Microsoft is retiring Copilot's Deep Research, but there's another AI tool replacing it

Microsoft has officially confirmed that Deep Research in the Copilot app will be retired starting August 18, 2026. If you’ve been using the feature to generate long reports or detailed analyses, you won’t be able to create new ones after that date.

Copilot’s Deep Research retirement will make way for Researcher AI agent

That doesn’t necessarily mean Microsoft is getting rid of in-depth research altogether, though. Instead, the company wants users to move over to Researcher, another Copilot feature that’s available with Microsoft 365 Premium.

According to Microsoft, Researcher offers the same kind of detailed reports and analysis that Deep Research was designed for. While the two are separate experiences, Researcher will become the primary option for users who need AI-powered research inside Copilot.

Thankfully, Microsoft isn’t deleting anything you’ve already created. If you’re a Microsoft 365 Premium subscriber, your existing Deep Research reports will continue to be available through Researcher. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers can still find their previous reports inside their Copilot chat history.

Microsoft also says users can open existing Deep Research reports in Microsoft Word and save them locally if they want an extra backup before the feature disappears. The good thing is that you don’t actually need to do anything before August 18. Microsoft says the transition will happen automatically, and your subscription benefits aren’t changing because of this decision.

If you’d ask me, retiring Deep Research feels a little surprising, especially considering Microsoft only recently started pushing AI-powered productivity features more aggressively. That being said, it does make sense if the company wants to focus its efforts on a single research experience instead of maintaining two similar features.

Microsoft is also killing Copilot Podcasts

Not to forget, the company is also killing Copilot Podcasts on August 18, 2026. Yes, the same day it is retiring Copilot Deep Research. What that means for users, you may ask, right? Well, Microsoft has confirmed that it will delete access to previously created episodes, with no export option available after the deadline. Speaking of Copilot, Microsoft has added a new AI feature to File Explorer home, which I think is completely useless.

What do you think about Copilot’s Deep Research retirement? Let us know in the comments below.