Microsoft consolidates Copilot apps and retires consumer AI features
Microsoft is merging its consumer-facing Copilot application with Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing personal and professional AI functions into a single experience. As part of the transition, the company will retire Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs experimental features and Deep Research for consumers by August 18, 2026.
Microsoft will also remove Mico, the animated Copilot character. Files created in the standalone Copilot app will be migrated to OneDrive. The company cautions that some functions may be temporarily unavailable while the services are being combined.
A simpler Copilot product structure
Microsoft describes the change as an effort to make Copilot a simpler, more cohesive experience. The consolidation reflects the overlap between personal and workplace AI use, but it also reduces the number of separate Copilot entry points that customers must understand.
The move comes as competing AI providers streamline their own products. Anthropic has merged Cowork into Chat, OpenAI has incorporated its agentic Operator capability into ChatGPT, and Google has added specialised functions to Gemini, including combined deep-research and web-browsing capabilities.
What changes for paid users
Professional subscribers will have an alternative to the withdrawn Deep Research feature: Microsoft says Researcher will replace it for paying work users. Organisations evaluating Microsoft’s enterprise AI positioning can view the shift alongside Microsoft’s corporate AI competition strategy as Microsoft reshapes its offering against OpenAI and Anthropic in the corporate market.
The removals follow internal pressure to focus the service. In a July report by The Information, Microsoft executive vice-president Jacob Andreou, who oversees Copilot, said the application needed to earn the right to exist in customers’ lives and that the company had to move on from features that did not work.
Migration planning for organisations
Businesses using Copilot should identify whether teams rely on the retiring consumer features, distinguish those uses from Microsoft 365 Copilot workflows, and check how generated files will be handled in OneDrive. Teams that need research support should also establish whether their licences provide access to Researcher.
The practical implication is to treat the consolidation as an application change: document feature dependencies, communicate any temporary disruption, and prepare users for a narrower, unified Copilot experience.