Microsoft should change its Copilot advertising, says watchdog

Microsoft’s Copilot advertizing has been criticized by an manufacture watchdog for its productivity claims and confusing usage of Copilot branding. The Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division (NAD) has reviewed Microsoft’s Copilot advertising, and recommended that the bundle elephantine discontinues oregon modifies productivity claims astir Microsoft 365 Copilot and much intelligibly disclose the limitations of its Business Chat feature.

Microsoft has been claiming that Copilot has productivity and instrumentality connected concern (ROI) benefits for businesses that follow the AI assistant, including that “67%, 70%, and 75% of users accidental they are much productive” aft a definite magnitude of Copilot usage. “NAD recovered that though the survey demonstrates a cognition of productivity, it does not supply a bully acceptable for the nonsubjective assertion astatine issue,” says the watchdog successful its review. “As a result, NAD recommended the assertion beryllium discontinued oregon modified to disclose the ground for the claim.”

Alongside the recommended productivity advertizing changes, NAD besides suggests that users of Copilot could beryllium confused by Microsoft’s wide usage of the Copilot branding crossed aggregate products — including Business Chat. “NAD concluded, based connected the discourse of the claims and cosmopolitan usage of the merchandise statement arsenic ‘Copilot,‘ that consumers would not needfully recognize the differences.” NAD has recommended that Microsoft present “modify its advertizing to intelligibly and conspicuously disclose immoderate worldly limitations related to however Business Chat assists users.”

Microsoft has had years of confusing branding for Copilot. Microsoft relaunched its Copilot for business with escaped AI chat and pay-as-you-go agents earlier this year, successful an effort to simplify immoderate of its branding woes. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat arsenic it’s known now, started disconnected arsenic Bing Chat Enterprise earlier Microsoft past rebranded it, confusingly, to conscionable Copilot. Somewhere successful the mediate of each this rebranding, Business Chat — which was primitively a chatbot successful Teams — is present Business Chat for Microsoft 365 Copilot.

As I wrote successful Notepad almost a twelvemonth ago, Microsoft has been rebranding Copilot successful the astir Microsoft mode possible. It’s each portion of trying to marque businesses use Copilot more, and past wage other for the Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription.

Microsoft says it disagrees with NAD’s conclusions, but that it “will travel NAD’s recommendations for clarifying its claims.” Hopefully that means that Copilot branding is going to beryllium clearer successful the future.