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Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

wsj.com

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Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#21

Post by PaulHoule »

wolvoleo wrote: post #17
Etheryte wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most of Microsoft's revenue is not generated by end-users. It's large government agencies and big corporations where the end-user is ten steps detached from the actual decision to buy or not to buy something.

Yeah and even the engineers and architects have no influence on the purchase decision. If you ask us we wouldn't buy Microsoft. But they're really good at rubbing shoulders with the CIOs and convincing them their stuff isn't the mediocre trash it really is.

It's a story in Germany all the time that some open source zealots get a town government to switch to an off-brand office suite which is so bad that the government worker's union goes on strike to get Microsoft Office back.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#22

Post by wolvoleo »

code_for_monkey wrote: post #5
cyrusradfar wrote: post #4

The 3.3% paid conversion is not great. Believe it or not, the Recon Analytics trend is actually worse primary usage among Copilot subscribers dropped from 18.8% to 11.5% since July while Gemini climbed past it. People who paid are leaving. That's a churn problem. The tell is buried in the article: workers who have access to Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini side by side choose ChatGPT and Gemini at higher rates. Some comp…

> Meanwhile three different orgs inside Microsoft all own something called "Copilot" and none of them talk to each other. I audibly winced

There are in fact almost 30 products with Copilot in the name now. Though they've seem to have cut a few recently like the sales version

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#24

Post by zwaps »

The reality is that Copilot’s laughable performance is almost entirely unrelated to AI models not being good at X.

Every single thing Copilot does has been solved much better by other products.

However, Copilot fails in extremely ridiculous ways, at very basic tasks which such a product absolutely must nail.

Copilot should not have been released. A large majority of people involved have failed. People like managers, product managers etc should probably be fired. Technical leads equally so.

For everyone who has been building similar products it is immediately obvious that Copilot is sloppy, unfocused and unprofessionally executed.

People hate it, and for hood reason.

It just boggles the mind how they would go and release it, or that it even exists in its current form.

Those devs and managers rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars each, producing garbage that has been done better by dozens or hundreds of other teams

Bah

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#25

Post by pjmlp »

It is remarkable how during the last 25 years (approximately), Microsoft has been improving their ability to deliver first (or be among the first), followed by messing up the whole process so that late comers end up taking the crown jewels.

PDAs, mobile phones, tablets, tablets with detachable keyboards, managed OS userspace, HoloLens, the XBox mess, and now AI.

There certainly other examples that I failed to address.

This is what happens when divisions fight among themselves for OKRs and whatever other goals.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#26

Post by [deleted] »

cyrusradfar wrote: post #4

The 3.3% paid conversion is not great. Believe it or not, the Recon Analytics trend is actually worse primary usage among Copilot subscribers dropped from 18.8% to 11.5% since July while Gemini climbed past it. People who paid are leaving. That's a churn problem. The tell is buried in the article: workers who have access to Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini side by side choose ChatGPT and Gemini at higher rates. Some comp…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#27

Post by stock_toaster »

PaulHoule wrote: post #21
wolvoleo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and even the engineers and architects have no influence on the purchase decision. If you ask us we wouldn't buy Microsoft. But they're really good at rubbing shoulders with the CIOs and convincing them their stuff isn't the mediocre trash it really is.

It's a story in Germany all the time that some open source zealots get a town government to switch to an off-brand office suite which is so bad that the government worker's union goes on strike to get Microsoft Office back.

Most people are just highly resistant to change, even change for the better.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#28

Post by jetbalsa »

PaulHoule wrote: post #21
wolvoleo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and even the engineers and architects have no influence on the purchase decision. If you ask us we wouldn't buy Microsoft. But they're really good at rubbing shoulders with the CIOs and convincing them their stuff isn't the mediocre trash it really is.

It's a story in Germany all the time that some open source zealots get a town government to switch to an off-brand office suite which is so bad that the government worker's union goes on strike to get Microsoft Office back.

Which one did they switch to?

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#29

Post by exceptione »

pjmlp wrote: post #25

It is remarkable how during the last 25 years (approximately), Microsoft has been improving their ability to deliver first (or be among the first), followed by messing up the whole process so that late comers end up taking the crown jewels. PDAs, mobile phones, tablets, tablets with detachable keyboards, managed OS userspace, HoloLens, the XBox mess, and now AI. There certainly other examples that I failed to address…

And their philosophy of mediocre = good enough. (Not everything ofc, MS is a continent. .net core, language design etc is top-notch.)

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#30

Post by PaulHoule »

jetbalsa wrote: post #28
PaulHoule wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a story in Germany all the time that some open source zealots get a town government to switch to an off-brand office suite which is so bad that the government worker's union goes on strike to get Microsoft Office back.

Which one did they switch to?

Here's a case of a recent one which is early in the cycle

https://www.pcmag.com/news/german-province-ditches-microsoft...

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