Microsoft’s Copilot was supposed to revolutionize workplace productivity. Instead, six months after launch, adoption rates are raising alarms—and some critics, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, are calling it “Clippy 2.0.”
Despite massive investment and rollout across Microsoft’s Office suite, early adoption has been underwhelming.
Microsoft knows this, seeing that the usage of Copilot rose to about 20 million worldwide and then flatlined. And although for some companies, 20 million users would be an accomplishment, in the context of the overall numbers of Microsoft users versus the billions and billions of dollars invested, this is a failure of proportions that does allow a comparison with the doomed Clippy app of the 1990’s.
According to the reporting from XDA Developers Microsoft Copilot’s weekly user base is only 5% of the number of people who use ChatGPT, and it’s not increasing. If there are approximately 1.5 billion Windows users worldwide, this means just over 1% of them are using Copilot, and it’s a tool that’s now a Windows default app.
Adding to the criticism, Marc Benioff posted on X (formerly Twitter): “When you look at how Copilot has been delivered to customers, it’s disappointing. It just doesn’t work, and it doesn’t deliver any level of accuracy. […] Copilot is more like Clippy 2.0.”
Benioff also pointed to Gartner research that warns Copilot may inadvertently expose sensitive company data, compounding frustration among early adopters.
The comparisons to Clippy—the much-maligned animated paperclip assistant from Microsoft’s past—may gloss over a deeper concern. Users have reported that Copilot often struggles to understand context, offers generic advice, and sometimes generates inaccurate information. Instead of boosting productivity, for some, at least, it’s perceived as an intrusive add-on.
Microsoft has already had to back down on it’s Copilot “key” and allowed users to put it to other uses including reinstating its original function as a menu key.
Microsoft still has a chance to turn things around by refining Copilot’s utility and improving its integration. But the company has placed a heavy bet on Copilot as the future of workplace, and that hinges on broader adoption.
If businesses and users continue to see Copilot as a cost without clear benefit, Microsoft could find itself reliving the Clippy saga—only this time at a much higher financial and reputational cost.
