A year into using Microsoft Copilot Pro, the experience has been mixed. While it promised productivity boosts by integrating AI into Microsoft 365, issues with stability and intrusive features have hindered its effectiveness. Users face complications with automatic translations and verbose email responses. Despite potential improvements on the horizon, like enhanced AI capabilities, the initial promise of efficiency remains largely unfulfilled, as studies show little change in work pace among users.
My Journey with Microsoft Copilot Pro
About a year ago, I took the plunge and subscribed to Microsoft Copilot Pro for a monthly fee of 22 euros. The concept was enticing: no more need to open a separate window for OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude. By seamlessly integrating generative AI into the Microsoft 365 suite, Copilot Pro promised to be my go-to assistant for tasks like drafting emails and enhancing presentations, all while significantly boosting my productivity.
Challenges and Frustrations
Fast forward a year, and the reality has been quite different. Stability has been a major issue with Copilot Pro; my user experience has fluctuated dramatically over the months. Each morning as I open Outlook, I face uncertainty. Will the assistant be waiting patiently in the ribbon, or will it be embedded in the email draft itself?
Fortunately, the intrusive feature that placed AI suggestions directly in the email body has since been resolved. This previous setup complicated drafting and led to awkward line breaks, making it take twice as long to respond to straightforward messages. Such inefficiency is disappointing!
While frequent updates are common with SaaS solutions, users desire a level of consistency to maintain their workflow. In a widely-used environment like Microsoft 365, changes should be implemented thoughtfully and gradually.
Unfortunately, the intrusive nature of generative AI doesn’t stop there. In Word, for instance, Copilot Pro automatically attempts to summarize opened files—something particularly unwelcome when I already know the content inside out. This prompts yet another window to close, wasting precious seconds.
However, when I open Copilot in the sidebar, it performs admirably by suggesting text improvements or allowing me to ask questions in natural language without disrupting the document. Microsoft even provides a gallery of queries for moments when inspiration is lacking.
Complexity Over Simplicity
Despite the potential for efficiency, there are numerous frustrations that make the Copilot Pro experience feel more cumbersome than helpful. For example, if an email arrives in a foreign language, the AI automatically offers to translate it—an inconvenient process since I must then navigate to the in-house translation tool. This results in several extra clicks.
In some instances, Copilot Pro takes its role too far. When I request a simple, friendly response to an email, I expect a concise reply like “Hello, thank you for your message.” Instead, it generates a lengthy three-paragraph response filled with unnecessary formality, rendering the draft unusable unless I rewrite it entirely.
Additionally, while summarizing lengthy emails can be beneficial, the process can take up to ten seconds—time-consuming when repeated several times daily. Generative AI shines in summarizing extensive documents, yet Copilot Chat lacks the capability to attach files, unlike its free counterparts. Instead, it cheekily requests that I copy and paste text—imagine doing that for a 200-page report!
Is a Brighter Future Ahead?
As the consulting firm Lecko points out, “The promise of saving time with generative AI in managing one’s workflow is overstated.” Their study involving 55 managers using Copilot over three months revealed that, despite the learning curve associated with its deployment, these managers’ work pace remained largely unchanged.
Even two years after the debut of ChatGPT, large language models (LLMs) continue to evolve. It’s evident how challenging it is to incorporate this technology into everyday work environments while addressing security concerns and the risk of inaccuracies.
Microsoft has announced an ambitious roadmap filled with developments aimed at enhancing Copilot Pro’s functionality. Their recent blog post outlined plans for integrating voice, image, and text recognition, as well as advanced reasoning capabilities. I’m eager to see how these innovations will unfold in the future.