Microsoft hits pause on Copilot ... in SQL Server Management Studio
(2025/09/08)
- Reference: 1757349190
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/08/microsoft_copilot_ssms/
- Source link:
Microsoft's policy of inserting Copilot into every corner of its portfolio is on brief hiatus, at least in the first preview of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 22.
The ultimate plan is to shift to using GitHub Copilot, effectively ditching the preview of Copilot that shipped with SSMS 21. Erin Stellato, a principal program manager at Microsoft, confirmed the change via a [1]post in Microsoft's Tech Community.
"At the end of the day, the data – combined with user feedback – supported the move to using GitHub Copilot," Stellato wrote. "And that's what we're doing."
[2]
Stellato noted the results from a [3]survey Microsoft conducted to "better understand" what SSMS users want from Copilot. Readers will be shocked to hear that "75 percent of survey respondents wanted the Copilot experience in SSMS to leverage GitHub Copilot."
[4]
[5]
Presumably, these aren't the same GitHub users [6]calling for ways to block Clippy for Coders the assistant.
Getting Copilot working in SSMS 21 is a convoluted process. "We expected that some users would encounter friction during initial configuration," Stellato admitted, but for users who want some occasionally inaccurate assistance, creating an endpoint and deployment in Azure OpenAI is the only way to go.
[7]
The SQL Server team believes that the initial implementation challenges will be outweighed by having "an underlying architecture that ultimately supports accessing any endpoint."
[8]All IT work to involve AI by 2030, says Gartner, but jobs are safe
[9]Let us git rid of it, angry GitHub users say of forced Copilot features
[10]UK government trial of M365 Copilot finds no clear productivity boost
[11]GitHub engineer claims team was 'coerced' to put Grok into Copilot
With SSMS 22 and beyond, the SQL Server team has decided to change tack. Copilot isn't going away in SSMS 21 ("think of it as a feature-frozen preview," Stellato said), but it won't be in SSMS 22 Preview 1.
"The first public preview of SSMS 22 will not include any Copilot functionality," Stellato wrote. There'll be no option to install AI components, no Copilot in the menu, and no AI suggestions. It'll be like the last few years never happened.
Although GitHub Copilot will eventually feature, it will take a few releases before it achieves functional parity with the SQL Server team's earlier iteration. The problem is that some of the most significant values of Copilot in SSMS include its connection, database context, and its retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) implementation. The current GitHub Copilot integration needs these to be added.
Eventually, Copilot will feel like it is built into SSMS, though for a few releases until its reintroduction, users will not have to deal with the assistant's suggestions.
[12]
"By aligning SSMS with GitHub Copilot, we're not simply solving a pain point, we're also creating a more unified experience across the Microsoft ecosystem," Stellato concluded. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/sqlserver/what%E2%80%99s-next-for-copilot-in-ssms/4451066
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/sqlserver/copilot-in-ssms-survey/4422980
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/05/github_copilot_complaints/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/08/ai_impact_it_departments/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/05/github_copilot_complaints/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/m365_copilot_uk_government/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/29/github_deepens_ties_with_elon/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The ultimate plan is to shift to using GitHub Copilot, effectively ditching the preview of Copilot that shipped with SSMS 21. Erin Stellato, a principal program manager at Microsoft, confirmed the change via a [1]post in Microsoft's Tech Community.
"At the end of the day, the data – combined with user feedback – supported the move to using GitHub Copilot," Stellato wrote. "And that's what we're doing."
[2]
Stellato noted the results from a [3]survey Microsoft conducted to "better understand" what SSMS users want from Copilot. Readers will be shocked to hear that "75 percent of survey respondents wanted the Copilot experience in SSMS to leverage GitHub Copilot."
[4]
[5]
Presumably, these aren't the same GitHub users [6]calling for ways to block Clippy for Coders the assistant.
Getting Copilot working in SSMS 21 is a convoluted process. "We expected that some users would encounter friction during initial configuration," Stellato admitted, but for users who want some occasionally inaccurate assistance, creating an endpoint and deployment in Azure OpenAI is the only way to go.
[7]
The SQL Server team believes that the initial implementation challenges will be outweighed by having "an underlying architecture that ultimately supports accessing any endpoint."
[8]All IT work to involve AI by 2030, says Gartner, but jobs are safe
[9]Let us git rid of it, angry GitHub users say of forced Copilot features
[10]UK government trial of M365 Copilot finds no clear productivity boost
[11]GitHub engineer claims team was 'coerced' to put Grok into Copilot
With SSMS 22 and beyond, the SQL Server team has decided to change tack. Copilot isn't going away in SSMS 21 ("think of it as a feature-frozen preview," Stellato said), but it won't be in SSMS 22 Preview 1.
"The first public preview of SSMS 22 will not include any Copilot functionality," Stellato wrote. There'll be no option to install AI components, no Copilot in the menu, and no AI suggestions. It'll be like the last few years never happened.
Although GitHub Copilot will eventually feature, it will take a few releases before it achieves functional parity with the SQL Server team's earlier iteration. The problem is that some of the most significant values of Copilot in SSMS include its connection, database context, and its retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) implementation. The current GitHub Copilot integration needs these to be added.
Eventually, Copilot will feel like it is built into SSMS, though for a few releases until its reintroduction, users will not have to deal with the assistant's suggestions.
[12]
"By aligning SSMS with GitHub Copilot, we're not simply solving a pain point, we're also creating a more unified experience across the Microsoft ecosystem," Stellato concluded. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/sqlserver/what%E2%80%99s-next-for-copilot-in-ssms/4451066
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/sqlserver/copilot-in-ssms-survey/4422980
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/05/github_copilot_complaints/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/08/ai_impact_it_departments/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/05/github_copilot_complaints/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/m365_copilot_uk_government/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/29/github_deepens_ties_with_elon/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aL9R-_wH-q8PioM_fZ2Z0wAAAQU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
75 percent of survey respondents wanted ... to leverage GitHub Copilot
that one in the corner
Because somebody had let slip that changing over would mean a rework, so they get a new version with Copilot stripped out and, with any luck, a long, long dev period before it reappears.
Devilish cunning, these SSMS survey respondents.
Re: 75 percent of survey respondents wanted ... to leverage GitHub Copilot
that one in the corner
PS is it deliberate that they named that product after the way one usually responds upon hearing what platform management want you to use?
"Make a database"
"Great, I'll just install MariaDB"
"NO! We demand SQL Server"
"Ssssss - MS" (holds up fingers in a cross, to ward off evio)
WHY!!!???
elsergiovolador
--COPILOT
SELECT
OR
--COPILOT
UPDATE transactions SET amount=
"75 percent of survey respondents wanted..."
IGotOut
We surveyed the entire Microsoft CoPilot team and 75% agreed they wanted this.
Breaking News:
MS has just announced a 25% reduction in the Copilot team.
Save that last installer!
The enshittification continues apace.
I'll be making sure that I save the last release without this crap. Uploading our private schemas to Redmond is not happening.