Microsoft’s latest leap in artificial intelligence (AI) is making waves—and not just among tech insiders. On October 23, 2025, the company unveiled a sweeping suite of updates to its Copilot platform and Edge browser, introducing a new AI companion named Mico. With this launch, Microsoft is betting that users are ready for a smarter, friendlier, and more collaborative digital assistant—one that learns from the mistakes of its infamous predecessor, Clippy, while sidestepping the pitfalls that have plagued other AI personalities.
Clippy, the animated paperclip that popped up in Microsoft Office in the late 1990s, is remembered more for its interruptions than its helpfulness. As Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put it to the Associated Press, “It was not well-attuned to user needs at the time. Microsoft pushed it, we resisted it and they got rid of it. I think we’re much more ready for things like that today.”
Fast-forward nearly three decades, and Microsoft is introducing Mico—a floating, emoji-like cartoon face shaped like a blob or a flame. Mico isn’t just a static icon: it changes colors, spins around, dons glasses in "study" mode, and its facial expressions shift in response to the emotional tone of conversations. According to Jacob Andreou, Corporate Vice President of Product & Growth for Microsoft AI, “When you talk about something sad, you can see Mico’s face change. You can see it dance around and move as it gets excited with you. It’s in this effort of really landing this AI companion that you can really feel.”
But Mico is just the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft’s fall 2025 Copilot update includes a dozen new features, all available for free on Windows 11 and Windows 10 installations. Andreou highlighted four major areas: collaborative AI sessions, enhanced AI personality, the new "Real Talk" mode, and improved memory for personalized interactions.
The new Groups feature is perhaps the most transformative. It lets users invite others into a Copilot session, enabling real-time collaboration—think of it as a group Zoom or FaceTime call, but with AI as an active participant. Whether it’s classmates brainstorming for a project, families planning a vacation, or colleagues hashing out a work plan, Copilot can help facilitate, draft, and even research on the fly. Andreou recounted using the feature with his wife to plan how to transition their kittens to adult cat food: “I was working with Copilot and figuring out the plan, and I just added her directly to the chat, and she was able to ask the follow-up, so we were able to kind of do it together.”
To address privacy, Andreou emphasized that when someone joins your Copilot chat, only the prompts and responses from that session are visible to them. “The system stops using memory, as an example, as soon as you bring someone else in, because we want to make sure that, you know, your personal details stay private,” he explained to TechRadar.
On the personality front, Mico stands out as Microsoft’s attempt at a "middle ground"—friendly, expressive, and helpful, but not overly human-like or sycophantic. Andreou described Mico as a “warm, expressive, customizable visual appearance.” There’s even a playful nod to Clippy for those who interact with Mico extensively. But unlike Clippy, Mico is easy to turn off, giving users more control over their experience.
Microsoft is also rolling out "Real Talk," an optional personality mode for Copilot that’s designed to be more than just a cheerleader. “It’s not just someone who’s there to kind of just be a cheerleader... this is a model that actually might really push back and might actually both help you think things through, but also actually spark some deeper conversations,” Andreou told TechRadar. Rather than reinforcing biases or monopolizing user attention, Real Talk aims to challenge users and foster genuine engagement—something Andreou believes will “lead to amazing conversations and a ton of learnings.”
Personalization is getting a boost, too. Copilot’s memory upgrade means it can remember details users share—like a family member’s birthday or a recent project—making future interactions feel more natural and connected. “It’ll make the interactions and responses feel a lot more natural and a lot more connected,” Andreou said.
Microsoft’s updates aren’t just about personality and collaboration. The company has noticed a trend: 40% of Copilot users ask health-related questions within the first weeks of using the platform. In response, Copilot will now ground its health advice in clinical sources such as Harvard Health, and when appropriate, direct users to real-world clinicians. “We will never try to be the be-all end-all of these kinds of conversations,” Andreou explained. “As soon as we think it is appropriate, we will redirect you to find clinicians that can help you to speak to someone in the real world that can help you.”
In the classroom, Copilot is being positioned as a voice-enabled, Socratic tutor that guides students through concepts they’re studying. This feature reflects Microsoft’s broader strategy to compete with Google and other tech giants for a foothold in education technology. With kids increasingly turning to AI chatbots for homework help, personal advice, and even emotional support, Microsoft’s approach is to provide a tool that is both genuinely useful and mindful of the risks. The Federal Trade Commission, for its part, launched an inquiry in September 2025 into the potential harms of AI chatbots for children and teens—though Microsoft was not included in that probe.
Other updates round out the Copilot experience: a new browser mode in Edge, the Journeys feature that helps users pick up where they left off online, and a redesigned homepage that brings recent apps, files, and conversations to the forefront. Microsoft’s Copilot remains mostly free, with no features blocked behind a subscription. Users can even sign in with Google or Apple accounts, a nod to the company’s more open approach compared to some competitors.
Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI, whose models underpin much of Copilot, remains strong. Andreou clarified, “OpenAI continues to be our partner on frontier models, and our consumer AI model strategy remains unchanged. We will continue to use the very best models from our team, our partners, and the latest innovations from the open-source community to power our products.”
Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that a new version of ChatGPT is coming in fall 2025, promising to restore personality features, including more human-like responses and emoji use. “If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it,” Altman said on X.
Microsoft’s new Copilot, with Mico at its heart, signals a new era for AI assistants—one that’s expressive, collaborative, and, perhaps most importantly, designed to serve users’ real needs without overstaying its welcome. Whether Mico becomes as iconic as Clippy—or simply more beloved—remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: the AI assistant is here to stay, and it’s learning fast.
