Microsoft saved its most powerful AI tools for paying customers in the first phase of its AI evolution. Now, the company has announced a series of Copilot features coming to all Windows 11 PCs, including Voice, Copilot Vision, and Copilot Actions.
Alongside the update, Microsoft is launching an ad campaign to expose people to these new features. The timing isn’t an accident. Windows 10 support ended on October 14, and we’re about to see a wave of people upgrade to Windows 11; Microsoft seems intent on putting advanced Copilot features at the fingertips of as many people as possible—and convincing them they’re worth using.
It’s All About Voice
“Hey, Copilot.” That’s the wake word for the AI assistant in voice mode, now coming to all Windows 11 computers. Whether you like it or not, Microsoft wants you to start talking to your computer. The company is introducing new Copilot features across all Windows 11 devices, featuring direct voice interaction with Copilot in apps and throughout the operating system. This capability has been available on smartphones for many years with varying degrees of success, as well as Microsoft’s own Copilot+ line of laptops.
“It’s been almost four decades since the PC changed the way you interact with it, which is primarily mouse and keyboard,” says Yusuf Mehdi, consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft. “But what if you can go beyond that and talk to it? In our minds, voice would become the third input mechanism to use with your PC.”
The push to speak directly to your PC has some data behind it. Mehdi cited Microsoft’s own observations of how people interact with its PCs via voice, such as through dictation, note-taking, voice typing, and transcriptions. Mehdi also says people use the Copilot app twice as much when using voice instead of typing, due to ease of use. “People talk through their computer, they don’t talk to their computer or with their computer,” he says. “But we think that’s what’s actually going to change a lot.”
