L'aveu interne selon lequel Copilot doit 'mériter le droit d'exister' confirme la fin de la phase d'expérimentation débridée chez les géants de la Tech, désormais contraints de justifier l'usage réel de leurs services.
Cette décision marque un virage stratégique où la recherche de clarté opérationnelle l'emporte sur l'accumulation précipitée de gadgets IA, alignant Microsoft sur la tendance de consolidation initiée par OpenAI et Anthropic.
Face à la complexité de sa gamme et à la concurrence de ChatGPT, Microsoft réunit son application Copilot grand public et Microsoft 365 Copilot au sein d'une expérience unique. L'éditeur en profite pour supprimer les conversations de groupe, l'avatar Mico, les fonctions expérimentales Copilot Labs et l'outil Deep Research pour les comptes gratuits, tout en migrant les fichiers créés vers OneDrive.
Impact concret
Les responsables d'environnement de travail doivent adapter la gestion des accès de leurs utilisateurs, les comptes non payants perdant les fonctionnalités de recherche avancée au profit de la version professionnelle Researcher.
Applications concrètes
Centralisation des interactions de travail et personnelles dans une seule interface Copilot, et stockage automatique des documents générés directement dans OneDrive.
Two years ago, Microsoft described AI as a “generational shift” in technology that it wanted to lead. Today, the company is merging its Copilot-branded consumer and business apps, and ditching a number of unsuccessful AI features. As initially reported by GeekWire and detailed in Microsoft’s support documentation , the tech giant will combine the functionality of its consumer-facing Copilot app and the more business-oriented Microsoft 365 Copilot app. The move is both an acknowledgement that personal and professional uses of AI often overlap, and that Microsoft’s prior strategy was too complicated to make Copilot a viable competitor to the likes of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. It also follows a broader consolidation in the AI app space that has seen Claude merging Cowork into Chat; OpenAI merging its agentic feature Operator into ChatGPT ; and Google adding specialized capabilities to its Gemini app, like the combination of deep research and web browsing. According to Microsoft, consumers will lose access to Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts in Copilot, Copilot Labs experimental features, and Deep Research, by August 18, 2026. For paying professional users, Researcher will offer a replacement for the latter, at least. Copilot will also ditch its goofy animated character for Copilot, named Mico , a floating blob that felt like an AI-ified version of Clippy . Other features may temporarily disappear during the transition, Microsoft warns, and files generated by the stand-alone Copilot app will be migrated to OneDrive. While the company says the goal is to make Copilot a “simpler, more cohesive experience,” it’s also an admission that Copilot has lost its way. In July, The Information reported that Microsoft EVP Jacob Andreou, who oversees Copilot, said in an internal memo that the app needed to earn “the right to exist” in its customers’ lives, which required moving on from features that didn’t work. Topics AI , Apps , Copilot , Microsoft When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission . This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Sarah Perez Consumer News Editor Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. You can contact or verify outreach from Sarah by emailing sarahp@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at sarahperez.01 on Signal. View Bio October 13 – 15 San Francisco Scale faster. Grow your portfolio. Gain practical expertise. No matter your goal, Disrupt can empower you. Save up to $300 toda y! REGISTER NOW Most Popular Some Claude users are mad that Anthropic’s new watermarks will catch them using it at their jobs, classes Lucas Ropek Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni reportedly knew Phia was ‘cookie stuffing’ for months Dominic-Madori Davis Delta investigating after someone set up fake Wi-Fi network mid-flight Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Anthropic says it will watermark text generated by its AI models Ivan Mehta Mark Zuckerberg’s AI manifesto is exactly why people don’t like AI Russell Brandom YouTube now requires creators to have twice as many watch hours to start earning money Aisha Malik This ‘adversarial’ pattern can prevent surveillance cameras from detecting you Zack Whittaker