Microsoft's Copilot Strategy: Too Many Copilots!

Higher prices for a Copilot product nobody wants.

Microsoft has a tendency to pivot and keep re-branding its products and its AI into nearly every piece of software is annoying consumers. Microsoft Office is one of the world's most recognizable brands, literally used by billions. The initial rebrand to "Microsoft 365" was painful enough, but now it’s gotten even worse.

Synonymous with Windows, for the past several decades, is its suite of productivity tools known to the vast majority of the globe as "Microsoft Office." Truly inexpiable (and dumb) branding moves in the Copilot era.

Please Microsoft, no more Copilots! Or changing names!

• Microsoft has rebranded its AI assistant from “Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365″ to “Microsoft 365 Copilot”.

Oh please! You were already so forgettable.

Microsoft has peppered its product lineup with the word "Copilot" for the past two years, the most painful two years of Corporate tech branding ever.

Microsoft’s Copilot Everywhere Scam

Consumers are upset over Microsoft’s poor Copilot.

Microsoft doesn’t care, it’s raising the price!

• Copilot is now available (this week) in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

• New subscribers will pay $13 monthly per household or $10 for individuals, marking a 30% increase.

• Existing subscribers can opt for 'Classic' plans to maintain current pricing without AI features.

But we don’t actually want to use Copilot in Microsoft’s software products. They continue to butcher their brand and defeat everything they touch.

This is also a pivot from yet another “AI” failure for Satya Nadella. The pricing adjustment reflects Microsoft's evolving strategy for AI adoption, moving away from its initial premium-priced Copilot Pro offering at $20 per month. ChatGPT outcompeted Copilot Pro to the point where a stand-alone product no longer even made sense! Yeah.

Apple Intelligence has been a huge failure as well so far. BigTech is in control but not of matters in its own house.

Copilot All-in-One plan poor use of AI in Product

By relying on OpenAI’s models, nobody wants to work at Microsoft either any longer. It’s pointless, and there are too many Copilots, did I mention that already? The new plan, Copilot Chat — not to be confused with Microsoft’s Copilot Business Chat or GitHub Copilot Chat — is underpinned by OpenAI’s GPT-4o.

Honestly the products are confusing and keep changing a la Google! All of these capabilities were a part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft’s sprawling enterprise AI add-on for Microsoft 365. But pricing for Microsoft 365 Copilot is more rigid. A license costs $30 per user per month.

Microsoft is the king of enterprise and software subscriptions (most in the world) so know how to “game” more revenue from their anti-competitive bundles. By constantly pivoting they also confuse customers into paying more. Who even wants to take the time to understand their flakey AI and brand names?

So it’s all kind of a subscription scam at the end of the day with an AI product that isn’t even any good.

Microsoft of course is pretending its doing its customers a huge favor. For Microsoft's 84 million consumer subscribers, the change introduces AI assistance across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

AI optimized for enterprise software means more revenue, but not because it creates more actual value for the end user. The company is also implementing a credits system for AI features, providing monthly allowances for tasks like image generation in Designer app and Windows tools including Paint, Photos, and Notepad.

I’m so tired of hearing about their lame Copilots. Microsoft Recall is one of the most privacy invasive technologies known to modern computing. Already Windows was a liability for consumer privacy. Keystroke logging and PC screenshots means you only rent the service, but don’t have any real ownership of your own space.

The monopolies and software products you hate, in a world where there are no other competitors or options to choose from. God forbid I’m ever forced to use OpenAI and their unethical products. The bottom line is its very deceptive customer experiences.

Pay More for what You Don’t Need

The integration of AI features into Microsoft's core productivity suite represents a significant shift in how AI tools are being marketed and sold to consumers. Rather than positioning AI as a premium add-on, Microsoft is making it a standard feature – albeit with a price increase to support the technology investment.

The reality is Microsoft couldn’t compete in the Premium Add-on world because Copilot was always poorly executed and from a brand people didn’t trust. So these changes fall in paid subscription scams of scale. You are locked into their software, so they don’t really care about your preferences.

When will Satya Nadella realize people hate Copilot? Someone tell your clueless boss.