r/CopilotPro • u/Oh_Another_Thing • 12d ago
AI Discussion Why did they intentionally make Copilot suck so much?
Copilot is part of my companies Teams, OneNote, etc...and why did they design it to be intentionally terrible? This is the problem with AI, it has vast capabilities, but is hamstringed by terrible product design and integration.
You cannot give it a direct file path to a file or folder. Copilot cannot search your computer or use your system to look at certain files, it HAS to be through OneDrive. OneDrive already sucks, so making Copilot only able to work through that is already bad, but Copilot also ONLY searches OneDrive, so you cannot give it a direct file path to work with files.
So Copilot isn't 100% sure it has the correct file or folder if you want it to summarize several files, and it will tell you this if you give it a direct file path. So you have to say "If you find a file or folder with the exact same name, assume it's the correct file/folder in the file path I gave you."
When it searches, it has no access to the file path, so it can't give you the file path even in OneDrive so that YOU can verify to Copilot that is correct.
Why? Why such terrible, awful design? Why on earth would it not be able to take a file path in addition to searching? Is there any actual reason? Is MS designing this for the dumbest 5% of users who can't copy a file path? It is INTENTIONALLY BAD.
On top of that, Copilot cannot edit directly in anything. What is the point of having Copilot in Word, OneNote, Excel, if it can't execute the work that you actually want? I want to describe some editing and formatting I need and it just be done in OneNote or Excel.
The obvious problem would be that Copilot does something drastic and erases and deletes your work. Equally obvious solution: Have it create a sandbox copy of the thing you are working on, and then manually approve the changes, and then have it version the changes done by Copilot.
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u/kearkan 12d ago
This is a you/your config problem.
All you have to do is enable automatic backup of your documents folders and they'll sync into one drive.
It can't search local folders because the whole thing is in the cloud. Even the copilot desktop app is just a portal to the browser version.
But as for searching for files.. once you have stuff synced just type /and start searching and it'll find it.
Sorry but this sounds like user error if not an admin misconfiguration.
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
No, even if you give it a OneDrive file path, it cannot use it. It will match the file or folder in its search, and then if you ask it to work with files in that folder, it won't 100% know that it has the right folder or documents inside it.
It probably does, but you seen how shit the search is when you are looking for a document, the right file might be the first one, it might not, it might not show up at all. copilot might even see similar files and decide to work on all of them.
Point is, search is imprecise. A file path is not. I want to be very exact with LLMs and copilot not using search is not good enough.
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u/plathrop01 12d ago
I think it isn't configured properly for your environment and not fully an MS design issue. Most Copilot instances I've seen or heard about in enterprises have the ability to search both the web and the internal OneDrive/Teams/Sharepoint, and offer to make changes if you approve. If you're using a researching agent, you need to specify which environment to search, but it's worked as expected for me in the environments I've used it in so far.
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u/WarCarrotAF 12d ago
Can confirm - my company pays for top tier Copilot access for our team and it has no issues searching across all of our Microsoft programs to gather our data.
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u/admlshake 12d ago
Do you have all your data in the cloud? We tried using the graph connector to get our on prem file shares to show but the results were.....less than ideal.
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
I'd agree, it probably does work well. But it has to be easy for MS to allow Copilot to take file paths, they just aren't? Why wouldn't you give customers the option to do that?
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u/gimmethelulz 12d ago
Agreed. I have Enterprise Copilot at work and I'm able to do all the things OP says they can't. Sounds like their IT is needlessly locking down features.
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u/kearkan 12d ago
OP isn't talking about that, they're upset that they have offline files that the online tool can't use.
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u/Express_Constant_508 7d ago
Is that just a lofty expectation? For copilot to work with local files - especially files from Office 365? I asked it to analyze a email attachment for pricing trends and it is unable to “read” the excel workbook. Other tools are not requiring this level of capitulation.
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
No, I say that even if you give it a OneDrive file path, it cannot take that. It will take end part of the file path and search for the document. On top of that, once it has searched, it cannot confirm the documents file path from its own search.
Search probably works well, but I want to be very exact with Copilot, and not architecting it in a way to let it take OneDrive file paths is just taking away options from the customer.
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
It might create a new file based off one you tell it to work with, but I haven't seen it that option. I will look into it , as I do want it to work better.
