Microsoft’s push into Agentic AI begins with the “Hey Copilot” voice assistant in Windows 11

Microsoft announced Thursday that it is integrating Agent artificial intelligence In Windows 11, this makes it Copilot AI The software can be accessed as a voice or text assistant. In a blog post and videothe tech giant has detailed the ways in which people can use Copilot through the “Hey Copilot” voice command, as opposed to similar services from Apple (Siri), Amazon (Alexa) and Google.

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The always-on version of Copilot is not enabled by default. You must enable it in the Copilot app settings.

“You’ll see the Copilot microphone appear on your screen, along with a chime to indicate that Copilot is listening,” the blog said.

To end a Copilot conversation, you can say “Goodbye” or press X. You can also wait for Copilot to end after a few moments without any interaction.

Microsoft began rolling out the “Hey Copilot” feature to members of the Windows Insider Program in May.

The company is making big bets on agentic AI, a newer generation of artificial intelligence from Generative artificial intelligence Which focuses more on independent action and decision making. Microsoft sees artificial intelligence agents As the next wave of artificial intelligence technology.

What can a “co-pilot” do?

The audio version of Copilot should be able to answer questions and perform tasks in the same way that Copilot’s text prompt can – which works similarly to natural language prompts in ChatGPT. But Microsoft says the updates it rolls out Windows 11 Could do more.

“We believe this shift to conversational input will be as transformative as the mouse and keyboard in terms of opening up new capabilities on the PC to the largest group of people,” the company said in a blog post.

Microsoft says Copilot should be able to perform Windows tasks you ask for in natural language, and that the sister feature, See the co-pilotcan analyze what’s on your screen, make recommendations, answer questions, and guide you out loud on how to improve the project.

This help can extend to Office applications, including PowerPoint and Word. company recently It offered a premium version of its Microsoft 365 softwarerolling out more AI features at $20 per month.

In the blog post, Microsoft previewed some of the features it will first share with Windows Insider members, like a redesigned Copilot-based Windows taskbar and Copilot Actions, which will allow for web activity like reserving a table at a restaurant or ordering groceries.