Microsoft’s Copilot can now peer into your open tabs in Edge – if you allow it – as part of new AI features for the browser

There is a new update for the Edge browser on desktop and mobile
Microsoft has retired Copilot Mode, which came to the browser last year
It’s been replaced by a number of separate AI features, including one that can (with your permission) scan across all your open tabs

Microsoft is dropping Copilot Mode from Edge, but if you thought AI was disappearing from the web browser, think again, as AI features are actually being baked right into the app instead.

Microsoft announced that as part of the latest update to Edge, Copilot Mode is being retired from the browser, but new AI features are coming to the desktop version of the app (and also the mobile one).

The biggest change here is that Copilot can now scan over all the tabs you have open in Edge and pull information to answer your queries.

Analysis: Copilot cloak attached

Woman using a Windows 11 computer with Microsoft Edge

(Image credit: Microsoft)

So the move Microsoft is now taking is effectively covering Copilot. The AI isn’t going away from Edge, but the more in-your-face presence — Copilot Mode, introduced almost a year ago now — is being shelved, with AI functionality instead being woven more subtly into the browser in various ways.

And granted, some of the features outlined above could be quite useful. The concern for some is on the privacy front, although Microsoft is clear enough that Copilot will only be able to poke around your tabs if you click the AI button.

The company makes it clear: “With Copilot in Edge, your data stays yours. Microsoft collects only what is necessary to improve your experience — or what you choose to provide through personalization settings.”

If you avoid clicking the Copilot icon and don’t enable any of these features in Edge’s settings, there won’t be any privacy issues. Or at least there shouldn’t be, but that hasn’t stopped some predictable negative reactions to Microsoft’s latest Edge update.

There are definitely a few Redditors who don’t trust what Microsoft is up to here, and comments like this one aren’t uncommon: “Microsoft Edge and privacy don’t go in the same sentence.”

Microsoft is busy trying to change the bad reputation it has been saddled with since Windows 11 arrived – which was greatly worsened with the arrival of Copilot in the operating system – and especially now we have the big drive to fix everything that is wrong with Windows 11.

But with skeptical Redditors saying things like “K2 won’t mean anything” in response to this latest move for Edge — K2 is the codename for the project to streamline Windows 11, debloat the OS and make it more performant — it looks like Microsoft still has a fair bit of confidence-building to do.