이미지: TechCrunch AI
Summary
- Microsoft is merging its consumer Copilot app with the business-focused Microsoft 365 Copilot app into one.
- By August 18, 2026, group chat, AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs, and deep research will be discontinued for consumers.
- The animated character "Mico" will also be retired, and files created in the standalone app will be moved to OneDrive.
- 통합 대상
- 소비자용 Copilot 앱 + Microsoft 365 Copilot 비즈니스 앱
- 기능 종료 시한
- 2026년 8월 18일까지 그룹챗·AI 팟캐스트·Copilot Labs·딥리서치 종료
- 대체 기능
- 유료 비즈니스 사용자에겐 'Researcher'가 딥리서치 대체
- 폐지 캐릭터
- 애니메이션 마스코트 '미코(Mico)'
- 파일 처리
- 독립형 Copilot 앱 생성 파일은 원드라이브로 이전
What happened
Microsoft is merging its consumer Copilot app with the business-focused Microsoft 365 Copilot app into a single app. According to a support document, group chat, AI-generated podcasts, the experimental feature collection Copilot Labs, and deep research will be discontinued for consumer users by August 18, 2026. Paid business users will retain a feature called "Researcher" in place of deep research. The animated character "Mico," which floated on screen as a round blob-shaped figure, will also be discontinued. The company said files created in the standalone Copilot app will be moved to OneDrive.
What this means
Two years ago, Microsoft called AI a "generational shift" and declared its intent to lead that wave. But Copilot itself ended up scattered across Windows, Office, browsers, and standalone apps, accumulating separate sets of consumer and business features along the way. This merger acknowledges that personal and work use of AI effectively overlap now — and it's also an implicit admission that such a fragmented strategy made it hard to properly compete with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. In fact, in a July internal memo, Jacob Andreou, the Microsoft EVP overseeing Copilot, reportedly said the product needed to "earn the right to exist in customers' lives." The implication is that without trimming unpopular features, it won't even earn that right. Microsoft isn't alone in this consolidation trend. Anthropic folded its collaboration feature Cowork into its chat interface, and OpenAI absorbed its agent feature Operator into ChatGPT. Google has also unified deep research and web browsing within Gemini. After several years of AI apps piling on experimental features, the industry now appears to be entering a phase of consolidating scattered functions back into a single app.
Microsoft also outlined, in an August 10 Microsoft Source blog post, how to build AI agents without writing code. Using the "Agents" panel in Microsoft 365 Copilot, users can draft an agent simply by describing it in natural language. Combined with this app merger, it suggests Copilot may increasingly bring together consumer convenience features and business agent-building tools within a single screen going forward.
What changes now
Consumers currently using Copilot should back up any content made with group chat or AI podcasts before August 18. For users who liked the Mico mascot, it's a disappointing bit of news, but for the company, it signals an effort to consolidate a Copilot that had sprawled across multiple apps and experimental features into a single, simpler, more consistent experience. Whether this cleanup actually narrows the gap with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini will likely be judged by how users respond once the unified app arrives.
