Microsoft’s Copilot Efforts Are Receiving Backlash, And Insiders Believe The Approach Is More Focused On Competition Rather Than Providing Value

Companies are not going to slow down any time soon when it comes to advancing their AI technologies, aggressively pursuing new projects, and enhancing their existing models. Microsoft’s Copilot has made quite the mark as an AI-powered assistant and is built on advanced large language models to help facilitate users by automating their workflows. The company deals with privacy concerns proactively and has implemented measures such as tenant isolation to ensure user data remains private and protected. It has also placed restrictions on the AI training process. The company is still facing criticism over its tool and an internal source even suggested the model to be a gimmick.

A key employee suggested Microsoft’s aggressive integration across its ecosystems as rather competitive than transformative

Microsoft is approaching AI tools ambitiously as it is working on making Copilot a central part of its major products to streamline workflow and improve user experience. The company’s efforts have landed it among the most valuable companies in the world, with a $3 trillion market capitalization.  However, the rapid approach of expansion is facing criticism not only from the tech community but also internally.

The sentiment, even among employees, remains that Microsoft’s increasing focus on pushing AI is rather competitive than bringing utility for users, unlike the perception that the company tries to establish. Microsoft recently launched a Copilot update in October with a new user interface and brought some significant upgrades, including Copilot Vision.

However, the update did not sit well with users, as the company has been receiving quite the backlash over the drop in the quality of responses and reduced functionality, and even strongly expressed their preference for the previous version. Microsoft is not the only one facing challenges when it comes to scaling AI models. OpenAI has recently shared the reason for its lack of significant upgrades, which is the shortage of high-quality data available for training large language models.

Users and the tech community are not the only ones dismayed with the current AI direction of the company, as the company’s internal sources are not happy with the update and have voiced their opinion about the new version being a step backward rather than an upgrade. A Business Insider report shares a key employee’s perspective on the recent changes made by the company. The employee worked closely with Copilot’s AI division and expressed his stance on the current situation:

There’s a gap between the ambitious vision and what users are actually experiencing. Internally, we’re calling it growing pains. We are building the plane as we fly it.

The employee believes that the company is advancing AI tools without truly catering to the concerns and actual problem areas. Another insider suggested that the Copilot efforts are not slowing down any time soon:

There is a delusion on our marketing side where literally everything has been renamed to have Copilot it in. Everything is Copilot. Nothing else matters. They want a Copilot tie-in for everything.

Microsoft is still to respond to the growing concerns about the Copilot efforts and their direction, and it will be interesting to see what the company has to say on this.