Forum Discussion
Microsoft's Copilot: A Frustrating Flop in AI-Powered Productivity
Microsoft's Copilot was supposed to be the game-changer in productivity, but it's quickly proving to be a massive disappointment. The idea was simple: integrate AI directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office tools to make our lives easier. But when it comes to actually performing specific functions, Copilot falls flat.
Here’s the problem: when you ask Copilot to alter a document, modify an Excel file, or adjust a PowerPoint presentation, it’s practically useless. Instead of performing the tasks as requested, it often leaves you hanging with vague suggestions or instructions. Users don't want to be told how to perform a task—they want it done. This is what an AI assistant should do: execute commands efficiently, not just offer advice.
What makes this even more frustrating is that other AI tools, like ChatGPT, can handle these tasks effortlessly. When you ask ChatGPT to perform a specific function, it does so without hesitation. It’s able to understand the request and deliver exactly what’s needed. But Copilot? It struggles with the basics, and that’s unacceptable, especially from a company like Microsoft.
It’s frankly embarrassing that Microsoft can’t get this right. The whole point of integrating AI into these tools was to streamline workflows and boost productivity. But if Copilot can’t even manage simple tasks like formatting a document or adjusting a spreadsheet, then what’s the point? Users don’t need another tool that tells them how to do something—they need one that does it for them.
Microsoft, you’ve missed the mark with Copilot. It's not just a minor inconvenience; it's a serious flaw that undermines the value of your Office suite. When other AI tools can easily accomplish what Copilot can't, it's time to reevaluate. Users expect more, and frankly, they deserve more for their investment.
What’s been your experience with Copilot? Is anyone else finding it as frustrating as I am? Let’s talk about it.
67 Replies
I am glad I am not the only one who is bewildered. Here was my (reasonable) expectation:
- Open WORD
- Tell copilot to do something; in my case, I was experimenting and said "give me a list of all the files I have opened today showing the filename, time it was accessed, and filesize"
- Not only will it NOT place the content into my open word doc, but it can't even get the contents of the file correct. It starts listing a useless list of files literally opened YEARS ago.
- It will give me instructions on how to do things myself and is thus just a conventional help system on steroids. As the OP stated, I expect CoPilot to PERFORM tasks - not act like a manager that wants me to do their work for them.
Copilot has been a NEGATIVE productivity boost. When I use the copilot app itself, it creates all of these links when you ask it to do something and none of them work. Did Microsoft actually test these products with real users to watch them interact and measure their blood pressure to see the frustration meter climbing with each click and each typed instruction? This is beyond ridiculous. To have GROK and CHATGPT outperform Microsoft when doing something like using the office suite is just unexplainable. It feels like a product that literally was untested before rolling out. Grok just works. ChatGPT just works. Claude just works. Copilot is a dumpster fire.
I have a Microsoft 365 Family subscription and I am the one trying to do this - not someone else in the family. What am I doing wrong - or is copilot basically the equivalent of a human invalid?
Ii call it aAI [ artificial Artificial Intelligence ].
Since it appeared with the entire AI crap package that I have been spending ALL my time administering to the agenda of this moronic data thief whose main contribution seems to be advertising APPS for sale that support its despicable agenda..
welcome to 1984 - bow to your commie overlords.
F@@k ai !
This thing is a miserable failure; I agree with Tbggroup and all others. I just spent an hour and some change trying to get copilot to format my files. It simply can't do it. Worse still, it spends all sorts of time thinking through the request on screen. So not only do I not get what I want, I have to watch the entire process of getting not getting what I want. And, as the final blow, our company has turned off our ability to use other companies AI tools in our environment because of security issues. I fully support the security measures, but this leaves us with only a functionless tool masquerading as a solution. Ugh.
Stephanie has only scratched the surface of this miserable failure. The smoke and mirrors of the Copilot pages is abominable. For example, in various attempts to utilize Copilot in its various forms: The inability to produce simple line charts. The ridiculous hallucination that I could become a billionaire in seven years with a $1,000 initial deposit with an 8% annual return and monthly deposits of $1,000. The offer to produce various graphic and document formats then can’t deliver or suggests you create the desired output manually. These all point to Microsoft using the 365 and broader community as Guinea pigs for a failed endeavor that is not worth the price of admission.
No joke, i spent almost 8 hours creating an agent for a simple countIF which would be done in seconds in excel. Even with clear guard rails, i still have to tell it its wrong once, just to get it do the count correctly.
Time and time again I have to argue with copilot for hours what ChatGPT seems to just get right the first time. And for this MS put so much money into, laid off people, and are pushing AI into everything. 🤡
I agree with you. Copilot isn't quite there yet. I'm sure it will get better still in its infancy.
Copilot is frustrating, and I agree that rather than helping, it just wastes time. What frustrates me more is its inability to understand instruction, where other LLMs perform these tasks effortlessly.
It seems to have its own agenda and is unwilling to do what users want it to do. Why does it have to summarise everything, even when specifically asked not to do so?
It doesn't understand the context, and still, it will do what it wants to do regardless of what you prompt or how you prompt. And "No" it is not bad prompts as ChatGPT, Claude, and perplexity are all capable of producing perfect answers with half the effort.
Microsoft, please sort out this rubbish!November 2025 checking in. Still junk. I went to bing and typed "when I restart my computer, my background color changes to black". Co-Pilot listed 5 suggestions, one was 'Clear Cache'. I clicked both resource links it provided and searched using ctrl+f for the word 'cache', and it didn't exist.
I tried integrating Copilot within Excel, and it was incredibly chaotic. Copilot seemed lost, switching between acting as a built-in Excel function and a chatbot alongside the user – it was utterly disorganized. Built-in functions prioritize execution, but Copilot frequently jumped out, acting as if it were providing consultation. My requirement wasn't data processing, but rather creating a dynamic chart based on existing data. It kept switching between static images, HTML programming, Python, and VBA – none of these were proper dynamic chart execution. Currently, these functions might be acceptable for sales and HR professionals satisfied with static data, but for engineers, it's far from effective.💀
Me again. I write novels, and at the end of each new chapter I make a short summary and add it to a separate Word document, to help me refer back to what I wrote maybe several months prior.
I decided to try using the Copilot version built into Word to make the summaries, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the responses. The copy button put the summary on my clipboard and I pasted it into my summary document. Great.
But all good things in Copilot come to an end, apparently. Now, although when the copy button is pressed a message assures me the response is copied, nothing happens when I try to paste it, and if I look at the clipboard it says 'no preview available'. I have to download the chapter (in parts, if it's long) into the free-standing version of Copilot, and then paste it into my summary document. What's more, the summaries produced by the freestanding Copilot aren't as good as those produced by the one in Word. I'm verging on returning to composing the summaries myself. I'd rather be writing my latest novel than wasting time trying to get Copilot to work.
