Microsoft Is Calling Too Many Things 'Copilot,' Watchdog Says (businessinsider.com) 49
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has a long history of being criticized for coming up with clunky product names, and for changing them so often it's hard for customers to keep up. The company's own employees once joked in a viral video that the iPod would have been called the "Microsoft I-pod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition with Subscription" had it been created by Microsoft. The latest gripe among some employees and customers: The company's tendency to slap "Copilot" on everything AI.
"There is a delusion on our marketing side where literally everything has been renamed to have Copilot it in," one employee told Business Insider late last year. "Everything is Copilot. Nothing else matters. They want a Copilot tie-in for everything." Now, an advertising watchdog is weighing in. The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division reviewed Microsoft's advertising for its Copilot AI tools. NAD called out Microsoft's "universal use of the product description as 'Copilot'" and said "consumers would not necessarily understand the difference," according to a recent report from the watchdog.
"Microsoft is using 'Copilot' across all Microsoft Office applications and Business Chat, despite differences in functionality and the manual steps that are required for Business Chat to produce the same results as Copilot in a specific Microsoft Office app," NAD further explained in an email to BI. NAD did not mention any specific recommendations on product names. But it did say Microsoft should modify claims that Copilot works "seamlessly across all your data" because all of the company's tools with the Copilot moniker don't work together continuously in a way consumers might expect.
"There is a delusion on our marketing side where literally everything has been renamed to have Copilot it in," one employee told Business Insider late last year. "Everything is Copilot. Nothing else matters. They want a Copilot tie-in for everything." Now, an advertising watchdog is weighing in. The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division reviewed Microsoft's advertising for its Copilot AI tools. NAD called out Microsoft's "universal use of the product description as 'Copilot'" and said "consumers would not necessarily understand the difference," according to a recent report from the watchdog.
"Microsoft is using 'Copilot' across all Microsoft Office applications and Business Chat, despite differences in functionality and the manual steps that are required for Business Chat to produce the same results as Copilot in a specific Microsoft Office app," NAD further explained in an email to BI. NAD did not mention any specific recommendations on product names. But it did say Microsoft should modify claims that Copilot works "seamlessly across all your data" because all of the company's tools with the Copilot moniker don't work together continuously in a way consumers might expect.
Yes, and they're overdoing "Defender" too. (Score:2)
There's only one true Defender (Score:5, Informative)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:1)
can confirm (Score:4, Interesting)
that i don't know what Copilot branded stuff can or can't do in any place. i just assume it means "a MS LLM is used somehow" but idk if that's even true.
Like are the ones in Edge sidebar, and on Bing the same? idk (these are the two i've used) ... is it an interface to the same thing ? idk (and haven't used that yet)
i assume there's a plugin for vscode (though i haven't tried it). is that the same as the other two? something else? idk.
Copilot on windows
and i don't even use office365 or Azure currently. no idea what that would bring.
Re:can confirm (Score:4, Informative)
that i don't know what Copilot branded stuff can or can't do in any place.
For me, it makes me less likely to try a new or rebranded feature when they name it copilot. I find copilot to be a pain in the ass, so anything with copilot branding will be ignored or removed (when possible).
Re: (Score:3)
my favorite is co-pilot in notepad .. just where everyone wants it
Re: (Score:2)
Jesus is my co-pilot... (Score:4, Funny)
He doesn't seem to speak English though. Or know how to fly a plane. I'm tempted to drop him back off at the Home Depot parking lot, if I'm being completely honest.
Re: (Score:2)
these guys in South Park seemed pretty multi-talented.
Just be very clear if you ask them to write essays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
I thought it was Pontius pilot.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Bob is my co-pilot.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Family, at dinner: "Thank you, Jesus, for this food."
Jesus, in a farm field: "De nada."
Almost as much as 365 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft loves its Sub mediocre AI (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
That's really only relevant to their consumer subscriptions - Microsoft 365 without Copilot has always been available to businesses.
And the "without Copilot" version was always available, it just wasn't widely advertised. If a customer tried to cancel their Family or Personal Microsoft 365 subscription they'd get offered to revert back to the "without Copilot" version.
Will they rename Windows 12 as CopilotOS? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
No they don't, and don't call me Shirley!
when do we get co-pilot for co-pilots (Score:2)
To help us navigate and use all the co-pilot products?
