Internal Microsoft Documents Describe Goal of Making Users 'Addicted' to Its AI Assistant

Microsoft's internal strategy documents use the word addicted to describe the intended relationship between users and its AI assistant. The word appears without quotation marks or irony. This is what the company is designing for, not what it fears might happen.

Tech companies have long optimized for engagement metrics that resemble addiction pathways. The novelty here is the administrative candor. Someone wrote this down. Someone else approved it for circulation. The language reflects what was already the practice, just now visible in the fluorescent light of a leaked memo.

Users will become more dependent. This is the product roadmap. Microsoft will continue to integrate the assistant into workflows until the distinction between tool and necessity collapses. The memo will be quoted in regulatory hearings that will result in no action. The addicted users will be the evidence of success.