Copilots
AI built into the tools people already work in, such as code editors, documents and email, suggesting and increasingly acting while the person stays in charge.
Read first: The agent loop, AI features inside products.
D1 · StoryFor young children and total beginners
A copilot sits next to the pilot and helps, but the pilot is still in charge.
AI copilots suggest text, code or answers, and you decide what to keep.
Like: A copilot helping, while the pilot stays in charge.
D2 · PictureFor curious beginners
Copilots bring model calls into existing tools: code editors, email, documents and search. They are the deepest form of AI built into a product.
Good designs keep people in control: suggestions appear inline, are easy to accept or reject, and show their sources.
Many copilots now have an agent mode that hands a whole task to a coding agent or other agent, and comes back with changes to review.
Behind the interface sit the lower layers: an agent or orchestrated calls, a model endpoint, and infrastructure.
Like: A copilot helping, while the pilot stays in charge.
Where it breaks: A human copilot is accountable and consistent. An AI copilot can be confidently wrong in different ways each time, so review matters more, not less.
D5 · FrontierFor experts
Open questions: measuring real productivity effects, over-reliance and skill loss, and interfaces for agents that take actions rather than make suggestions.