Copilot is getting yet another visual overhaul as Microsoft reconsiders its approach to AI across Windows and its various apps. The new changes are focused on the version of Copilot accessible in Microsoft 365, and visually streamline the AI assistant to make it more consistent across apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

The most striking difference in Copilot’s new look is how little color it has. You can still get Copilot to produce full-color outputs, and it will reference other apps by their colorful icons. By default, though, the Copilot interface is now a largely black-and-white, text-forward affair. Part of this change was driven by a desire to make everything more readable and responsive, but Microsoft describes it as an attempt to “craft intelligence that feels present but not imposing.”

The Microsoft 365 Copilot app and the Copilot experience in Microsoft apps also feature a new “prompt surface” that changes size and reveals new functions as you type. A purely text-based request will return a direct answer, but if you invoke Copilot’s other capabilities — such as research or visualization — the text box expands to show menu options for selecting files or guiding visual responses. New side panels and menus, which collapse when not in use, follow the same principle.

These changes also affect how Copilot appears inside apps like Word. The AI is now available in a consistent location across all Microsoft 365 apps — a side pane — and works similarly to the standalone Copilot app.

The redesign does have a notable limitation: for now, it applies only to Microsoft’s productivity software. The more consumer-oriented Copilot introduced in 2024, which lives in Microsoft’s mobile app, remains bright, colorful, and visually expressive. Whether this restrained aesthetic will extend to other versions of Copilot remains unclear.

The redesign arrives as Microsoft’s broader AI strategy appears to be shifting. The company has said it intends to be more deliberate about where Copilot and AI features appear in Windows 11 and has begun pulling Copilot out of certain apps. Microsoft has also started rolling out its own in-house AI models and investing in additional AI companies, after redefining its partnership with OpenAI. The visual refresh isn’t a direct response to user complaints about Copilot in Windows, but it does reflect an AI strategy that remains very much in flux.

Source: Microsoft’s Copilot Gets a Stripped-Down, Monochrome Redesign