Microsoft $MSFT has thrown billions of dollars into AI to quickly advance in the world’s AI chatbot race, yet it’s still falling far behind its competitors.
The tech company’s AI chatbot Copilot has 79 million downloads, but its numbers pale in comparison to its main competitors. ChatGPT, on the other hand, has exceeded 900 million downloads, garnering 10x more downloads than Microsoft, according to Bloomberg reporting based on data from Sensor Tower.
Next in line is Google $GOOGL’s Gemini with 200 million downloads, then DeepSeek with 127 million, and then Microsoft’s Copilot takes fourth place, the report said. Although Copilot’s downloads are ahead of some other chatbots, like Perplexity, it’s struggling by millions in comparison to DeepSeek and Gemini, and is miles behind ChatGPT, according to the report.
ChatGPT’s popularity among users compared to Copilot’s really comes as no surprise — users have been saying Microsoft’s chatbot's AI isn’t as good as ChatGPT’s since last year.
Microsoft President Brad Smith had previously said in a blog post that the tech giant was on track to invest $80 billion in AI-enabled data centers in fiscal year 2025 (which ended on June 30). Plus, the company is handing out eye-popping salaries and retention bonuses to employees working on artificial intelligence — especially those advancing Copilot and its broader generative AI strategy.
In April, Microsoft announced an array of updates to personalize and automate its AI assistant at the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
“Ultimately, I think there is going to be as many Copilots as there are people using them,” Microsoft’s AI chief Mustafa Suleyman said from the event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. “Each is going to have its own style and tone and, of course, its own name. And so today, we’re taking the very first steps towards rich memory and personalization, the very foundations of an AI companion.”
The capabilities announced, while new to Copilot, aren’t particularly new to the industry. ChatGPT already offers personalization. Microsoft currently uses models from OpenAI — which owns ChatGPT — in part to power its AI chatbot.
Microsoft is clearly counting on its AI strategy paying off, but billions invested in infrastructure and high-paying salaries might not be enough for the tech company to catch up to ChatGPT’s success.
—Britney Nguyen, Ece Yildirim, and Emily Price contributed to this article.