Microsoft's branding and advertising have come under fire this week, and I can't say I'm surprised.
The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division has published a report that feels like the latest chapter in Microsoft's history of being particularly terrible at naming its products.
But is this a case of AI washing, marketing spin, or Microsoft being terrible at naming products?
The BBB NAD has criticized Microsoft for its Copilot advertising, alleging that only some of the Copilot claims are supported by independent research. The report recommends that Microsoft modify or discontinue some AI features and performance claims.
Microsoft's Copilot AI and Copilot+ PC platforms are confusing -- even if you know the difference between the two. For the average Windows user, the difference is even more obscure.
Is it AI washing?
The National Advertising Division (NAD) is a watchdog organization that fact-checks various marketing claims to ensure products are marketed accurately.
The NAD investigated Microsoft's claims about Copilot AI features to determine if Microsoft was accurately advertising Copilot's capabilities both within the Microsoft ecosystem and with external applications.
While the NAD upheld many of Microsoft's AI claims, the advisory board recommended that Microsoft modify its advertising around the Business Chat feature, as it cannot "seamlessly" generate a document in non-Microsoft applications.
To get Business Chat to generate a document in outside apps, a user would need to take additional manual steps to produce the same results as Copilot.
The NAD also criticized Microsoft's claims that its Copilot and Business Chat AI features increase productivity. Microsoft bases its claim that AI improves productivity on a self-report statement: "67-75% of users say they are more productive" after 6-10 weeks of Copilot usage.
While Microsoft "disagrees with NAD's conclusions," the company has agreed to "follow NAD's recommendations for clarifying its claims."
Business Chat requires additional functionality in non-Microsoft applications. Microsoft's self-report style of productivity rating questions some Copilot claims; however, they don't appear to be "AI washing."
Business Chat can still generate documents in external applications, even if the AI feature requires additional steps from the user.
Instead, this appears to be a case of marketing spin.
It doesn't help that Microsoft's Copilot branding is confusing
The National Advertising Board also found that users could be confused by Microsoft's use of Copilot branding across multiple products with different features.
Microsoft's Copilot assists users in Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Copilot is also a stand-alone AI chatbot.
Microsoft's Business Chat is a chat interface for Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant.
Then there's Microsoft's Copilot+ PC program, which has expanded AI features for hardware that meets a strict 40 TOPS NPU requirement.
Even knowing all of this for the sake of reviewing hardware, I still find Microsoft's use of Copilot somewhat confusing. I can easily see how someone less informed would be blindsided by the differences between in-app Copilot features and accessing Copilot through Business Chat for external applications.
Microsoft is just bad at naming things
Look, Microsoft is notorious for being terrible at naming products. There are plenty of think pieces about its various failures, and the rankings of which have been the worst.
There are even multiple YouTube breakdowns. But here are a few quick examples:
- Microsoft was in hot water for attaching .NET to many of its products. The name came into use in 2002 and caused much initial confusion in the early days of the Internet.
- Windows 95 launched at the end of 1995, making users feel that even when it was new, it was already outdated.
- Windows also skipped from Windows 8 to Windows 10, implying Microsoft can't even count its OS iterations correctly.
- Microsoft also can't stick to a name scheme for its Xbox game consoles. The Xbox was followed by the Xbox 360, which in turn was followed by the Xbox One and Xbox One X. The current consoles are named the Xbox Series X and Series S, which doesn't reduce confusion.
So the idea that Microsoft overused the Copilot brand isn't exactly far-fetched.
All we can do is hope the NAD's intervention will make Microsoft's Copilot branding clearer in the future. But I also wouldn't hold my breath, considering Microsoft's track record with naming things.
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