Copilot can’t catch ChatGPT, even on Microsoft’s home turf

Copilot

Despite being deeply integrated into Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and the Edge browser, Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot, has not been gaining enough traction. According to a report by tech newsletter Newcomer, the tool has hovered around 20 million weekly users for the past year—dwarfed by ChatGPT’s massive 400 million. Both run on OpenAI’s models, but the user engagement isn’t even close.

The usage stats, reportedly presented by Microsoft CFO Amy Hood at a company meeting in March, reflect a growing concern: that Copilot isn’t clicking with consumers the way ChatGPT has. Even with Microsoft’s multi-billion-dollar investment in OpenAI and the strategic embedding of Copilot into its software ecosystem, users haven’t bitten.

This stagnation is part of what prompted Microsoft’s acqui-hire of Mustafa Suleyman and his team from Inflection AI. Now leading Microsoft AI, Suleyman has led a revamp of Copilot, adding new features like agentive capabilities that can act on your behalf on certain websites. While these updates suggest a more ambitious and independent Copilot in the making, it remains to be seen whether it can shake off its “ChatGPT-lite” image.

The underlying issue may be brand inertia: ChatGPT had the first-mover advantage and became the face of generative AI. Microsoft, even with superior distribution, may still be lacking a compelling identity or feature set that gets people to switch.

As Microsoft continues to retool Copilot into a standalone consumer product rather than just a productivity add-on, ChatGPT has been making a big splash with new features and models.