Say Hello to Mico, Microsoft’s AI version of Clippy

Almost three decades after Clippy, the “notorious” Microsoft Office assistant, blinked its cartoon eyes across computer screens, the company is trying again to bring personality to artificial intelligence. This time, it’s Mico, the new voice mode companion for Copilot.

“Clippy walked so that we could run,” jokes Jacob Andreou, corporate VP of product and growth at Microsoft AI. It’s a confident statement from a company that has spent years trying to redefine how humans interact with machines.

Mico, which rhymes with “pico,” has been quietly tested for months. It’s a virtual character that reacts in real time, showing facial expressions that mirror conversation. “You can see it, it reacts as you speak to it, and if you talk about something sad you’ll see its facial expressions react almost immediately,” explains Andreou. “All the technology fades into the background, and you just start talking to this cute orb and build this connection with it.”

At launch, Mico will only be available in the United States. It represents Microsoft’s latest move to add memory and emotional context to Copilot, allowing it to recall facts about your projects, preferences, and work patterns. Unlike Clippy’s scripted prompts, Mico’s interactions are designed to feel conversational and adaptive.

There’s also a new Learn Live mode. This turns Mico into what Microsoft calls a Socratic tutor that “guides you through concepts instead of just giving answers.” It uses interactive whiteboards and visual cues, designed for learners preparing for exams or exploring new subjects such as languages or coding.

The effort to give Copilot a defined persona is part of a wider vision inside Microsoft AI. Earlier this year, Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, said, “Copilot will certainly have a kind of permanent identity, a presence, and it will have a room that it lives in, and it will age.”

This ambition extends beyond Copilot. Mico sits at the centre of Microsoft’s push to get people to speak naturally to their computers. Television campaigns for the latest Windows 11 PCs promote them as “the computer you can talk to.” It’s a bold return to an idea Microsoft first championed through Cortana on Windows 10,  an experiment that ended when the Cortana app was finally shut down on Windows 11.

The challenge now is the same as it was twenty years ago: can Microsoft make talking to a computer feel normal? For all its technical evolution, human behaviour changes slowly. Asking an AI to perform tasks out loud still carries social hesitation.

Mico’s charm might help bridge that gap. It’s expressive, responsive, and packed with small digital surprises designed to encourage play. “It’s funny you mention Clippy; there is an Easter egg when you get to try Mico. If you poke Mico very very quickly, something special may happen,” teases Andreou. “We all live in Clippy’s shadow in some sense.”

That shadow looms large. But this time, Microsoft isn’t reviving nostalgia, it’s redesigning interaction. Whether users will embrace Mico beyond the novelty phase remains the real test ahead.