There seems to be a lot of AI news this week — could a big weeklong event dedicated to advertising be coming? 👀
Anyway, yesterday, Microsoft rolled out updates to Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform.
The updates include the ability to ask Copilot AI to run diagnostics on a campaign. According to the company’s blog post, this feature “gives users an extra set of eyes to inspect campaign setup, assess account health, diagnose where attention is needed, and propose next steps.”
It also introduces a performance snapshot feature, allowing users to ask Copilot for an overview of insights, measurement, trends, and anomalies.
“These new capabilities were developed in direct response to feedback in listening sessions with advertisers of all sizes and across verticals and geographies,” says Paul Longo, Microsoft’s new GM of AI in Ads. “We will continue to innovate towards our vision of making it easier and faster for advertisers to access the information and insights they need by just asking Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform.”
These updates follow the April launch of Copilot in Microsoft’s ad platform.
Why This Matters:
The new advertiser features come after Microsoft announced a consumer-facing update to its Copilot earlier this week to make it easier to use and understand. Along with these changes, the ad experience is getting an overhaul, with clearer differentiation between organic and sponsored conversations and a more streamlined user interface.
Connecting the dots here: in March, Microsoft tapped Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection, as EVP and CEO of Microsoft AI, with a focus on advancing Copilot and other consumer AI products and research. He and his team are now rolling out functionality and enhancing Copilot’s overall capabilities.
Now, those capabilities are being applied to support the advertising side, both in B2C experiences and advertiser functionality. About a week ago, Microsoft promoted Paul Longo (quoted above) to GM of AI Ads after two years leading its retail media sales. Longo is positioned to be the bridge between Suleyman’s technical innovations and their practical use in advertising.
Experts React:
According to Longo, in the LinkedIn post about his ascent to GM of AI in Ads, “Generative AI is transforming the nature of audience engagement. And, at Microsoft, we’re right there at the forefront of tapping into this potential. Already, we’re reimagining search, bringing hyper-personalization to advertising, enhancing advertiser productivity and improving campaign results. And we’re just getting started.”
Our Take:
While many Big Tech companies often emphasize AI’s role in automating creative tasks or campaign management, Microsoft is taking a slightly different approach with Copilot in its Advertising Platform. Instead of focusing purely on automation (though, to be clear, Copilot also offers automation tools in areas, like image creation), Copilot seems more interesting as a strategic advisor, helping advertisers make smarter, more informed decisions. It’s a shift from automating processes to enhancing human intelligence and decision-making.
Other adtech players, like Yahoo with Blueprint and Viant with ViantAI, are also using AI as a guide (though these are different platforms vs. Microsoft Advertising Platform)—augmenting advertisers’ work rather than fully automating it. It will be interesting, over time, to see what use cases — augmentation or automation — become the most popular.
