Copilot
An AI that rides along as you work, suggesting the next line or block for you to accept or reject.
Think of it like
A knowledgeable passenger reading you the next turn — you’re still driving, they’re just calling it out.
Example
You start typing a function to parse a date; the copilot greys in the whole body, and you press Tab to accept.
How it actually works
The copilot pattern keeps the human in the driver’s seat: the model proposes, you dispose, one suggestion at a time. It became the default way AI entered coding and then writing, because low autonomy makes it safe and easy to trust. It is now often a stepping stone to more agentic modes, where the same underlying model stops waiting for you to accept each step.
For product teams
The gateway drug for AI assistance — helpful precisely because it never acts without you.
For engineers
A low-autonomy assistant that proposes inline completions for human acceptance rather than executing autonomously.
Related
- Agentic Coding — Where the copilot idea grows up into autonomy.
- Autonomy — The low end of the autonomy spectrum it lives on.
- Code Generation — The raw capability underneath it.
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