Microsoft says Windows 11’s top productivity app is…Copilot? We’re a little skeptical.
If you think about your workday, what’s the single most important app you use? The one it feels like you just couldn’t make it through the day without?
Microsoft’s newest marketing says the answer is Microsoft Copilot, the AI assistant built into the Microsoft ecosystem (and yes, available as a standalone app).
We’re not so sure.
More important than Outlook? Teams? To Do? What about File Explorer, OneDrive, or even Snipping Tool? Not to mention, if you use any industry-specific software or big SaaS products (like Salesforce, Shopify, or Adobe products), those probably jump up pretty high on your list.
So, respectfully: What is Microsoft talking about here?
We have a pretty good idea. Let’s start with the good.
The Good: Copilot Can Be Incredibly Useful
It’s hard not to notice that AI is literally everywhere in business marketing. Which is probably what this Microsoft claim is: more marketing than reality. But still, Copilot can be incredibly useful in certain situations.
Copilot can help you plan, summarize long emails, build a checklist out of messy notes, and so forth.
Maybe you’ve already seen this in action. You open an email thread with 30 replies from six different people. Copilot can summarize that thread and pull out the most actionable points. That’s a big relief. Sure, there are times when you definitely should read all 30 replies. But getting a quick summary can help orient you and save time.
Or maybe you’ve jotted down some random brainstorming ideas in a meeting. You know there’s some good stuff in there, but it’s disorganized and hard to sift through.
The Reality: Copilot Is an Assistant, Not the Main Thing
As useful as Copilot and other AI assistants can be, they aren’t the main thing. Usually, they operate alongside the main thing.
Here’s what we mean: in business, you use File Explorer constantly to move documents, images, videos, and other files around. That’s not flashy, but it’s essential.
No one would fully trust Copilot to do this work for them, and in most cases it wouldn’t even make sense to try. It’s just easier to drag one file to a new folder than it is to explain to an AI assistant what you want. (This breaks down at scale, which is why the promise of AI agents is so exciting for many. But we’re talking about your day-to-day work, not scaled AI.)
The same goes for To Do or Snipping Tool or Outlook. You use those tools for specific things — keeping track of what needs to be done, grabbing quick screenshots, and managing email conversations.
AI can help with these in certain ways:
- It can turn random chaos into an organized to-do list. But it doesn’t replace the list or the To Do app.
- It can summarize, draft, and refine email content. But it doesn’t replace Outlook.
- It may be able to take screen captures, but it can’t grab exactly what you want with just a click and drag the way Snipping Tool does.
The point: for now at least, the core systems underneath your work are sticking around. AI and Copilot can run over top of them and help in specific ways, but it’s important to keep this difference clear.
The Better Question: “Where Are We Losing Time?”
This Copilot AI push is all about productivity, and that’s a good thing to focus on. But instead of asking where else you can use AI (or worrying about what the “#1 productivity app” really is), ask instead where your team is losing time.
If you’re spending undue time sifting through long documents, creating summaries, or manually mapping out concepts or plans, then Copilot may be able to reduce the time you spend on that work.
If you’re really struggling with disorganized files, unclear business processes, or manual work that doesn’t follow consistent steps, then AI isn’t going to help yet.
In the end, the best tool in any situation is the one that solves your current problem. If that’s Copilot, then great! If it isn’t, don’t worry about it. And if you aren’t sure which tools or process refinements can help you through your current challenges, that’s where we come in. Reach out to our team today to schedule a consult.