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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

#271

Post by g947o »

codeulike wrote: post #109
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…

But still, Microsoft is the most diversified of the big players - they have Windows, Office, Enterprise, Xbox, Azure, Surface - they can survive a mess like their current copilot mess and still generally thrive

It has more to do with Microsoft's size and long history. If you are big and have been doing the same thing for many years, naturally you'll want to expand, some of which do succeed.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#272

Post by tokioyoyo »

AJRF wrote: post #40

They really dropped the ball on this - they are down ~12% for the year. When they first started, they seemed to be firing on all cylinders and looked like they were going to be big winners, but the strategy has just been a slow motion car crash. I wonder if Satya is the right person for Microsoft.

I mean, Apple is at ATH from basically waiting out and picking the winner from its throne. Everyone clowned them, but it also made them not waste money until things are a bit more clear.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#273

Post by g947o »

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…

  > but it couldn't fulfill his prompt"
Not surprised. Copilot censors queries to the point that it is often useless.

Another reason to use ChatGPT.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#274

Post by mpawelski »

direwolf20 wrote: post #122
brg wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that the success has more to do with DevDiv being the strongest technical organization at MS than its provenance.

I STILL REMEMBER WHEN SOME MARKETING IDIOT DECIDED THAT VISUAL STUDIO NEEDED TO SHOUT AT YOU. IT TOOK THREE MAJOR VERISONS BEFORE VISUAL STUDIO STOPPED LOOKING LIKE THIS COMMENT. OF COURSE THERE WASN'T A SETTING TO MAKE IT NORMAL AGAIN.

Damn, I got frustrated just by reading this comment :D

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#275

Post by trinix912 »

tester756 wrote: post #101
nitwit005 wrote: post #71

I always remember the pointless integration of Google+ into YouTube that simply annoyed everyone. There's surprising willingness to damage an existing successful product to try to save a new struggling product. Microsoft has also tried hard to push Edge, annoying nearly every Windows user on the planet, with no real success.

>Microsoft has also tried hard to push Edge, annoying nearly every Windows user on the planet, with no real success. False, Edge is actually decent product and viable replacement for Chromium based browsers. I use Firefox daily, but at work Edge is my way to go

Have you forgotten about Edge 1 that was the evolution of IE’s Trident rendering engine? It failed that’s why they then started with the rebranded Chromium Edge 2.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#276

Post by gtowey »

bonesss wrote: post #234
onion2k wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only good if you're doing measurably more with the time you save. I feel like I'm significantly faster in parts of my job using Copilot, but when I try to get data on what I'm doing now that I wasn't doing before I had it I don't come up with anything. I know I'm working faster, but the time seems to have just gone .

Working faster, but at what? LLM workflow: Describing to Claude that I need an edit made in the second paragraph of the third section feels easy, comfortable, and straightforward. I’m using my speech centers, speech to text, and then I wait for a generation during which I hit my phone or Reddit. Poof, the text flies out like magic, taking 20+ seconds, then I re-re-re-read it to make sure the edit was good and nothing…

> Working with an LLM is kinda like working under stage hypnosis.

Another post on HN likened it to gambling, in the way that slot machines work. Each time you prompt, you could hit the jackpot! But usually you end up with some mediocre or wrong, so you tweak that prompt and pull the lever again. It's and endless cycle.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#277

Post by pjmlp »

RugnirViking wrote: post #270
pjmlp wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we are going by the numbers, then casual gaming on mobile phones and tablets is even higher. > Mobile gaming generated USD 140.53 billion in 2025, accounting for 48.50% of the video game market share. Console revenue followed at USD 56.2 billion, slightly ahead of PC’s USD 46.3 billion. Cloud-gaming services are the fastest-rising category; the segment’s video game market size is projected to reach USD 24.68 billi…

while I agree there probably are more users on mobile (which notably is not a console), market size is not the same thing as number of people.

Which is kind of irrelevant in the context of ditching Windows for Linux in gaming, in numbers relevant for game studios to care about.

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#278

Post by jamesnorden »

rightbyte wrote: post #100
anthonypasq wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your premise that the leaders of every single one of the top 10 biggest and most profitable companies in human history are all preposterously wrong about a new technology in their existing industry is hard to believe. AI is literally the fastest growing and most widely used/deployed technologies ever.

The product is the stock price, not Office or Windows. From that perspective they are doing it right.

Is sacrificing everything for short term gains really the right move in any situation?

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#279

Post by gtowey »

mouth wrote: post #224
primax wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good for creating meeting notes and action lists in Teams, but that's about it. MS use of AI in apps really feels like their Google+ moment.

I found that the time I spent reviewing and fixing issues/errors/omissions in Copilot’s meeting notes was more than just cleaning up my own notes that I took and sending out.

There's you problem, you care about accuracy!

It's time to accept the new way of working, just change your reality to match the copilot version and boom, you save time fixing its mistakes!

In fact, why have the meeting at all? Just prompt copilot to create notes based on a fictional conception of the meeting and you just saved everyone a whole hour!

Re: Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is running into problems

#280

Post by jamesnorden »

tester756 wrote: post #101
nitwit005 wrote: post #71

I always remember the pointless integration of Google+ into YouTube that simply annoyed everyone. There's surprising willingness to damage an existing successful product to try to save a new struggling product. Microsoft has also tried hard to push Edge, annoying nearly every Windows user on the planet, with no real success.

>Microsoft has also tried hard to push Edge, annoying nearly every Windows user on the planet, with no real success. False, Edge is actually decent product and viable replacement for Chromium based browsers. I use Firefox daily, but at work Edge is my way to go

Did you miss the 2019 news that Edge switched to just being another Chromium reskin?
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