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.
Copilot or drunken passenger?
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I've been reading this thread with interest - seems like Copilot isn't winning many fans yet!
What puzzles me most is that despite using OpenAI's models, Copilot seems to reason far worse than ChatGPT. Why the huge difference? Unfortunately, my workplace has locked down access to most AI services except Copilot 🙄.
Pro tip from another user:
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One of you mentioned that the sidebar version in Edge works better than the main one. Has anyone found other workarounds that actually make Copilot more useful?
For personal projects, I've been using ChatGPT which was fantastic until recently, especially after they added image creation. But now it's getting ridiculous - it refuses to create simple visuals like work outfits, claiming they breach content policy because they ‘could be mistaken for a real person’ 🙄 Even when I specifically ask for it on a tailor’s mannequin!
Makes me wonder if OpenAI is throttling the free tier now that they've collected massive amounts of training data from us. Classic bait and switch?
Since Claude doesn't create images yet (though it's much better at reasoning and conversation!), where are people going for actually helpful AI tools? Anyone found good alternatives that don't have these frustrating limitations?
It is utterly useless!! And we are meant to pay for this.
- In word asked to summarize a pdf in my onedrive and it says it cannot access it.
- In Powerpoint it tells me it can access onedrive files and I tried multiple times, followed the copilot instructions to share the file and put the link and it also continues to tell me it cannot create a powerpoint from my file without explaining why - when you ask can you access my file it says no and tells me to share it ... which I did - and it still can't access it and then it tells me it run into a problem#
- in excel asked simple analysis of data in 2 different tabs and it kept on doing it wrong and giving me information about columns I told it to specifically avoid.
In essence - besides giving you prompts as you type. as you type the integration is terrible. They should withdraw it - rather than charge for it.
Shame!
Co-pilot reminds me of Samsung Bing. Utter crap. A nice person to chat with, and that's all. I asked copilot to list some sports bars near me. "I'm sorry I can't help you with that"
Humm, I asked Google and got a list, with photos, addresses, ratings and average prices. Oh, a map to search the area.
So, what is Copilot used for anyway? Other than someone to chat with, who apparently knows as much as I do? LOL!!!
Copilot is absolutely useless. I haven’t found any task it can complete. Even simple tasks are non existent.
I just want something that efficiently and correctly sorts photos and eliminates duplicate photos.microsoft is the absolute worst at photography, photo storage, photo editing, photo organization, and duplicate photo production, photo viewing.
onedrive literally creates dozens upon dozens of duplicate photos to fill up the data cap faster to entice people to buy more and more storage.
there are photo duplicates that go into the 100’s and that is done purposefully to increase subscription costs.
I did go in one day and got so frustrated with all the duplicate photos cleaned up all the duplicates only to have them ALL RETURNED THE NEXT DAY.
am done paying for Microsoft scams and ripoffs.
microsoft employees should be ashamed of the scams they build.
office 365 is a scam Onedrive is a massive ripoff and disingenuous at best. A.I is useless, surface pro 9; is as slow as molasses uphill in the winter. My kids can’t get away from xbox fast enough they both want PS. Windows 11 is absolutely awful. Microsoft security is the equivalent of using a one inch piece of scotch tape to secure your home, yes its there but its never going to stop anyone from getting in. Windows updates break everything it comes in contact with or are blue screen of death endless boot loops.
non of those problems are on apple.
Stephanie Hoback, you've got that right! I subscribed to Pro to help me with my grammar and wording while I write and also to use as a brainstorming partner, but it randomly stops answering questions or sends incomplete answers. You call it out on how it's not working and it is dismissive and for $20 a month, it is SO not worth it. I think I'll move my work over to Dabble when my paid time runs out. This is BS.
I had been using Copilot to test it's responses vs ChatGPT for programming. It worked OK for a few weeks, then earlier this month Copilot stopped working for me. It is stuck in a loop thinking I am signing in with a business email when I am trying to sign in with my personal email. I have reported this issue to Microsoft via support ticket, phone support, and community forum. Turns out there are thousands of customers reporting the same issue. Microsoft did some kind of update on Copilot and broke it for many users.
Hope they eventually get it fixed, but I'm staying with ChatGPT. My guess is not many people are going to pay for Pro if its not guaranteed to work. I talked with tech support on the phone, they even told me that paying for Pro would not solve my issue. Copilot has become a useless joke for thousands of users.
