Copilot

A Copilot is an AI assistant embedded inside an existing application that suggests and drafts work in context, while the human keeps control of what is accepted. The name is deliberate: the software flies alongside the user rather than taking the controls. A copilot differs from a general chatbot because it already sees the working context — the open file, the spreadsheet range, the email thread — so the user does not have to paste it in. GitHub Copilot popularized the pattern by completing code inline in the editor, and Microsoft 365 Copilot extended it to Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams, where it drafts documents and summarizes meetings using the organization's own files. Other vendors ship the same idea under their own names, including Salesforce, Notion, and Figma. The recurring pitfall is over-trust. A copilot writes fluent output whether or not it is correct, so unreviewed suggestions can introduce insecure code or invented figures into a report. The term is also drifting toward agents, which run multi-step tasks on their own; a copilot proposes and waits, while an agent acts, and the difference matters when assigning accountability.