Microsoft Copilot AI Faces Growing Backlash Over Degrading Performance and Unrealistic Promises

Microsoft’s aggressive push to embed artificial intelligence into every corner of the PC experience is hitting a wall of user resistance as 2025 draws to a close. Following a year of high-profile integrations, the tech giant is now facing a mounting wave of backlash from both enterprise clients and everyday users who claim the flagship Copilot tool is suffering from degrading performance, frequent "hallucinations," and a disconnect between marketing promises and technical reality.

The criticism reached a fever pitch this week following the release of a holiday advertisement that many ridiculed for showing "unrealistic" capabilities, prompting a broader conversation about the reliability of the AI assistant.

The "Hallucination" Headache
While Microsoft has touted Copilot as a productivity multiplier, user reports suggest the opposite is often true. A persistent issue cited in late 2025 is the degradation of the model's accuracy, particularly in news summarization and data handling.

The BBC Study: A widely cited analysis has continued to haunt the product, revealing that Copilot (along with other major models) introduced "significant inaccuracies" into over 50% of news summaries, often failing to distinguish between fact and opinion.

"Vague and Forgetful": On support forums and platforms like Reddit, long-time users have complained that recent updates have made the AI "forgetful," with the bot losing context within minutes of a conversation. "It acts as if every prompt is entirely new," one enterprise user noted in a viral complaint. "It has gone from a smart assistant to a disjointed search bar."

The "Bloatware" Rebellion
Beyond accuracy, the sheer ubiquity of Copilot has sparked a revolt among IT professionals who view it as unwanted "bloatware."

"No One Asked For This": Microsoft’s claim on social media that it added "Copilot Mode" to the Edge browser because users "wanted it at work" was met with a scathing ratio of negative replies. IT administrators have expressed frustration at the difficulty of disabling the feature, which they argue consumes system resources without adding value to specialized workflows.

The Holiday Ad Gaffe: A December 2025 marketing campaign designed to show Copilot helping with holiday shopping backfired when viewers pointed out the AI gave generic, unhelpful advice—such as suggesting a user change their display scaling settings to read text better, a basic function that requires no AI.

Leadership Strikes Back
The tension between the company and its user base was highlighted by a candid—and controversial—response from Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI. Facing criticism that the tool was "underwhelming," Suleyman took to X (formerly Twitter) to express disbelief at the negativity.

"The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI... is mind-blowing to me," Suleyman wrote. While intended to defend the technology's marvels, the comment was perceived by many as tone-deaf to the practical frustrations of paying customers who simply want a tool that works reliably.

A Critical Pivot Point
Analysts warn that 2026 will be a make-or-break year for the product. With competitors like Cursor and Perplexity winning over power users by focusing on specific, deep integrations rather than broad "do-it-all" features, Microsoft is under pressure to prove that Copilot is more than just an expensive novelty.

"The infrastructure is world-class, but the product execution is faltering," noted a tech strategist at Gartner. "Microsoft needs to stop trying to be everywhere and start making sure they are actually useful somewhere."