Microsoft catches the eye with new AI image editing tools for Copilot

A woman at a table using a Windows laptop, opposite sits a man, neither show their face
(Image credit: Unsplash / Windows)

The latest update to Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant promises to make it even easier to create and customize images as it adds image editing tools right inside the app. 

Content creators are now able to generate AI images with text-to-image prompts, and customize directly in the Copilot app on Windows, mobile, and online. 

Alongside the Dall-E-powered AI art generator comes a handful of UI improvements to Copilot’s web and mobile apps, with Yusuf Mehdi, Executive Vice President, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer calling it, “a cleaner, sleeker look and feel for answers and a fun new carousel of suggested prompts.”  

What’s new in Microsoft Copilot?

“Over 5 billion chats and 5 billion images created to date.” It’s with these figures - big, but are they impressive? - and a widely trailed Superbowl ad that Microsoft is launching a few tweaks to its AI assistant.

But while users will breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing Copilot will now, according to Mehdi. help them “more easily gain understanding about the world”, UI/UX updates rarely make engaging half-time commercials. So on top of that streamlined look and feel comes Designer for Copilot, a free online AI image generator with inline editing.

Microsoft Copilot with Ai image generatedby Microsoft Designer during the editing stage

(Image credit: Microsoft / Future)

We tried out the browser version, and found it incredibly simple to use. After defining an image, and selecting one of four Copilot suggestions, users can choose Customize to open up the Designer web app. It’s a fairly lightweight platform, even compared to graphic design software like Canva and Adobe Express, but well-suited to rapid content creation for social media posts. Usefully, generated images remain in the Copilot chatbox. 

In a blog post announcing the update, Mehdi also teased the upcoming arrival of new Designer GPT, described as “an immersive, dedicated canvas inside of Copilot where you can visualize your ideas.” Cortana would’ve wanted it this way. 

Personal users can now access Copilot’s new tools for free, while the platform’s Pro subscribers also gain inline image resize and regenerate tools.

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Steve Clark
B2B Editor - Creative & Hardware

Steve is TechRadar Pro’s B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware. He began in tech journalism reviewing photo editors and video editing software at the magazine Web User, where he also covered technology news, features, and how-to guides. Today, he and his team of reviewers test out a range of creative software, hardware, and office furniture. Once upon a time, he wrote TV commercials and movie trailers. Relentless champion of the Oxford comma.