Microsoft Struggles to Keep Up as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Steals the Spotlight
Microsoft’s massive investment of tens of billions into OpenAI was meant to secure its lead in the AI race. However, the tech giant now faces a surprising challenge: its own AI assistant, Copilot, is falling behind the very partner technology it helped fund.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft’s sales teams are finding it tough to persuade both new and existing customers to adopt Copilot. Built on OpenAI’s technology, Copilot is often seen as a less polished and less popular alternative to ChatGPT, which remains freely accessible online.
Several companies have tested both platforms to see which one their employees prefer. For example, New York Life Insurance Co. has licenses for both, while pharmaceutical company Amgen rolled out Copilot to 20,000 employees only to find that ChatGPT was favored for tasks like research and document summarization. John Bruich, Amgen’s senior vice president, told Bloomberg that while Copilot is used when Microsoft-specific apps like Outlook and Teams require it, ChatGPT’s ease of use and superior performance make it the preferred choice.
Bruich said.
“OpenAI has done an exceptional job making their product both powerful and user-friendly,”
Delayed Launch and Integration Challenges Hurt Copilot
One key factor behind Copilot’s struggle is its late arrival. Launched in November 2023 a full year after ChatGPT’s debut many companies had already adopted the OpenAI chatbot independently by the time Microsoft introduced its assistant. Additionally, updating Copilot with OpenAI’s rapid improvements is a slow and cautious process. Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for workplace AI, explained that every update must be carefully vetted to ensure it doesn’t negatively impact users.
As Microsoft and OpenAI navigate their multi-billion-dollar partnership, the divide between the two AI tools is clear in real-world usage. Bain & Company, a long-time Microsoft client, recently deployed ChatGPT to 16,000 employees who actively use it, while only 2,000 employees regularly engage with Copilot mostly within Microsoft’s own apps like Excel. Bain’s CTO, Ramesh Razdan, acknowledged that although Copilot is getting better, it “is not yet at the same level” as ChatGPT.
This dynamic underscores the fierce competition in AI, even between partners, as Microsoft races to improve Copilot while OpenAI’s independent innovations continue to dominate user preference.
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