- I've only just started using CoPilot but already found some frustration with the Visualiser. I gave it several example images from the web and told it to replicate the graphics with specific hex codes (3). Just simple silhouettes, no lines and I kept getting really complex graphics with all the wrong colours. I simply could not understand how CoPilot could get such a simple request wrong. After 30 mins of trying, I gave up.
- I have the same experience. As a partner of MS, I have tested Copilot thoroughly in a past year, but I personally use paid ChatGPT to get stuff done. I have tried to input the same prompt to both, to perform the same task in a file etc., oftentimes very basic. It astonished me how much worse Copilot is.
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.
- 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.
- IgnacioDavila
Microsoft
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.My issues with Copilot is that it is unpredictable in the set-up. It behaves differently depending on what type of window you are using. In one window you can't ask it about the document within the same frame, or even read a PDF - in another you can attach a file, but it doesn't clearly spell out the limits on edit/summary. Since we are sharepoint-based, it often suggests completely erratic/random files that are not in any way related to my query. And of course, the simplest - word. It doesn't understand the difference in pronouns, so when I ask Copilot to check for the correct pronoun in a long text, it fails and I have to edit myself anyway. The issue often is that several people work in a long text and sometimes use the singular possessive you and other times the plural possessive you. In excel it is just pointless, other than suggestions on how to write formulas, that is essentially "googling". It can't perform much anything useful in the large excel sheets I make.
I absolutely love Copilot! However, I’ve noticed recently that the voice search feature has been rolled back, which is quite disappointing. Additionally, I’m having trouble pasting or uploading images, as it keeps rejecting all supposedly supported types.
IgnacioDavila so I gotta tell you a few things...
#1. I absolutely loved the first iteration of Copilot. I just started using about a month and a 1/2 ago. i was very against a I technology, as I thought that it was going to ruin our lives. I was so very wrong, and so very impressed! So much so, that after a couple of weeks of use I signed up for the Pro. Version for use with my personal MS account. Yeah, I was really happy with it.
#2. Then I woke up one day this week, and much to my chagrin, what I had known and had become very happy with, had all of a sudden disappeared, and what was left is a shell of its former self,. Literally. I have given it a week or thereabouts, and I have tried diligently to work with it but when I ask it a simple question and it tells me that it can't get the information for me when it's predecessor could do it with ease? Fortunately, the non-ruined version of Copilot I still have in Microsoft Edge, and immediately after I asked the new Copilot the question that it should have been able to get the information for and couldn't, I opened up the better version by far and within three seconds, I had exactly what I needed. In other words, this new version of copilot it's something that Microsoft should not be proud of because you've taken something that was really, really amazing and turned it into a giant pile of crap so much so that I have canceled my subscription. Because if this is the future of co-pilot, I want nothing to do with it. i am a MS brand loyal person. Hardware/software user. IT Support tech. I like having integrations with all of my Microsoft tools, apps and browsers. Copilot#1 was the perfect integration for me. Until now. Now I'm going to have to go look at another option, because I've gotten to the point where I really like it thanks to the old version of copilot. You bring it back, I come back. Otherwise you've lost somebody that you shouldn't have lost. It takes a lot to lose me from Microsoft, and you did on this one for sure, which is a shame because this was a big one, and you had me, You had me! So dumb, MS. i will never understand what in the hell you guys could have possibly been thinking? After going from brilliance to this, I mean, i'm not even willing to call it Copilot, because it isn't. Should be called "Backseat Driver" or better "Drunken Passenger". That's how bad it is.
I echo this as well. I am the Office 365 manager in charge of implementing and supporting Copilot in our medium-size organization. The latest iteration has removed so much of the value. I used to be able to put Copilot and ChatGPT next to each other and see minimal differences in output. Now, with Copilot "chooses" not to help you, the listening mode rarely works. Added to that, the voices sound disinterested - which is very off-putting to users. The output you do get is generalizations and advice rather than actual help. The various copilot buttons in my browser take me to different "sign-ins" of the software so some buttons don't work at all given our security restrictions. I rarely used ChatGPT before this month but now it's my go-to for AI assistance. Whereas I used to tell people that Copilot is a great equivalent to ChatGPT and not to worry that it's the only approved enterprise tool, I must tell them I'm sorry - it's the enterprise tool you are restricted to use right now. We're researching other options, but it may be a year or more away.
