an unsupported state (well, kind of), Windows 11 is really the only focus for Microsoft right now. If the company is readying Windows 12, it will certainly be AI first. But for now, the company plans to test out these new features with Windows 11 Insiders in its beta program in the coming weeks. A key point: none of these new features require an NPU or a Copilot+ PC. They’ll be open to all supported Windows 11 PCs.
Copilot: Front and center on the Windows taskbar
Microsoft took pains to reiterate that these choices are optional. But if you so choose, you will be able to add Copilot to your taskbar.
“Our vision is simple yet bold: to make the taskbar a dynamic hub that helps you accomplish more with less effort, transforming everyday interactions into moments of productivity and delight,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
The Copilot box apparently will serve as a replacement for the existing Search box within Windows 11, though it will handle search queries as well. Importantly, the Copilot box will also include icons for Copilot Vision and Voice, tacitly encouraging you to let Copilot see your screen and hear you.
It’s unclear if Copilot is the default. Microsoft says it relies on existing Windows APIs to return apps, files, and settings, without accessing your content. Still, its presence on the screen and taskbar serves as a reminder to use Copilot.
Microsoft gives your hands a break with “Hey Copilot”
It’s ironic that Microsoft is letting go of Windows 10 this week, since Cortana was one of its flagship features — and “Hey Cortana” was the way to wake it. Cortana, of course, suffered an ignominious deprecation at the hands of the company.
In May, Microsoft signaled that “Hey Copilot” would be the trigger to wake Copilot in Windows 11. This feature — now called Voice Mode — is present in the Copilot options. According to Mehdi, it will reach general availability on millions of PCs this week. Saying “Goodbye” will close Copilot, the company said.
There’s an ongoing tension with the way people were “trained” to type in search terms, Mehdi said, especially short searches that produced broad results. Now, prompts reward longer inputs, but people are reluctant to type those in because they don’t know what to write.
Mark Hachman / IDG
“What we find with Copilot is people don’t know exactly what they want to say,” Mehdi said. “They don’t know exactly what they want to ask or how to ask it. And so with voice, it becomes much simpler, less precise than when you have to have it with a bunch of prompted text.”
“I think that’s really kind of the key tipping point, is that you’re able to now easily talk to it and get what you want,” Mehdi said.
Will office workers want to talk to their PCs? It’s optional
The challenge is also cultural. Can you imagine yourself talking to a PC inside a shared office, even with cubicles, with dozens of coworkers listening in? According to Microsoft, you will: “Hundreds of millions of people today talk for billions of minutes in offices with headphones,” Mehdi said. “They found a way to make it work.”
Mehdi also used a specific word to describe how users orally interact with their PCs: not talking “to” the computer, and not talking “with” it, either — but talking “through” it. “And I think that this change to talk with and talk to will come to reality, and we’ll see this thing really take off,” he said.
If you’re dead set against talking to — er, through — your PC, there’s another option: Microsoft is adding the ability to interact with Copilot Vision via text.
Apple
Copilot Vision basically sees what you see on your PC’s screen. It doesn’t require an NPU, though my tests found that using it with a Copilot+ equipped PC certainly helped. (Some laptops I used wouldn’t work with Copilot PC, though that was early in the process.)
In my test of Copilot Vision, I found it was lousy in helping with older games, but offered real potential in walking you through apps and procedures that you were unfamiliar with. It’s worth noting, though, that Microsoft is testing a Gaming Copilot specifically to help in certain tasks and is launching it with the ROG Xbox Ally.
The problem? Copilot Vision was, at the time, all voice driven. Not everybody wants to broadcast to an office or other workspace that they don’t know how to interact with Photoshop. Now Microsoft is granting Copilot Vision an option for text interaction, just like Copilot.
“So in the appropriate circumstances, if you want to type in, you can do that,” Mehdi said.
It’s not quite clear whether people will want to talk to, with, or through their PCs. I’ve been in a lot of very quiet offices where no one says a word. But Microsoft seems set on making it as comfortable as it can to talk or chat with Copilot. The important thing for the company is that you’re using it.
