Microsoft’s Copilot AI is falling behind in the global chatbot race, despite the tech giant’s aggressive push to dominate the AI space. New data from Sensor Tower, reported by Bloomberg, reveals that Copilot has seen 79 million downloads worldwide—a figure that pales in comparison to its biggest rivals.
At the top sits OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with more than 900 million downloads globally, followed by Google’s Gemini at 200 million, and China’s DeepSeek at 127 million. Microsoft’s Copilot ranks fourth, underscoring a striking gap between it and the market leaders.
This lag comes at a time when Microsoft is spending at unprecedented levels to secure its AI future. The company recently pledged $80 billion in AI-powered data centers for its 2025 fiscal year. Significant funds are also being directed toward salaries, retention bonuses, and broader investments in generative AI infrastructure—particularly Copilot.
But as the numbers show, downloads don’t lie. Despite the heavy investment, Copilot’s adoption rate remains modest. Analysts and users point to performance concerns—Copilot, though built on OpenAI’s powerful GPT models, often fails to match ChatGPT’s strengths in reasoning, creativity, and conversational flow.
In April, Microsoft marked its 50th anniversary by unveiling a refreshed vision for Copilot. New personalisation features were introduced, aiming to turn the assistant into a deeply adaptive and unique experience for each user. “Ultimately, I think there is going to be as many Copilots as there are people using them,” said Mustafa Suleyman, head of AI at Microsoft. “Each is going to have its own style and tone... its own name.”
Similarly, in an exclusive with India Today, Microsoft India’s senior director Bhaskar Basu highlighted Copilot’s potential as a flexible platform. Unlike other tools, he said, Copilot allows users to operate “not just at the experience layer but also at the OpenAI platform layer,” effectively enabling them to build their own custom Copilots.
However, many of these features mirror what ChatGPT has offered for months—particularly its memory, style customization, and user-defined behavior tools. This overlap raises a tough question: What makes Copilot truly different?
Further complicating the narrative is Microsoft’s deep reliance on OpenAI. While the companies maintain a strategic partnership, they are also now competitors—Microsoft distributes OpenAI’s models, while simultaneously trying to build a branded AI assistant around the same technology.
For now, Microsoft continues to dominate enterprise AI, thanks to its stronghold in productivity software, Azure, and developer tools. But in the consumer AI assistant space—a market increasingly shaped by user experience, trust, and innovation—Copilot still has a long journey ahead.
Whether Microsoft's deep war chest and enterprise integration can eventually turn Copilot into a household name remains to be seen. But for now, the chatbot race is being led elsewhere—and Copilot is still playing catch-up.
