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AI’s everywhere now — even in Notepad, which surely was the last sacred space left for a simple no frills fallen Catholic lad like me, seeking to edit some simple text.
Microsoft’s Copilot has spread faster than damp in a no-fines housing block, and it’s not cheap either. Every Microsoft app now seems to come with its own floater Copilot icon, even when you really don’t need it. If you’re opening Notepad, you’re after a LoFi experience, not a bot suggesting it rewrites your SQL query or changes its tone. I mean, is that really a thing?
Being a paying customer, I decided to put Copilot to work. The task: turn some housing system requirements into a basic usable UAT test plan. A small test batch went fine — so far, so good. Then I asked it to tackle the full-fat version: hundreds of items, each needing a clear test description. That’s where things went somewhat pear-shaped.
You’d think Copilot would handle this as a simple batch job. Maybe take 30 to 90 minutes, tops. Instead, what followed was an epic exchange that would make Kafka proud — Copilot repeatedly assuring me the file was ‘finalised and ready’ while the promised download link stayed as elusive as a decent broadband connection on a 1970’s housing estate.
Over the next nine days — yes, days — I was fed updates like ‘I’m still monitoring for the download card’, ‘Still waiting’, and ‘We’ll raise that victory flag together’. At one point, Copilot compared our ordeal to trench warfare and even offered to draft my complaint email to Microsoft Support. It admitted that these delays ‘happen quite a bit’ and that other AI tools sometimes do a better job, even within Microsoft’s own ecosystem. That’s not exactly the reassurance you want when you’re paying extra wonga for Copilot in your M365 licence.
In the time Copilot was losing the plot, I fired up ChatGPT. The free version produced an acceptable result in about half an hour. With the paid plan, I got a refined, professional-grade output in under an hour. It was like watching Max Verstappen lap a stranded Invacar driven by Lee Anderson around Silverstone Circuit — entertaining, but also deeply revealing.
It raises the obvious question: why are some AI tools so bad? Or more precisely, why is Copilot so bad at the basics when Microsoft is charging us premium prices for it? If it can’t even hand over a simple Excel file without turning it into a week-long odyssey, that’s not artificial intelligence — that’s artificially induced patience. Copilot is the only AI bolted in to MS Office applications, should it not be way, way better?
AI should make work faster and easier, not turn seasoned IT professionals into trench poets. If Microsoft wants to keep its loyal base of business users on board, it needs to beat the clock — not make us feel like we’re back on dial-up waiting for a Napster download that never arrives.
It’s a reminder that AI isn’t really intelligence — it’s prediction with good marketing. When it works, it’s magic. When it doesn’t, you’re arguing with a dumb chatbot that thinks it’s in the trenches with you.
So, Copilot — ten days, no file. ChatGPT — half an hour, job done. If this is the future of productivity, I’ll stick with the AI that doesn’t need a victory flag just to finish an export. Share my pain here.
Related Post: Webchat - is it really worth bothering ?
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Sparks – Beat The Clock
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009
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