It's been one year since Microsoft first announced its plans to enhance its Bing search engine with generative AI chat features. Since then, the company has slowly moved away from trying to boost the use of Bing with AI and instead has inserted that kind of technology in many of its apps and services, mostly with the Copilot branding.
Today, on the first anniversary of its public reveal of its AI plans, Microsoft announced it will run an ad during the TV broadcast of the NFL championship game, otherwise known as Super Bowl XVIII, on February 11. However, you can check out the one-minute version of that commercial right now on YouTube.
The "Game Day" ad shows a number of people in various locations, with captions that indicate these folks can't do the kinds of projects or job accomplishments they want to do. The second half of the ad shows some of those same people using Copilot to help them accomplish their lofty goals.
They include someone asking Copilot on their phone to create storyboard images for a fantasy movie script around a dragon and also to help another person write code for a video game. Another person requested Copilot to quiz them in organic chemistry.
One interesting thing about this commercial is how many people were using Copilot on their smartphones. Microsoft definitely wants people to know they can access Copilot on their iOS and Android devices as well as their PCs. Microsoft also stated that today it is rolling out a new "cleaner, slicker" look for Copilot on its website and also on its mobile apps.
Microsoft will be spending a ton of money on this Super Bowl Copilot ad. The current estimates from USA's Ad Meter site claims a 30-second ad will cost a company $7 million to pay to CBS. If Microsoft does run the full one-minute ad it will cost them $14 million just for purchasing the time, not including the cost of actually making the commercial.
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