It’s been nearly 30 years since Microsoft’s Office assistant Clippy first appeared on our screens as a cheerful paperclip. After Clippy’s Groucho Marx–style eyebrow farewell in 2001 with the launch of Office XP, Microsoft later tried reviving the spirit of its digital helper through Cortana on Windows Phone. That effort didn’t quite take off a decade ago—but now, Microsoft is ready for another attempt with Mico, a new character for Copilot’s voice mode.
“Clippy walked so we could run,” joked Jacob Andreou, Corporate Vice President of AI Products and Growth at Microsoft, in an interview with The Verge. For several months, Microsoft has been testing Mico (rhymes with “pico”) as a virtual companion that responds with real-time facial expressions as you speak to it. Mico is now enabled by default in Copilot’s voice mode, though users can opt to turn off the animated bouncing orb.
“You can see it reacting as you talk—if you mention something sad, its expression changes almost instantly,” Andreou explained. “All the underlying tech fades into the background, and you start forming a connection with this cute little sphere.”
At launch, Mico is available only in the United States. This new Copilot avatar will also leverage Copilot’s newly introduced memory feature to recall facts about you and your ongoing tasks.
Microsoft has also added a “Learn Live” mode for Mico, transforming the character into a Socratic-style tutor that “guides you through concepts rather than just giving answers.” It even uses an interactive whiteboard and visual cues—features seemingly tailored for students preparing for final exams or anyone practicing a new language.
As Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, noted earlier this year, Mico is part of a broader vision to give Copilot a distinct identity. “Copilot will definitely have a persistent identity, a presence—it’ll have a room it lives in, and it will age,” Suleyman said in July.
Mico is also central to Microsoft’s renewed push to get people talking to their computers. The company is running TV ads promoting the latest Windows 11 PCs as “computers you can talk to.” A decade ago, Microsoft tried convincing users to speak with Cortana on Windows 10—a campaign that ultimately led to Cortana’s deprecation and removal from Windows 11 a few years back.
While Mico is undoubtedly far more capable than either Clippy or Cortana, Microsoft still faces the familiar challenge of persuading users to actually converse with their devices. Like its predecessors, Mico comes with its own Easter eggs to encourage interaction with the AI assistant.
“It’s funny you mention Clippy—there’s an Easter egg when you try Mico,” Andreou teased. “If you tap Mico really, really fast, something special might happen. In a way, we’re all living in Clippy’s shadow.”
