Forum Discussion
Suggestion: Allow users to customize the UI name of MS Copilot (with “Powered by Microsoft 365”)
Background
Microsoft Copilot is an extremely capable assistant, but its current visual identity is completely fixed (the name “Copilot” is always shown), even though users interact with it daily as a personal or team assistant.
From a user experience perspective, this creates a small but important gap between using a tool and working with an assistant.
Proposal
Allow users to customize the visible name of their Copilot assistant, while maintaining a clear and consistent Microsoft branding indicator, for example:
Holiday (name that the user creates for calling Microsoft Copilot 365 IA) Powered by Microsoft 365 Copilot (Text that Microsoft uses to reflect that it's already Microsoft Copilot).
This proposal does not aim to change the underlying model, security, governance, or responsibility.
It only affects the identity/presentation layer of the assistant.
Why this matters (UX & adoption)
Allowing users to name their assistant creates:
- Psychological ownership (“my assistant” instead of “the assistant”)
- Higher trust and willingness to delegate complex tasks
- Stronger long-term adoption and recurring usage
In daily work, users naturally refer to assistants by name (“Ask Friday to review this document”), which helps integrate Copilot into real workflows instead of keeping it as an external tool.
Enterprise perspective
In organizational environments, a named assistant feels like part of the team rather than a generic external service.
This improves internal communication, clarity, and acceptance of AI-assisted workflows.
Importantly, the “Powered by Microsoft 365 Copilot” label keeps:
- brand visibility
- transparency
- technical and legal responsibility clearly with Microsoft
This follows well-established patterns such as “Powered by Azure” or “Powered by Microsoft Security”.
Strategic fit
Microsoft already enables named and branded assistants through Copilot Studio.
Extending this concept to the core Copilot experience feels like a natural next step with:
- Low technical risk (presentation-level feature)
- High UX impact
- No compromise on governance or brand integrity
Closing
Naming the assistant transforms the relationship from using AI to collaborating with AI.
This small change could have a disproportionally positive effect on trust, adoption, and everyday productivity.
Thanks for considering this feedback.
3 Replies
Hi Diego, interesting idea, but I don't quite follow the pain point you're trying to alleviate. Copilot agents - created in M365 Copilot or Copilot Studio - are there for that specific purpose, to create personalised assistants with a name and instructions of your choice. If I follow correctly, you're suggesting to change the name of the main M365 Copilot assistant per user. Why not just create an assistant with a name using M365 Copilot and select that from the list of Agents? Or as an admin, create an agent with a name of your choice and deploy it to all users?
Hello ChirsL10, this is not a problem or something like that. I'm just suggesting that Microsoft can give the 'starter' users or the beginners the ability to start using Copilot, giving a name to the main assistant. I think it makes the relationship you start with your assistant better if you make it more personal. I checked that you can create those other agents, but at the end, the main agent remains as copilot.
Actually, the idea is to check if giving us the possibility to change the main assistance name with the example (that I think is pretty clear) makes the user experience more personal. without talking about creating other assistants or configuring even deeper the tool. I think that will be the future of the IA; you can have 'Your assistant name' Powered by X Tool.
DP: Creating and agent means that you lose the Copilot base that Copilot has, so at the end this feature I'm suggesting is just trying to avoid configuring a full agent for casual users. I mean users that maybe use the IA not for working (daily).
Personally I don't think Microsoft would ever allow changing the name of the main Copilot - imagine one person saying to their IT team 'Henry isn't working' and the next person saying 'Frank isn't working'. Having all those different names will make it confusing, not to mention it diminishes the Copilot brand. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude - all other AI Assistants don't allow name changes either, but they do allow custom agents that you can personalise and give a name - ChatGPT allows you to create "GPTs", Gemini allows you to create "Gems", etc. I'd encourage you to check out agents some more; it does achieve exactly what you're describing. There's not much configuration needed, and casual users just select the agent underneath the main Copilot. Thousands of organisations and individuals are doing this; my own with 30,000 employees all select the personal agent underneath Copilot and that is their work assistant powered by Copilot. 🙂
