In summary:
- PCWorld reports that researcher Tey Bannerman discovered 80 distinct instances of Microsoft’s Copilot brand across various products and services.
- This extensive branding creates significant fragmentation and potential user confusion, despite each Copilot serving specific functions within different apps like Dynamics 365 and GitHub.
- Microsoft’s widespread AI integration contradicts its stated goal of simplifying Windows 11 and previous commitments to scale back Copilot for better performance.
Microsoft has said previously that it plans to simplify and refocus Windows 11, acknowledging that it tried to inject its Copilot AI pretty much everywhere. And you know what? That’s almost literally true.
In a viral post, researcher Tey Bannerman found a whopping 80 instances of the Copilot brand name within Microsoft’s apps and services. Eighty! And the post has a nifty little interactive graphic that you can explore and play with, if you want to see them all.
The irony is inescapable. Microsoft has created an AI platform intended to make us more productive, but in doing so, it’s created dizzying layers of fragmentation that might trigger confusion in the strongest of us.
Some examples of the Copilot layers Bannerman found:
- Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service
- Copilot in Viva Glint
- GitHub Copilot Workspace
- Copilot in Microsoft Fabric
And so on. Microsoft could have made Copilot a ubiquitous app (like the main Copilot application within Windows) but it instead added Copilot to various apps and services around its ecosystem.
And you know what? Microsoft actually has a case to be made here. “Copilot” can actually represent different models and stores of information. The “Copilot” within Microsoft Word can act differently than the general “Copilot” app within Windows, though it shares some common attributes. I’d expect that Copilot Github CLI is authored specifically to help with coding.
Still, think about it in this way: You’ll typically fly a regional jet from, say, Sacramento to Las Vegas, with about 70 seats. There are more Copilots than passengers!
Remember, Microsoft said that it would scale back Copilot in the future, optimizing the speed of Windows and the Windows ecosystem by reducing AI load. If that’s the case, it sounds like there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit for Microsoft to pluck.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.