Microsoft is pushing its Windows Copilot assistant hard in Windows 11, but it's also bringing the AI-powered helper to web browsers – and now the likes of Edge and Chrome are getting a Black Friday-friendly feature called 'Copilot in Microsoft Shopping'.
The feature was announced back in September but is rolling out now just in time to help search for Black Friday deals and Christmas gifts. The main skill of Copilot in Microsoft Shopping is helping you to narrow down the latest deals according to your specific needs.
For example, if you're looking to buy an SD card for your specific camera, the assistant can pull in extra information on the type of card that might work best, while also letting you filter by specs like capacity. You can give the feature a spin right now in any browser by going to Copilot for Microsoft Shopping.
Naturally, there are limitations to what Microsoft is calling a 'preview' feature. You'll want to cross-reference the information to make sure it isn't hallucinating or pulling in out-of-date deals. But it looks like a good potential starting point for your deals research, particularly for complex products where you need some extra advice.
You can also ask vague questions like “What are some gift ideas for tech fans?” and Copilot will narrow down some options based on your replies. Microsoft says you'll also soon be able to share a picture of the product you're looking for to get instant price results, in a similar way to Google Lens. This feature isn't available yet but will be coming to desktop first then mobile.
Microsoft naturally says that using Copilot in Microsoft Shopping within its Edge browser will "unlock the best experience (and savings)", but it's available to try out right now in any web browser on PC, Mac, Android or iOS.
Rise of the AI deal-bots
This is the first year that AI chatbots have been widely available for the Black Friday and Christmas shopping seasons, and while Copilot in Microsoft Shopping is well worth dabbling with, it's also good to be aware of its limitations.
For example, if you ask it for advice on the best Black Friday laptop deals, it effectively does an automated search of the web and summarizes the advice of trusted websites, which, for tech searches, frequently includes TechRadar.
As with any deals shopping experience, then, it pays to cross-reference your results to make sure you aren't missing any deals. And another great way to do that is with our own personalized, AI-powered deals search bot – which you can try out below.
Our deals search tool uses OpenAI tech to crunch together all of the research done not just by TechRadar, but by the huge array of sites across our parent company Future. Considering those sites include Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Hardware, PC Gamer, T3, T3, What Hifi, and more, it's another powerful AI weapon for your arsenal this Black Friday.
With the Black Friday deals already kicking off, it's worth giving our tool above a spin alongside Copilot in Microsoft Shopping – you'll be shown the deals from TechRadar first, followed by deals from across our network.
