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I feel like tech companies are sparing no shenanigans to be able to say people are paying for AI. Shouldn't it sell itself if it is as world changing (in it's c

I feel like tech companies are sparing no shenanigans to be able to say people are paying for AI. Shouldn't it sell itself if it is as world changing (in it's current form) as people claim?

noir_lord 1y ago
Shhh - We aren't supposed to point out that the 4 Emperors of the Apocalypse are naked.
jsheard 1y ago
https://www.perspectives.plus/p/microsoft-365-copilot-commercial-failure https://www.perspectives.plus/p/microsoft-365-copilot-commer... Even after putting their thumb on the scale, the numbers are still dismal. Not even a 2% conversion rate.
- mrweasel 1y ago
  At what point does someone in management step in and kill of the product? 2% should be a pretty clear sign that the product is either price entirely wrong, or just not something that anyone wants to buy. Are Microsoft just in to deep at this point? They killed one off their flagship brands (Office) in favour of Microsoft 365 Copilot, shouldn't someone be fired for that decision at this point? I'm looking forward to the books and articles in 10 - 20 years time, attempting to explain what happened internally at Microsoft these past years.
  - estimator7292 1y ago
    The cost is already sunk and the only alternative to forcibly extracting any profit is to admit they got suckered into the hype and burned billions of dollars for nothing
    - KvanteKat 1y ago
      Sure, but the alternative is not really any better: if the choice is between being the guy who got it wrong vs. being the guy who got it wrong _and_ being the guy who persisted in throwing good money after bad, surely the former is prefereable. As far as I see, the fact that they keep going indicates that they genuinely still believe Copilot could pan out and become profittable in the long run.
  - ulfw 1y ago
    I don't even know what Microsoft 365 Copilot means. What idiotic branding. 365 means subscription I believe (you pay 365 days of the year). But Copilot? Huh? That's just a feature
    - input_sh 1y ago
      Wait until you hear about Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, which is actually a stripped down version of Microsoft 365 Copilot! So, if you're a Microsoft 365 Business user, you now get "Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat" for free, which is just a standard web interface for interacting with Copilot (not to be confused with GitHub's Copilot, which is also owned by Microsoft, but I digress). But, if you pay for an upgrade from M365 Copilot Chat to M365 Copilot-without-the-chat, then you also get an AI button in Microsoft 365 apps (Outlook, Teams, Word...)! Realistically this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that ever owned or at least considered purchasing an Xbox, or even worse ever had to interact with Azure.
  - lelanthran 1y ago
    > Are Microsoft just in to deep at this point? Investment-wise, none of the large companies invested in AI can afford the bubble to pop. They're just going to ride the tiger out.
- this_steve_j 1y ago
  The marketing has 100% shifted to the creation of workloads using “Agents”. Presumably the hyperscalers can begin conflating the number of “agents” created with “boring jobs eliminated” and thus herald the industrial revolution. But first: Your subscription price is increasing and now includes 5 Agents.
tencentshill 1y ago
Rebranding Office as Copilot was an easy, sleazy way to gain millions of locked-in paid subscribers.
- eterm 1y ago
  I'm surprised they haven't rebranded the entire of GitHub to Copilot yet.
devsda 1y ago
I don't know how it was during the dot-com bubble, but the current AI hype is the biggest "Fake it till you make it" operation I've ever seen. My only worry is about the huge impact on rank and file employees when they issue the "we are re-aligning our strategic direction/priorities and we are focusing on effective resource utilization" pr statement.
jdgoesmarching 1y ago
Atlassian yanked core Jira Service Manager features into their premium plan which, you guessed it, includes AI. For our company of >30 people this amounted to a ~$7k/mo increase.

I feel like tech companies are sparing no shenanigans to be able to say people are paying for AI. Shouldn't it sell itself if it is as world changing (in it's current form) as people claim?

noir_lord 1y ago

Shhh - We aren't supposed to point out that the 4 Emperors of the Apocalypse are naked.

jsheard 1y ago

https://www.perspectives.plus/p/microsoft-365-copilot-commercial-failure https://www.perspectives.plus/p/microsoft-365-copilot-commer... Even after putting their thumb on the scale, the numbers are still dismal. Not even a 2% conversion rate.

mrweasel 1y ago
At what point does someone in management step in and kill of the product? 2% should be a pretty clear sign that the product is either price entirely wrong, or just not something that anyone wants to buy. Are Microsoft just in to deep at this point? They killed one off their flagship brands (Office) in favour of Microsoft 365 Copilot, shouldn't someone be fired for that decision at this point? I'm looking forward to the books and articles in 10 - 20 years time, attempting to explain what happened internally at Microsoft these past years.
- estimator7292 1y ago
  The cost is already sunk and the only alternative to forcibly extracting any profit is to admit they got suckered into the hype and burned billions of dollars for nothing
  - KvanteKat 1y ago
    Sure, but the alternative is not really any better: if the choice is between being the guy who got it wrong vs. being the guy who got it wrong _and_ being the guy who persisted in throwing good money after bad, surely the former is prefereable. As far as I see, the fact that they keep going indicates that they genuinely still believe Copilot could pan out and become profittable in the long run.
- ulfw 1y ago
  I don't even know what Microsoft 365 Copilot means. What idiotic branding. 365 means subscription I believe (you pay 365 days of the year). But Copilot? Huh? That's just a feature
  - input_sh 1y ago
    Wait until you hear about Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, which is actually a stripped down version of Microsoft 365 Copilot! So, if you're a Microsoft 365 Business user, you now get "Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat" for free, which is just a standard web interface for interacting with Copilot (not to be confused with GitHub's Copilot, which is also owned by Microsoft, but I digress). But, if you pay for an upgrade from M365 Copilot Chat to M365 Copilot-without-the-chat, then you also get an AI button in Microsoft 365 apps (Outlook, Teams, Word...)! Realistically this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that ever owned or at least considered purchasing an Xbox, or even worse ever had to interact with Azure.
- lelanthran 1y ago
  > Are Microsoft just in to deep at this point? Investment-wise, none of the large companies invested in AI can afford the bubble to pop. They're just going to ride the tiger out.
this_steve_j 1y ago
The marketing has 100% shifted to the creation of workloads using “Agents”. Presumably the hyperscalers can begin conflating the number of “agents” created with “boring jobs eliminated” and thus herald the industrial revolution. But first: Your subscription price is increasing and now includes 5 Agents.

tencentshill 1y ago

Rebranding Office as Copilot was an easy, sleazy way to gain millions of locked-in paid subscribers.

eterm 1y ago
I'm surprised they haven't rebranded the entire of GitHub to Copilot yet.

devsda 1y ago

I don't know how it was during the dot-com bubble, but the current AI hype is the biggest "Fake it till you make it" operation I've ever seen. My only worry is about the huge impact on rank and file employees when they issue the "we are re-aligning our strategic direction/priorities and we are focusing on effective resource utilization" pr statement.

jdgoesmarching 1y ago

Atlassian yanked core Jira Service Manager features into their premium plan which, you guessed it, includes AI. For our company of >30 people this amounted to a ~$7k/mo increase.