On January 8, 2026, Microsoft quietly introduced two features that may turn out to be among the most consequential developments in AI advertising this year: Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents.
Together, they represent a meaningful shift — not just in where ads appear, but in what ads can do.
Copilot Checkout
Copilot Checkout allows users to complete a purchase directly within the Copilot interface — without being redirected to a brand’s website. The feature is available across all Copilot surfaces: Bing, MSN, and Microsoft Edge.
The implication for advertisers is significant. Until now, every ad interaction required a click-out — the user left the AI environment, arrived on a landing page, and the purchase funnel continued there. With Copilot Checkout, the entire transaction can happen within the conversation. Discovery, consideration, and purchase — in one place.
Brand Agents
Brand Agents are AI chat experiences trained on a brand’s own product catalogue. Initially rolling out for Shopify merchants, Brand Agents allow users to interact with a brand’s product data — asking questions, comparing options, and receiving personalised recommendations — without leaving the Copilot environment.
Microsoft reports that sessions assisted by Brand Agents deliver higher engagement and stronger conversion than sessions without them. Advertisers can also access performance data comparing agent-assisted sessions to organic traffic.
How Copilot ads perform
Microsoft has published performance data on Copilot ads more broadly. Internal research covering November 2024 to May 2025 shows:
- 73% higher click-through rates compared to traditional search advertising
- 16% stronger conversion rates
- 33% shorter customer journeys
Third-party data backs this up. Samsung, running Copilot ads through Performance Max campaigns, reported nearly three times higher click-through rates and 143% year-over-year revenue growth attributed to the channel.
It is worth noting these figures come from Microsoft’s own reporting and selected case studies. Independent verification across a broad advertiser base is limited. But the directional signal — that higher-intent AI placements outperform traditional search ads — is consistent with what other platforms are seeing.
What it signals
Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents are the clearest example yet of what GEA can become: not just a new place to put an existing ad format, but an entirely new commercial layer built into conversational AI. The conversation itself becomes the shopping experience.
Microsoft is currently the only major AI platform offering this level of commerce integration. Whether ChatGPT and Google follow with similar features in 2026 is one of the key questions for the year.
Sources: Microsoft Advertising — Conversations that Convert · Search Engine Land — Microsoft launches Copilot Checkout · Adweek — Microsoft Lures Brands to Advertise in Copilot