The AI assistant has had its personality stripped away in search of a more cohesive experience.
Copilot is getting a new visual overhaul as Microsoft reconsiders its approach to AI in Windows and its various applications. The new changes focus on the version of Copilot accessible in Microsoft 365 and visually streamline the AI assistant for more consistent use in apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
The most striking difference in Copilot’s new look is how little color it contains. You can always ask Copilot to produce color output and it will refer to other apps by their colored app icons. By default, however, the Copilot interface is now a largely black-and-white affair, with text transfer. Part of this change was driven by a desire to make everything more readable and responsive, but Microsoft suggests it also reflects an attempt to “create intelligence that feels present but not imposing.”
Microsoft introduced a new design for Copilot pic.twitter.com/Bxdg6dKbfZ
– Andreas Storm (@avstorm) May 28, 2026
This approach also applies to adjustments that Microsoft makes to the AI assistant itself. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app and the Copilot experience in Microsoft apps feature a new “prompt surface” that changes size and reveals new functions as you type. You can enter a purely text-based query to Copilot and it will respond, but if you refer to the AI assistant’s other skills, like the ability to search or visualize, the text box will deploy menu options to select files or guide Copilot’s visual responses. The app’s new side panels and menus, which collapse when not in use, are another example of this approach. It’s important to note that these changes also apply to how Copilot appears in apps like Word. AI is now available in a consistent location across all Microsoft 365 apps – a side pane – and works the same as the standalone Copilot app.
The only problem with Microsoft’s Copilot redesign is that, at least for now, it’s limited to the company’s productivity software. The more user-friendly Copilot, introduced in 2024 and found in Microsoft’s mobile app, is still bright, colorful and (sometimes) blobby. It’s possible that this more buttoned-down look will make the jump to other versions of Copilot at some point, but that may depend on where Microsoft’s AI plans land.
The company has committed to thinking more about where Copilot and AI features appear in Windows 11 and has even started removing Copilot from some apps. This also changes the AI models used. After being an early investor in OpenAI and a beneficiary of its GPT models, the two companies have redefined their partnership. Microsoft has now started deploying its own AI models internally and investing in other AI companies. A visual overhaul isn’t a solution to the problems Windows users are having with Copilot, but it seems to be a sign that Microsoft’s AI strategy is evolving.
