Windows 11 will soon allow users to change chat providers for Copilot

Copilot in Windows is a new digital assistant that is powered by generative AI and it is pre-installed in the latest Windows 11 builds. Copilot in Windows can do tasks like changing Windows settings, launch apps and more. Copilot is powered by a chat provider platform which is a underlying service that Copilot in Windows uses to communicate with the user.

Windows Copilot had two different chat providers, Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise. Bing Chat is for consumers who signed in using a Microsoft Account whereas Bing Chat Enterprise is for consumers who signed using Microsoft Entra Account inside enterprises. With Bing Chat Enterprise, user and organizational data is protected, chat data isn’t saved, and the data isn’t used to train the underlying large language models. Also, because of this protection, chat history, 3rd-party plugins, and the Bing mobile app for iOS or Android are not supported.

Recently, Microsoft rebranded Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise as Copilot. Today, Windows Insider PhantomOcean3 discovered that Windows 11 will soon allow users to select their preferred Chat Provider under Copilot Settings page. As you can see from the screenshot above, the new Chat Providers (Choose which chat providers you have access to) option will allow users to switch between consumer and enterprise version of Copilot.

Selecting the correct chat provider platform for Copilot in Windows is important for enterprises, since it is possible for users to copy and paste sensitive information into Copilot causing possible data leak.