Games On Weekends, Philosophy At 2 AM: Microsoft AI Finds Query Trends Are Time Sensitive
Copilot emerged as a support across "different moments that make up our lives" — from existential overthinking to getting unstuck in video games, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said.
Microsoft AI Chief Executive Officer Mustafa Suleyman, citing an exhaustive internal study of AI conversations, said that user query patterns were most influenced by what time in the day, which day in the week (or month) it was at the time of asking.
The data, which consists of 37.5 million de-identified conversation sourced from its Copilot AI was analysed by the Microsoft AI Futures team and Data Science team, Suleyman said in his Linkedin blog post on Thursday.
The conversations, recorded between January and September, made up what Microsoft called "the world's largest study of AI conversations". Researchers identified three major trends shaping user queries—day, time of day, and time of year.
The one query subject focussed on upon the most was health, as users asked questions related to it consistently, irrespective of the time or the day.
"When we ranked what topics people were talking to Copilot about, for mobile users health was #1 no matter what day, month, or time it was. This is a huge responsibility for us, and one we're super focussed on," Suleyman said.
Query trends, when it came to days in the week, corresponded with a typical job week, as Microsoft observed coding queries from users spiking between Monday and Friday, and questions regarding gaming saw a spike on Saturday and Sunday.
Questions asked to AI chatbots over the course of the day were centred around travel-focussed queries during commute hours, whereas philosophical conversations took precedence between midnight to the early hours of the morning.
Seasons and festivals also influenced AI queries, with users asking questions related to relationships on Valentine's Day, and conversations related to "personal growth and wellness" being observed two to three days before it.
According to Suleyman, the data indicates that Copilot is largely being seen as a companion rather than an AI tool.
"People are truly turning to Copilot as a companion. Not just a specific type of tool, but a sounding board and support across all these different moments that make up our lives - from existential overthinking at 2 am to when you're stuck on a certain video game level over the weekend," he said.
