The competition among AI assistants is heating up, with Microsoft's Copilot facing a challenge of 900 million downloads from ChatGPT

In an era where competition in generative AI is becoming increasingly fierce, Microsoft is trying to turn its Copilot assistant into the next phenomenal product. However, the reality is that despite the global software giant investing billions of dollars in AI and infrastructure, its consumer-facing AI assistant Copilot is still far behind OpenAI's ChatGPT.

According to Sensor Tower data, ChatGPT's global downloads have surpassed 900 million, while Microsoft's Copilot has only 79 million downloads, a gap of more than 10 times. Copilot's monthly active users grew by 76% in the second quarter, reaching 23 million, which is a considerable growth rate, but it still lags significantly behind competitors like ChatGPT.

Faced with intense competition, Microsoft is making strides in multiple frontiers, including Windows and smartphone applications, continuously improving Copilot's voice, visual, and memory capabilities. Analysts point out that winning the AI assistant market is crucial for Microsoft; otherwise, other competitors will fill this gap.

From Reconstruction to Complaints

To stand out in the AI assistant battlefield, Microsoft has focused its strategic efforts on three Copilot product lines:

1. A code assistant for developers,

2. A workplace assistant integrated into office software like Outlook and Word,

3. And a personal Copilot that helps users understand information and navigate the world.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has repeatedly emphasized the goal of getting hundreds of millions of people to use the Copilot series of AI tools. To this end, he recruited AI star Mustafa Suleyman—co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection—15 months ago to lead Microsoft's consumer AI business.

Suleyman not only leads the development of the consumer version of Copilot but also took over a series of products including Edge browser, MSN homepage, and Bing search. Although these tools have a large user base, they have little cultural influence. He completely separated the enterprise and consumer versions of Copilot, believing that users in different scenarios need entirely different AI experiences: helping with Excel modeling in the office and comforting the bereaved or recommending shopping at home should not use the same algorithmic logic.

However, reconstruction also means fragmentation, leading to user complaints.

Some users found that they could no longer invoke Copilot on Android phones through the default button and could only open it through the app. Other users often accidentally pressed the newly added Copilot key on the keyboard; they intended to press Ctrl but ended up unintentionally invoking the AI assistant. Microsoft introduced a dedicated Copilot key for Windows devices in an attempt to enhance the presence of the AI assistant, but this "hard embedding" has not translated into sticky usage.

Moreover, familiar features such as AI image editing capabilities have quietly gone offline, causing user dissatisfaction and negative reviews. Although Microsoft later reintroduced some features, problems continue to arise: chat history mysteriously disappearing, conversations being abruptly terminated, and chaotic response logic are still frequent bugs. Microsoft is not the first to create an AI assistant. As early as 2015, it launched the Cortana voice assistant, which could perform functions such as calendar reminders, sending emails, and location-triggered alerts. However, today's Copilot still does not support common system-level operations like adjusting volume or opening Outlook on Windows, clearly falling short of the maturity of its predecessor.

System Rhythm and Mobile Dilemma

The biggest obstacle facing Copilot currently is the limitations of the platform and rhythm.

Microsoft wants to make it the default assistant for mobile users, but the reality is that global mobile devices are almost entirely controlled by Google (Android) and Apple (iOS), both of which are also accelerating the deployment of their own AI systems. Former Microsoft manager Matthew Quinlan admitted:

"In a situation where the operating system is dominated by competitors, there are almost no precedents for breaking through with an independent app."

Additionally, the Windows system itself has a slow update rhythm, with only a few major version releases each year, making it difficult for the Copilot team to achieve the rapid iteration they hope for. "This is one of the biggest challenges we face," Suleyman admitted.

The AI War is Still Uncertain

Regarding Copilot's slow growth, Microsoft executives are not anxious, believing that as long as the product matures, it can quickly gain users through its ecosystem, advertising resources, and other means.

A round of advertising this spring did indeed briefly propel Copilot to the top of the Apple App Store rankings. Microsoft also hopes to attract users through two key features:

Visual recognition and natural language interaction. The former can recognize screen content or "see" the real world through the camera, while the latter aims for more natural voice conversations, such as being able to detect pauses and sentence breaks, achieving smoother human-computer dialogue.

In the enterprise market, Microsoft has years of accumulated customer relationships and can "strongly push" Copilot into workplace scenarios through IT administrators. In the consumer market, users have more freedom of choice and tend to prefer tools with better user experiences. ChatGPT has already established a "moat" based on user habits, product capabilities, and influence.

The future of Copilot remains full of variables. Microsoft will not easily give up in this protracted battle for AI, but to "turn the tide" in mobile and personal scenarios, it must prove that it is not just Bing with a chat box, nor just a new button in Outlook. To truly win over users, Copilot still needs to answer one question: what makes you an indispensable AI assistant in people's lives?