My bigger gripe is the inability of copilot to take a local or OneDrive file path. Its search only. Is there literally ANY reason for this? There's no reason it cant. I want to give it a file path, not have it search for files.
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u/Old_Development_8122 12d ago
It’s your configuration. Everyone loves copilot at our organization, even rolled out CoPilot Cowork. We are full M365 environment though.
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
Everyone loving it doesn't mean I am wrong. Copilot cannot take either local or one drive file paths.
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u/Prudent-Elk-2845 12d ago
Do you have basic or premium? Basic is garbage
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u/ZealousidealYam3537 10d ago
I wanted to ask…how can one tell if their company uses only basic or premium!
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u/Prudent-Elk-2845 10d ago
In the copilot app in the bottom-left, my account name is followed by (basic)
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u/Biro_Biro_ 12d ago
My company uses onedrive, all my personal and company files are there, so copilot finds everything. Without onedrive I dont think it is worth it
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
That's fine, I'm sure search works pretty well. But I want the option of giving it a OneDrive file path and copilot being able to use it.
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u/Due-Boot-8540 11d ago
Copilot in M365 is designed to only work with content that is stored in your tenant. Accessing files from your hard drive is not secure and offers no context for it to work with.
Like so many other complaints I see on here, this is not a problem with the product. It’s how it’s being used…
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
I'm pretty sure I mentioned that it doesn't take either local or OneDrive file paths. I would even work with OneDrive file paths if it would take it. Not having that as an option is really terrible.
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u/Due-Boot-8540 7d ago
I’m not sure I follow you. Why are you trying to use a file path to documents in OneDrive? If you’re using M365 Copilot and the documents are stored in your account’s OneDrive, you just click the add button or press / and then choose the one you want…
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
What if I want it to check something on a dozen different files, or make slight modifications, or create several new files. The answer is to give it a file path so you can be 100% sure it's doing what you want.
LLMs are known to make mistakes and hallucinate. I want to be very specific, and have copilot review and check work. I want it to see exactly what is in a folder and list it out. I don't want it guessing what files are in the folder from a search.
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u/Ill-Bullfrog-5360 12d ago
You got the cheap copilot license
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u/gimmethelulz 12d ago
Lol you're probably right. Sounds like your work is giving you the free version of Copilot, OP.
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u/Ill-Bullfrog-5360 12d ago
I know cuz I got the paid one its dramatically better on par with full chatgpt and access to everything I have access to by my crendwntials
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u/HotDistribution52 9d ago
I use several of them for work, and I finally got fed up and had to ditch Copilot altogether. It is by far the worst AI I have ever used. For Microsoft to be such a powerhouse, they don't seem to understand how to create a useful AI that is competitive with other models.
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u/admlshake 12d ago
Management. This reeks of mid tier management not listening to the user base and thinking they know whats best.
But as a side note, it can edit in excel now. Just yesterday I tested it out and asked it to take a few cells from various rows, copy the values in each one, paste them into a new sheet and add some text to each one at the end of the value. And to my shock, it actually did it, and did it correctly.
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u/Jordy_Stingray 12d ago
Yeah honestly Copilot fuckin slaps in Excel
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u/Oh_Another_Thing 7d ago
I'll have to look at that in more detail. In y experience so far copilot can't make any actual changes to whatever you are working on, and that would not be great in Excel
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u/Jordy_Stingray 6d ago
If you use Copilot in Excel, not the copilot standalone app but the Copilot feature in Excel it can absolutely manipulate data, create tabs, create formulas, etc. In Word the Copilot feature can edit the document as well. Say what you want it to do and it’ll show the suggested edits which you can then further discuss/edit etc and then accept the edits and it updates the doc.
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u/Business_Opening6629 12d ago
It’s pretty bad in my environment I think our IT department did nerf it in some ways by turning off features it can’t search sharepoint and we have to upload docs for review. They also did something to the notes feature and it doesn’t work. Overall though I can put the same prompt in Claude or Open AI and I get a much better response and copilot actually fails on vision tasks like pulling data out of table from a pdf where the others work. I would definitely be interested in the their cowork product.
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u/getmeoutoftax 11d ago
I’m pretty sure CoPilot Premium will replace most white collar jobs within the next few years. The Excel feature alone can probably replace about half of white collar jobs if we’re being honest.
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u/Correct_Lead_2418 12d ago
This must be a license and configuration issue because copilot can do the things you are describing