Microsoft Says Copilot Users Would Love It More If They Wrote Better Prompts

Microsoft has spent the last year pushing Copilot with all its might, and now that it's failing to get the results it wanted, it's blaming its users. While it is alleged that Copilot users don't find Microsoft's AI tools as productive as other options, Microsoft says users aren't very good at telling Copilot what they want. 

Microsoft employees with "direct knowledge of customer feedback" told Business Insider Thursday that users don't believe Copilot measures up to reigning chatbot ChatGPT. According to these sources, users almost always compare the two AI-based platforms. And while it's normal for consumers to compare and contrast one product with another, Microsoft is fed up.

Employees told Business Insider that customers disappointed by Copilot in comparison with ChatGPT "just didn't understand how the different products work"—a point reportedly bolstered by Jared Spataro, Microsoft's corporate vice president of "AI at work." (There are Copilot tools aimed at everyday web users and others aimed at professional contexts; Spataro deals mainly in the latter.) The same sources said users are often bad at writing prompts, thus preventing Copilot from understanding what they're looking for. One employee even said: "It's a copilot, not an autopilot—you have to work with it."

Microsoft 365 Copilot integration as seen in Word. Credit: Microsoft

The company is reportedly working with third parties to create instructional videos for users who are not well-versed in generative AI prompt writing. But Microsoft 365, which features a Copilot integration that allows users to generate text, charts, PowerPoint presentations, and more, already features a handful of prompt examples and FAQs. At which point are disappointing results no longer the user's fault but Copilot's?

Either way, after months of forcing Copilot into everything users know and love, Microsoft is undoubtedly disappointed. In October, CEO Satya Nadella said Copilot could become the next Windows Start button, then did everything in his company's power to make it so. An Edge mobile browser update in January changed the app's name to "Microsoft Edge: AI Browser" in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store; days later, Microsoft started forcing Copilot to launch on boot for certain Windows 11 PCs. The Redmond-based tech giant has worked to sweeten the deal by adding new Copilot features and GPT-4 Turbo upgrades in recent weeks, but, like anything, there's always the chance that users won't want to deal with Copilot at all.