Co-pilot is an augmentation pattern where AI acts as a collaborative assistant, offering contextual and data-driven insights while the user remains in control. This design pattern is essential in domains like strategy, ideating, writing, designing or coding where outcomes are subjective, users have unique preferences or creative input from the user is critical.
Co-pilot speed up workflows, enhance creativity and reduce cognitive load but the human retains authorship and final decision-making.
How to use this pattern
Embed inline assistance: Place AI suggestions contextually so users can easily accept, reject or modify them. E.g., Notion AI helps you draft, summarise and edit content while you control the final version.
Save user intent and creative direction: Let users guide the AI with input like goals, tone, or examples, maintaining authorship and creative direction. E.g., Jasper AI allows users to set brand voice and tone guidelines, helping structure AI output to better match the user’s intent.