News

• Microsoft posted an ad promoting Copilot on social media
• It said that Copilot is the "button you can press to fix everything"
• This has elicited quite the outpouring of rage from some folks, and it's not a wise promo given the prevailing climate around AI and Windows 11

Microsoft is catching some flak once again over the topic of AI in Windows 11, following what might be regarded as an overzealous piece of marketing.

Windows Latest noticed that Microsoft's marketing department posted an image across its social media (Facebook, Instagram, and X) which promoted the dedicated Copilot button and the AI assistant it summons.

The text featured in the pic was: "Them: There's no button you can press to fix everything," followed by a reply as if in a conversation that read: "Me: Wanna bet?"

Predictably this has stirred up some controversy, with responses to Microsoft's little ad that range from accusing Copilot of being "AI slop" (or "Microslop") through to comments along the lines of "no one wants this" and similar negativity.

This is a particularly poorly timed piece of PR, given that, as Windows Latest observes, Microsoft is finally bringing in the ability to change the Copilot key back to function as Right Control. This is the key that the Copilot button replaced on 'AI PCs' (laptops), but as some people have said, Right Control is crucial to their workflow (and has accessibility ramifications for one-handed keyboard use).

With that change coming to Windows 11 later this year — an effective softening of Microsoft's initial stance that you should have the Copilot key and like it — this marketing snippet feels even more badly judged.

What's worse here for me is the exaggeration of the usefulness of the Copilot key. The AI can "fix everything" can it? It's a frankly ridiculous statement to make, and yes, I know that's not exactly uncommon in advertising, but you've got to bear in mind your target audience here and the context.

AI in Windows 11 has triggered a lot of bad feeling in the user base since last year, and indeed Microsoft's blinkered focus on pushing AI was one of the reasons that people were up in arms about fixing the OS rather than adding Copilot trimmings. Or in other words, the big fix Windows 11 campaign — which is the focus of this entire year for Microsoft — was partly the result of all the anti-AI feeling.

So, erm, let's market around the Copilot key being this amazing solve-all feature, shall we? Sounds like a great plan, everyone. Full steam ahead! Let's talk about how great it would be to add more AI into Notepad while we're at it, yeah? (Apologies, I remapped my Copilot key to be a 'Sarcasm' key and it appears to be jammed down right now).

Microsoft also says the Copilot key is a button with "main character energy" in this advert, the problem being that if AI in Windows 11 was a movie, it's been a box office turkey for the software giant so far. Microsoft's hope is that AI agents in Windows 11 will turn things around, but it remains to be seen how that'll pan out.

Meantime, while Microsoft is trying to generate positivity and good vibes around Windows 11 with all its (very commendable) work to fix the OS, it'd be better for the software engineers and designers in the thick of it not to have those efforts undermined by the marketing crew wheeling out unintentional ragebait like this Copilot button nonsense.

Now, I'm not saying that Microsoft's PR team can never mention AI, of course, but this particular snippet on social media is a perfect example of how not to do it in the current Windows 11 climate.