Microsoft has announced the rebranding of its AI chatbot ‘Bing Chat’ to ‘Microsoft Copilot‘. This decision, unveiled less than a year after the launch of Bing Chat, positioned Microsoft more robustly against competitors like Google’s Bard and the widely popular ChatGPT.

Colette Stallbaumer, General Manager of Microsoft 365, stated in a press release that “Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise will now simply become Copilot.” This rebranding aims to simplify the user experience and make the tool more accessible to everyone. The decision follows the recent naming of their Windows 11 chatbot as Copilot.

Microsoft unveiled Copilot as a free version of its AI chatbot, accessible through Bing and Windows. Notably, Copilot now boasts its own domain, copilot.microsoft.com, enhancing user experience by making it more independent and not reliant on Bing navigation.

The company also renamed the paid version of the chatbot from Microsoft 365 Copilot to Copilot for Microsoft 365. This change, they assure, does not alter their data residency or management promises. The chatbot will continue to integrate with Microsoft 365 applications and access Microsoft Graph.

Earlier this year, Bing made headlines with its integration of ChatGPT technology, surpassing 100 million daily active users for the first time. This success prompted Google to hasten the launch of Bard, its AI chatbot. Despite this initial enthusiasm, Bing has yet to significantly challenge Google’s dominance in the search market, which holds over 90% of the global market share. Microsoft, however, maintains that Bing remains a key brand and technology driving many Copilot experiences, as stated by Caitlin Roulston, Microsoft’s Director of Communications.

The relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, is complex yet strategic. Since 2019, Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI, gaining privileged access to its technology for Bing and other tools. This partnership, however, does not preclude Microsoft from exploring more cost-effective internal AI solutions. Some of Microsoft’s engineers are reportedly working on developing a cheaper conversational AI, which is already being incorporated into existing products.

Despite these internal developments, Microsoft’s renewed focus on Copilot does not indicate a break from its collaboration with OpenAI. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently expressed expectations of continued financial support from Microsoft for the development of GPT-5.