We've seen Microsoft try a few tricks when encouraging users to use its products. One of its favorites is detecting when you start looking around for its competitor's products and begins slowly slipping ads for its own services in there. If you've ever installed a brand new copy of Windows 11 and used Microsoft Edge to download Chrome, you'll know how much both the browser and Bing will put up a fight to convince you to stick with Microsoft's defaults.

These days, Microsoft's biggest bet is on its AI assistant, Copilot. AI assistants are really expensive to deploy and run, and the Redmond giant likely wants to see a return on it sooner rather than later. There's just one problem: people tend to use Microsoft's competitors' AI tools over its own. So, it's doing what it does best and gently nudging you to use Copilot instead of its rival services.

Microsoft Edge will now slowly slide Copilot toward you if it catches you using ChatGPT, Perplexity, or DeepSeek

As spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft Edge has reportedly been updated with new behavior. Now, the browser will keep an eye out for when you visit one of Copilot's rival services. Windows Latest noticed that the new behavior activated when visiting ChatGPT, Perplexity, or DeepSeek, but some (such as Gemini) weren't affected.

Once Microsoft Edge detects that you're browsing one of the above sites, it deploys a sneaky little button on the address bar. The button features the outline of the Copilot logo, alongside the text "Try Copilot." If you click on it, the Copilot sidebar opens, presumably to remind you that you have an AI assistant built right into the browser. Windows Latest noted that the little button didn't appear on any other website, which does heavily imply it'll only prod you if you dare decide to use a rival product.

So, why is Microsoft doing this? Well, the easy answer is just to say "Because it's Microsoft" and move on, but when you look at the current trends, you see why the company is deploying this new strategy. Windows Latest points to a recent post on X by Similarweb that claims that Microsoft Copilot has had a measly 1-2% of the AI assistant's market share for the past year straight. In fact, pretty much every major AI assistant is beating Copilot for usage, and it's likely no coincidence that the names you'll find above Microsoft's offerings are the ones getting the sneaky Copilot button added to the address bar on Edge.

Maybe we'll see more people use Microsoft's AI assistant when the company lets us talk to our PCs using "Hey Copilot." But I wouldn't bet on it.