Microsoft announced plans to combine its consumer-facing Copilot app with the business-oriented Microsoft 365 Copilot, while retiring a number of AI features that the company says have not met expectations. The changes are described in Microsoft support documentation and were first reported by GeekWire.
What will change
Microsoft says users of the separate Copilot apps will see functionality consolidated into a single application. As part of the transition, the company will remove Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts in Copilot, Copilot Labs experimental features, and Deep Research. Those specific features are scheduled to be discontinued by August 18, 2026.
For paying professional customers, Microsoft plans to offer Researcher as a replacement for Deep Research. Files created in the stand-alone Copilot app will be migrated to OneDrive. Microsoft also confirmed the animated Copilot character Mico will be retired. The company warned that other features may temporarily disappear during the migration process.
Context and company statements
Microsoft framed the move as an effort to provide a “simpler, more cohesive experience,” according to its documentation. The consolidation reflects a broader trend in the AI app market: Anthropic merged Cowork into Chat, OpenAI folded Operator into ChatGPT, and Google has added specialized capabilities to its Gemini app.
Reporting by The Information in July cited an internal memo from Microsoft EVP Jacob Andreou saying Copilot needed to “earn the right to exist” in customers’ lives and that the app must move on from features that did not work. The company’s shift acknowledges overlap between personal and professional AI use and criticizes a prior strategy that it says became too complex to position Copilot as a clear competitor to ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
Microsoft set a firm deadline for the feature removals on August 18, 2026, and stated that files from the retiring stand-alone Copilot app will be transferred to OneDrive. Paying professional users should expect Researcher to serve as a replacement for Deep Research.
Original source: TechCrunch AI