Microsoft's Copilot: A Frustrating Flop in AI-Powered Productivity

Copper Contributor

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.

7 Replies

@Stephanie Hoback thank you for the detailed feedback. I have a couple of questions before I go to my colleges in the product team to start working on your feedback. How long had you been using M365 Copilot? To make sure I understand what you are saying, would you like to have a Copilot that functions like a full assistant "get this done, regardless of what tool you use".

Everyone in this forum, please like this message if you are in a similar situation as Stephanie.

Experience has been pretty decent so far....this is the very beginning phases, I think over time we will see it mature.....chatGPT was pretty basic for its first year as well.

@Stephanie Hoback 

I second Stephanie's sentiment. Copilot is basically the pre-school version of chatGPT. We can ask cGPT for anything, and it will figure out what the right tool is to perform WHATEVER is being asked. I've been using both copilot and chatgpt next to each other for months now and Copilot is just painful. I feel like I'm using it just to have real experience when I challenge our IT department on the right tool. Sadly, Copilot is not there yet, most business cases I'm looking at are heavily favored by cGPT.

To the AttorneyGT who commented below, "I think over time we will see it mature.....chatGPT was pretty basic for its first year as well." While this is true, it's more of a justification for people to use Copilot and help it mature to a point of usefulness for businesses. Essentially, we are being asked to use a subpar tool to help make it better for the next year (most likely multiple years)? That's definitely going to happen regardless, but not a very good business strategy for MS. We shouldn't be convinced it's a superior tool when it is obviously not.

In the space of AI, OpenAI has a years long head start, which might as well be 30 in the world of AI. There won't be any tools that catch up with them due to how much they've matured the tools capabilities and interconnections with their tools which allow us to ask for anything, and more than likely get a response back that is more helpful than Copilot. The only benefit for Copilot is that they are positioned to have access to all of a company's business data because they are integrating directly with Azure which most businesses leverage these days. It's a huge advantage, but if you don't have the right tool, having access to the data means nothing.

I'm willing to be proved wrong here, this is just from personal experience from the last few years.

@IgnacioDavila yes, it needs to behave like the ChatGPT paid version.   I believe the team needs to study their largest competition.  

Yes, but I did not have to pay for that Chat GPT experience while they were growing; I do for this useless tool.

@Stephanie Hoback I was excited to see that they gave Co-Pilot vision. Then I asked it to tell me which app on my desktop was displaying a PDF and to bring it to the foreground...."I'm sorry.." yadah yadah yadah. Ok, I'm having problems with my Microphone, please open the Device manager and show me all the audio input devices on my computer. NOPE! This thing, for an Operating System AI offering, doesn't do anything for the USER with the Operating system. It's basically useless, if I wanted to upload stuff and find out how to do stuff myself I would just use any of the more robust models out there. I'm not paying for this until it becomes better with system commands.

@TimH2345  I hope at MS Ignite some announcements are made that talk some enhancements.