Microsoft (MSFT) debuted a suite of updates for its AI-powered Copilot at its Ignite 2025 conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Like rivals Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Microsoft is seeking to further integrate generative AI technologies into its most popular services and software platforms, as the company attempts to maximize monetization of its enormous AI data center investments.
According to Microsoft, 90% of the Fortune 500 is using Microsoft 365 Copilot, the version of the company’s Copilot AI assistant, which is built into its productivity apps, including Word, Excel, and Teams.
Microsoft’s Cloud business — which includes its Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud, Azure, and other cloud services, as well as the commercial portion of LinkedIn and Dynamics 365 — generated $49.1 billion in revenue in its most recent quarter.
At Ignite, Microsoft unveiled its Work IQ feature, which the company said serves as a layer behind Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI agents that allows Copilot to better understand your job and data.
According to Microsoft, the software uses information from your emails, files, and meetings and, thanks to memory, can recognize your writing style and work habits. Built into apps including Word, Outlook, and Teams, Work IQ can do things like enable Copilot to suggest the right AI agent for tasks based on your prompt.
You can also now choose whether you want to use OpenAI’s (OPAI.PVT) or Anthropic’s (ANTH.PVT) AI models in Excel and Word.
Microsoft said it’s also bringing voice mode to 365 Copilot, so you can ask it to catch you up on your meetings or what your priorities are for the day via natural conversation.
The company is also launching its Agent 365 control panel for AI agents. This serves as a means of limiting agent access to specific data and offers a visual dashboard that shows the connections between people, agents, and data.
According to Microsoft, you’ll be able to use the platform to access agents from the Windows maker’s Copilot Studio and Microsoft Foundry, as well as from third-party developers like Adobe and ServiceNow.
Microsoft’s announcements come just a few weeks after the company debuted Mico, a digital avatar for Microsoft Copilot that you can chat with on your Windows PC. Think of it as a modern, more advanced version of Microsoft’s Clippy assistant from the late 1990s.
The company also said it was making Copilot more empathetic and supportive, but not sycophantic, meaning it will push back on certain user requests.
Experts and parents have criticized chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT for becoming too sycophantic, leading some users to fall into delusional rabbit holes that can upend their lives.
