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© Reuters. Microsoft’s (MSFT) AI companion Copilot attracts mixed responses from early users
Early adopters of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Copilot have expressed mixed feelings about the much-anticipated AI companion.
As an AI-enhanced feature integrated into Microsoft (NASDAQ:)’s core applications like Word, Outlook, and Teams, Copilot leverages the same technology that powers OpenAI’s ChatGPT to perform tasks such as summarizing emails, drafting text, and generating documents from natural language prompts.
While the concept has sparked considerable interest, with many employees eager to participate in the trial phase, its practical performance raises questions about whether the service is worth the money.
At a subscription cost of $30 per user per month, the tool’s limitations in applications like Excel and PowerPoint, along with occasional errors in output, have led some early users to reconsider.
“I wouldn’t say we’re ready to spend $30 per user for every user in the company,” said Sharon Mandell, the chief information officer at networking hardware firm Juniper Networks. The company has been testing Copilot since November.
For instance, examples of “hallucination,” where the AI generates incorrect or fabricated information, have been noted, undermining its reliability in critical tasks.
Despite these challenges, Microsoft reports a strong initial interest in Copilot, emphasizing its potential to transform workplace productivity.
The feature’s integration with Teams mainly attracted positive responses, particularly for generating meeting summaries and benefiting those unable to attend in real-time due to geographical or scheduling conflicts.
“Copilot has to be a success for the stock to work,” said analysts at RBC Capital.
“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” they added.
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