Listen, Microsoft: we all make mistakes sometimes. Sometimes they are small mistakes, sometimes they are huge multi-year debacles that annoy millions of people and fundamentally affect the functionality of your flagship product.
I’m referring, of course, to the elephant in the room, which is Microsoft Copilot, the AI-powered assistant that is now heavily integrated into not only numerous aspects of Windows 11, but also the broader Microsoft product line as a whole. Microsoft Word, Outlook, the Edge browser, the 365 suite, and even File Explorer (where, because it kept hanging even if I disabled AI Actions in the Windows Settings menu).
Now, I’m not going to make a statement as bold as “Copilot is wildly unpopular,” but the AI ​​tool has clearly proven to be divisive at best among users. I have no doubt that there are people who love Copilot and use it daily; I’m not one of those people, but I’m sure they exist elsewhere besides Microsoft’s quarterly earnings slideshows.
But for all the tech giant’s help for AI-obsessed investors, Copilot has had a bumpy ride, and even three years after its initial launch, it has failed to prove that it’s a tool most people want or need to use. Even AI fans prefer ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s “AI CEO” Mustafa Suleyman recently admitted that Google rival Gemini AI outperforms Copilot in some key areas. Honestly, it doesn’t look good.
locked up
It doesn’t help that Copilot is largely entrenched in the Windows ecosystem (especially after Meta recently moved to launch other AI tools from its platforms, although Microsoft also wants to annoy LG TV owners), and Windows itself has had no shortage of problems recently.
This kind of focus on the core platform shouldn’t be a problem in itself, but when even your own former employees criticize your most important product, that should be a sign. something It’s not good.
There are many reasons why Windows 10 remains very popular, with Windows 11’s TPM 2.0 hardware requirements being a major factor holding back adoption, but there’s no denying that some people, including myself, are not upgrading because Windows 10 is still very popular. swollen Windows 11 is already there.
I mean, seriously; When setting up a new Windows laptop, you are faced with an avalanche of unnecessary software and advertising for other Microsoft products. This is also demonstrated by the existence (and surprising popularity) of Tiny11, the lightweight, AI-free alternative to Windows 11. I won’t recommend it here, as it isn’t officially supported by Microsoft and therefore has potential security and compatibility issues, but I can certainly understand why its fans like it.
It’s a tempting idea to solve all the co-pilot nonsense that I will never use with a scalpel.
Do people really like Copilot?
Let’s take a look at the numbers. According to Microsoft, there are around 700 million Windows 11 users worldwide, just over half of all Windows users. Conservative estimates of Windows 10 usage put the total number of systems at 650 million.
a report of application business estimates the number of active Copilot users (i.e. the number of people who use it regularly) at 33 million in November 2025, while the technical bulletin rookie It stated that the number of weekly users was 20 million at the beginning of the year. ChatGPT now averages hundreds of millions of weekly users.
Even if I generously massage the numbers, it doesn’t produce a pleasant image for the co-pilot. Even assuming the 33 million figure, active Copilot users only make up a measly 2.5% of all Windows 10 and 11 users, and it’s important to remember that a significant portion of Microsoft’s Copilot customer base are businesses, so some of those users would likely fall under the heading “My boss tells me to use this” rather than “I personally want to use this.”
And yet, Copilot is increasingly encroaching on every aspect of Windows 11, despite being hopelessly unpopular compared to AI titan ChatGPT. Despite the ongoing problems with Windows 11 (seriously, it seems like something else breaks every week), Microsoft seems more committed to integrating AI into every corner of the operating system than taking the time to perfect it and provide a truly better user experience.
Getting rid of ads would be a good start, Microsoft: macOS doesn’t have any, and that’s hard to admit as a lifelong fan of Windows PCs instead of Macs.
Here is my polite request, Microsoft. Give up. Please.
It’s not worth pissing off the majority of your user base for a fraction of the market that ChatGPT dominates, especially if You They are the ones who donated billions of dollars to OpenAI last year. Keep Windows simple.
This is also particularly important right now, as PC component prices are skyrocketing (ironically due to new demand for AI), more people are scrambling to upgrade, and the last thing they need is an AI-intensive operating system.