Re: (Score:3)
I had just the worst meeting some time back where, despite there being a total of 6 'licensing people' between MS and the VAR, there were a number of points where they were unable to determine(or came to different determinations) of what license you needed to do certain things and how much it would cost(and not 'different' in t
On the other hand ... (Score:3)
It is the useful label that says, "We've crowbarred some more shit you won't want in here! You're welcome!"
Makes it so much easier to avoid stuff. Thanks, lads.
In other news (Score:4, Insightful)
They also call too many things "privacy".
The worst part (Score:3, Interesting)
Marketing people (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Worse. They'll sell Saki as "the warm drink to drink with cold dead fish" and call the plates "the things the cold dead fish is served on, in the shop that makes cold dead fish". ...
Onenote edition.
Re: (Score:2)
They'd sell it as "Cold Dead Fish" for 3 months. Then they'd rebrand it as "Dead Fish Premium 365".
Then 5 months after that they'd rebrand it to "Fish 365 for Home".
Then 4 months after that...
Re: (Score:2)
And no matter how they rename it, it would eventually become an obnoxious and impossible to disable animated UI element... like a neon-colored Charlie Tuna wearing a windows-blue pilot's uniform asking you: "You appear to be trying to contact emergency services after eating some dodgy fugu. Would you like me to help you compose a complaint email to the chef?"
Marketing (Score:3)
Marketing folks are the bane of technical products.
I remember when they started calling everything Java at Sun..
If you name everything the same thing then it stops meaning anything.
Re: (Score:3)
Using the same word for everything is very Smurf-like. So I guess that's where the Smurfs work in the real world - marketing?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I've occasionally said that nobody should be allowed to name a product unless they've spent at least 6 months doing tech support.
Normal Microsoft (Score:1)
I have no idea with xbox version is the latest.
There are Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams
If you say Surface the first thing I think is a table
Tell me again, with Onenote should I use now? and I mean Jun. 2026 because now is relative...
By the way, an user has a problem Outlook. Now, the question will always be....
Re: (Score:2)
> I have no idea with xbox version is the latest.
Do you mean Copilot Gaming Center?
> There are Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams
Do you mean Copilot Chat?
> If you say Surface the first thing I think is a table
I think it is Copilot
> Tell me again, with Onenote should I use now? and I mean Jun. 2026 because now is relative...
Copilot Notes 2026 Copilot Pro Edition
> By the way, an user has a problem Outlook. Now, the question will always be.... ... is it called Copilot Mail? Yes.
Just part of the larger "everything is AI" trend? (Score:4, Interesting)
My wife's new Motorola phone told her that it was using AI to adjust how it charges her battery. I'm 95% sure this isn't true - it's just using the same algorithm that Android implemented years ago to track when you tend to plug your phone in at night and when you wake up so it can charge as slowly as possible to maintain battery health.
This seems to be part of a larger trend of companies labelling every type of automation as "AI" because that's the buzzword du jour.
Obligatory– (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft Re-Designs the IPod Packaging
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
it seems obvious (Score:2)
That Microsoft are intentionally using misleading product naming to smokescreen their AI sending all your personal data back to their servers.
Re: (Score:2)
Good reason to switch to linux. I only boot in to windows to play games these days.
Re: (Score:2)
Totally agree. I also only keep a windows partition around for gaming now, but Steam proton has gotten so good I'm very much at the point of reconsidering that.
That decision is even easier when Microsoft unavoidably installs intrusive AI on my PC.
Re: (Score:2)
Also agree. It's rare i need to boot into Windows for a game particularly for indie stuff
Huge privacy issues (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
. I might want to know what it's doing with my code if I use various license levels of Copilot in Visual Studio, but most of what I can find is about Copilot in Office 365, etc. And on the pages themselves they don't even differentiate different Copilot products! It's quite frustrating, and I wonder if they did that on purpose.
It doesn't matter what the page says. If the program you are using has anything related to copilot in it, it is uploading your data to be used in ways that only Microsoft, and possibly the US government, knows. Regardless of what they do with it now, that info will still be available for abuse 20 years from now.
I just want to be able to disable it (Score:1)
I'd be more impressed with 'copilot' (Score:2)
If it simply let me do a decent fucking search in outlook.
How can they 'roll out' AI to 'assist' us with 'everyday' tasks but you still can't do a goddamn boolean search? And don't even get me STARTED on the asswipe shitshow of Outlook for Android. I'd support Israel OR Iran if they would just include whoever designed that abortion in one of their strike packages.
Bob again (Score:2)
Bob got new clothes!