Microsoft literally wants to ‘make people addicted’ to AI (Update: Microsoft responds)

Update: June 5, 2026 (1:36 AM ET): Microsoft has issued a statement after internal documents leaked regarding its Scout agentic assistant. The documents showed that the firm wanted to “make people addicted” to the AI tool.

Now, Microsoft has claimed in a statement to Android Authority that its goal isn’t to increase screen time:

With Microsoft Scout, we have created an autonomous, personal agent for work with the focus on helping people accomplish tasks more effectively — not encouraging dependency. Our goal isn’t more screen time. It’s more time back.

Our approach is grounded in building human-centered AI that remains firmly in service of people, guided by our Responsible AI principles. As we shared in our announcement, we’re taking a thoughtful approach to the rollout — learning with and from customers as the technology evolves, and ensuring people have clear choice and control in how they engage.

Nevertheless, it’s still hard to reconcile this public statement with an internal call to “make people addicted” to an AI tool, even if the tool is supposed to help you spend less time looking at a screen.

Original article: June 3, 2026 (3:45 AM ET): People have grown increasingly reliant on AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini. In fact, it’s not uncommon to hear about people being glued to their AI chatbots for even the most mundane reasons. Now, it turns out that addiction is a very deliberate goal for one major company’s AI assistant.

Microsoft has just announced Scout, a new agentic AI assistant powered by OpenClaw. However, internal documents uncovered by 404 Media show that the company explicitly wants to “make people addicted” to the service.

The internal documents include a subheading titled ‘ClawPilot Overall Plan.’ ClawPilot was the name of Scout prior to its launch. There are three phases under this subheading, with the first one titled ‘Make people addicted.’ 404 Media reports that the other phases see Scout/ClawPilot connecting to more AI services, as well as gaining new features.

“We’re seeing more and more addiction happening with AI chatbots and agents and overall addiction to me is something no product should be making a part of its build strategy,” an unnamed Microsoft employee told the outlet. “It feels like one of those ‘saying the quiet part out loud’ moments in the document.”

It’s no surprise to hear that a company literally wants to make people addicted to its service. After all, many social and AI platforms include user engagement as a key internal metric. That is, the more time people spend using these services, the better. These companies often roll out features and UI changes with the express aim of keeping people on their platforms for longer.

Indeed, another unnamed Microsoft employee suggested to the outlet that all major tech companies had the ultimate goal of making software that’s addictive.

However, it seems like most of these major tech companies don’t explicitly say they’re trying to get people addicted to their service (at least not publicly). And this leaked language also comes amid increased scrutiny over AI chatbot dependency. A recent study has also found that they can fuel delusions among vulnerable people. While Scout is an agentic tool rather than a general AI chatbot, we can understand if the focus on making people addicted still makes you think twice about the firm’s other AI endeavors.