Microsoft is turning 50 this year, but it is keen to show that it can run with young AI companies. The company is celebrating on April 4 at its Redmond campus where, among other things, it will show off the future of its Copilot AI assistant.
The timing makes sense if the rumors that Microsoft is looking to build a portfolio of its own large language models unconnected to its deep partnership with OpenAI are true. Owning an AI layer that sits on top of everything Microsoft builds would be of interest to the company if not necessarily to every user.
Still, as someone who has spent some time exploring what Copilot can do, here are some announcements I hope Microsoft makes at the Copilot event that I think would boost its appeal.
Copilot Pro for all
Copilot is pretty good as an AI assistant, but a Copilot Pro subscription enhances its usefulness enormously. While the free version of Copilot is functional, it has a lot of limits and reduced access to the best models and features that $20 a month can get you. Copilot Pro zips through prompts like the ambition of 1990s Microsoft powers it.
I want Microsoft to announce that this distinction is going away. If Copilot is truly the future of Windows, of Office, of every product with MS in front of it, then it should be the best version built into those products. Fold Pro features into the standard Copilot by default.
Game on
Microsoft has already discussed how Xbox Insiders will soon have a chance to use Copilot as a sidekick while gaming, but this is a chance to go way beyond that group. Along with Xbox, Microsoft owns Bethesda and Game Pass; there are so many opportunities for AI right there.
Sure, it might be nice to ask a built-in AI about how to win a battle in Starfield or list the recipes you’ve tried and failed with in Minecraft so far. Still, an AI that understands context embedded in your gaming could offer subtle, spoiler-free hints, dynamically adjust difficulty settings, or point to new games you’d like that have just gone on sale.
Visual context
Microsoft has been teasing Copilot “with Vision” for a while, but only as an experiment or for enterprise subscribers. I want them to announce it’s ready for everyone. The Vision feature allows the AI to interpret what’s on your screen, similar to the ChatGPT feature of the same name.
An AI that can analyze images or text content and the context around them has a lot of appeal, especially when you have a lot going on in your browser. Plus, there’s a possibility for greater adaptability because Copilot is baked into Windows.
I’d love to see a more proactive Copilot that uses the Vision feature to see me looking at a spreadsheet and offers to find trends or outliers or sees a YouTube tab open and offers a transcript. Perhaps even one that notices I’m comparing flights and suggests a cheaper one I missed.
Of course, this has to be done with strict privacy controls (more on that in a second). But if Copilot is going to become your digital partner, it should be able to look over your shoulder (with your consent).
Clippy 2025
Copilot sounds like a responsible, respectable tool – the kind of AI assistant that could help you land a plane. I’m sure Microsoft intentionally evokes that image and has tested it for success. But it’s time for Clippy to return.
Sure, Clippy may have annoyed us all in the late 90s. The smug smile, the confident assurance that we needed help with the most basic typing tasks, the way it would seemingly tap on the screen if we weren’t typing for too long.
But, the real annoyance was that Clippy was often wrong about whether we needed help or what kind of help we needed. Even if it guessed correctly what you were doing, chances were the help would be minimal.
Now imagine it paired with the actually useful AI of Microsoft Copilot, especially with whatever models Microsoft is building for it right now. I don’t really think this will be an announcement at the event, but if Microsoft really wants to grab attention for its AI, it would be fantastic.
Just imagine a little paper clip appearing on stage, saying, “It looks like you’re trying to make a big announcement about AI. Would you like help with that?”
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erichs211@gmail.com (Eric Hal Schwartz)
