In a surprise move, Xbox is ditching parent company Microsoft’s Copilot AI tech.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma confirmed the news on X (Twitter), noting that the company “will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.” Microsoft has been heavily pushing the AI-powered virtual companion across its portfolio, with Xbox having positioned the tech in recent months as a sort of gaming “sidekick.”
Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.
Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business…— Asha (@asha_shar) May 5, 2026
In particular, the company envisioned Copilot as a way to help gamers with such tasks as personalized game recommendations, in-game assistance and easier access to social features. Copilot came to the Xbox mobile app last May ahead of a planned console launch sometime later in 2026. Now, we know that will no longer happen.
On X, Sharma said Xbox “will begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed,” which we now know includes Copilot. Explaining the rationale behind this, Sharma said “Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers.” As part of this, the company has “promoted leaders who helped build Xbox” and brought “in new voices to help push us forward,” which Sharma says will help “get the business back on track.”
It’s a shocking pivot from Xbox, given that Microsoft has been all-in on AI and investing tens of billions into the tech. People have also been wary of how Sharma would approach AI in her new role as Xbox chief, given that she previously served as an executive in Microsoft’s CoreAI division. Sharma, for her part, pushed back against these concerns, promising to avoid “soulless AI slop” in games. (Ironically, “AI slop” is a term that her boss, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, wants us all to stop using.) Therefore, it’s a notable move from Sharma to scrap Xbox’s Copilot plans.
That said, it’s likely that AI will manifest in some other forms at Xbox, especially given that leadership shakeup that Sharma was talking about. According to CNBC, those who have just joined the Xbox team include Jared Palmer (CoreAI vice president of product), Tim Allen (CoreAI vice president of design and research) and Evan Chaki (a general manager at CoreAI). While their roles largely seem to be focused on more general design and development, their background in CoreAI is certainly something that Sharma could leverage.
In any event, we’ll have to wait to learn more. What we do know is that despite only starting to lead Xbox in February, Sharma has been quite busy, from teasing the next-gen Xbox console, “codenamed Project Helix,” to reducing the price of Xbox Game Pass. All the while, she’s been very candid about ushering in “the return of Xbox” amid declining gaming revenue, and she even recently published a big mission statement to outline how she intends to do that.
While she’s acknowledged that many of these efforts will take time, we’ll at least a bit more about some of Xbox’s plans soon. On June 7, the company will hold its annual Xbox Games Showcase, immediately followed by a presentation focused entirely on Gears of War: E-Day from Vancouver’s The Coalition.
Image credit: Xbox
Source: Asha Sharma (@asha_shar)
