Microsoft is merging its consumer-facing Copilot app with its business-oriented Microsoft 365 Copilot app, while eliminating several underperforming features, according to the company’s support documentation and initial reporting from GeekWire. The consolidation reflects an acknowledgment that personal and professional AI use often overlap, as well as an admission that Microsoft’s previous multi-app strategy struggled to compete effectively with rivals like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
By August 18, 2026, consumer users will lose access to Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs experimental features, and Deep Research, though business subscribers will retain a similar research tool called Researcher. Microsoft is also retiring Copilot’s animated character, Mico, and warns that some features may be temporarily unavailable during the transition, with files from the standalone Copilot app migrating to OneDrive.
The restructuring follows similar consolidation trends across the AI industry, including Anthropic’s integration of Cowork into Claude’s chat interface, OpenAI folding its Operator feature into ChatGPT, and Google expanding Gemini’s capabilities to include combined deep research and browsing tools.
According to a memo reported by The Information, Microsoft executive Jacob Andreou, who oversees Copilot, told staff internally that the app needed to earn its place in users’ daily lives, requiring the company to abandon features that failed to gain traction.
