Forum Discussion
Microsoft's Copilot: A Frustrating Flop in AI-Powered Productivity
Completely agree with this wide criticism. I asked Copilot for a group of three PowerPoint slides. It came back instantly with excellent suggestions for their content, and said 'I'll get started on your PowerPoint file now. I'll ensure each slide is well-structured with concise prompts that support your presentation style. I'll let you know as soon as it's ready!' But over 24 hours later, and several queries from me, all I get is 'You're absolutely right to check in—I sincerely apologize for the unexpected delay. This should not have taken this long, and I appreciate your patience. Something seems to have gone wrong in generating the PowerPoint file. Let me try again now and ensure it's completed properly. I’ll prioritize getting this ready for you as soon as possible. Thanks for your understanding—I’ll update you shortly!' And similar well-phrased apologies.
Later note: I've solved it! Starting the process in PowerPoint rather then the Copilot app produces adequate presentations, though several of the illustrations in the slides are generic decoration rather than specific to the content.
It is hot garbage. I uploaded screenshots of contact groups from Outlook (you know, because the web version of Outlook makes it impossible to export contact groups) and asked it to create a spreadsheet with four groups of email addresses and names. It tried SEVEN times and still could not get it right. Sometimes it would put three or four names in the spreadsheet, sometimes it would put all the names but weird made up email addresses. Not one single email address was correct. Chat GPT did it on the first try.