Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has confirmed that Microsoft is pulling the plug on the development of its Copilot AI chatbot for the Xbox ecosystem. Additionally, the company is winding down its Copilot mobile prospects.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Sharma states that “Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.” As part of this goal, the company is no longer pursuing Copilot for mobile or consoles, and development has halted.
“Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward,” Sharma writes. “This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.”
Microsoft has boldly attempted to insert Copilot into the console experience on Xbox for two years now. The most prominent incorporation of Copilot AI on Xbox was a feature that let an AI chatbot speak with players while they played and offer advice, hints, and tips.
In a very early example, a Copilot AI was operating while a player was playing Minecraft. The AI chatbot could look at the player’s inventory, see what they had on hand, and tell them which items they needed and where to find them to build a sword.
Last year, Microsoft expanded its ambitions for AI features on Xbox with ‘Copilot for Gaming‘, an AI chatbot built for use in the Xbox mobile app and on consoles. Within this, Copilot would scan the user’s gaming history and suggest new titles, monitor Achievement progress, and provide tips for completing games. Within games, like Overwatch 2, the Copilot for Gaming AI would suggest which character to choose if the player’s favourite was already chosen by someone else.
Sharma stepped into the role of Xbox CEO in February, effectively replacing Phil Spencer, who stepped down. Shaha formerly led Microsoft’s CoreAI before joining the Xbox ecosystem, which made many worry that she would bring ideals from the AI framework with her. This week, Sharma overhauled the executive leadership team at Xbox, bringing over many members of the CoreAI engineering group as well as a director from Instacart. “We need to evolve how we work,” Sharma wrote in a memo to staff members.
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