Latest news with #JaredSpataro
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
US Agency to Microsoft: Get your product naming right, everything is not Copilot; Microsoft responds ….
The Better Business Bureau 's National Advertising Division has called out Microsoft for its confusing overuse of " Copilot " branding across AI products, recommending the company modify its advertising claims and clarify product functionality differences. Microsoft disagrees with the findings but says it will comply with the watchdog's recommendations. The NAD reviewed Microsoft's Copilot advertising and found that the company's "universal use of the product description as 'Copilot'" creates consumer confusion, as customers "would not necessarily understand the difference" between various AI tools bearing the same name. The watchdog specifically criticized Microsoft's claim that Copilot works "seamlessly across all your data," noting that Business Chat requires manual copying and pasting to achieve the same functionality as Copilot in individual Office applications. Microsoft's productivity claims under fire NAD also challenged Microsoft's productivity statistics, recommending the company discontinue or modify claims that "67%, 70%, and 75% of users say they are more productive" after using Copilot for extended periods. The watchdog determined that while the study demonstrates perceived productivity improvements, it doesn't provide objective evidence of actual productivity gains. The criticism comes amid Microsoft's years-long branding confusion around Copilot products. The company has repeatedly rebranded its AI tools, with Business Chat evolving from a Teams chatbot to Business Chat for Microsoft 365 Copilot, while Bing Chat Enterprise became simply "Copilot" before further rebranding. What Microsoft has to say Microsoft's AI at Work chief marketing officer Jared Spataro defended the company's approach, stating they "take seriously our responsibility to provide clear, transparent, and accurate information to our customers." He highlighted customer success stories, including Barclays deploying Copilot to 100,000 employees and Dow identifying millions in potential savings. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the company disagrees with NAD's conclusions about advertising implications but will follow the recommendations. This latest scrutiny adds to Microsoft's long history of product naming challenges, with employees previously joking that the company would have called Apple's iPod the "Microsoft I-pod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition with Subscription." AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
'Copilot' this, 'Copilot' that. A watchdog wants Microsoft to change its confusing AI advertising.
Microsoft has a long history of being criticized for coming up with clunky product names, and for changing them so often it's hard for customers to keep up. The company's own employees once joked in a viral video that the iPod would have been called the "Microsoft I-pod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition with Subscription" had it been created by Microsoft. The latest gripe among some employees and customers: The company's tendency to slap " Copilot" on everything AI. "There is a delusion on our marketing side where literally everything has been renamed to have Copilot it in," one employee told Business Insider late last year. "Everything is Copilot. Nothing else matters. They want a Copilot tie-in for everything." Now, an advertising watchdog is weighing in. The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division reviewed Microsoft's advertising for its Copilot AI tools. NAD called out Microsoft's "universal use of the product description as 'Copilot'" and said that "consumers would not necessarily understand the difference," according to a recent report from the watchdog. "Microsoft is using 'Copilot' across all Microsoft Office applications and Business Chat, despite differences in functionality and the manual steps that are required for Business Chat to produce the same results as Copilot in a specific Microsoft Office app," NAD further explained in an email to BI. NAD did not mention any specific recommendations on product names. But it did say that Microsoft should modify claims that Copilot works "seamlessly across all your data" because all of the company's tools with the Copilot moniker don't work together continuously in a way consumers might expect. "For Copilot in Business Chat to achieve the same functionality as Copilot in Word or PowerPoint, the text-based responses from Business Chat would have to be manually copied and pasted into the relevant application," NAD stated. The watchdog also recommended that Microsoft discontinue or modify its advertising to disclose a clear basis for the claim that "Over the course of 6, 10, and more than 10 weeks, 67%, 70%, and 75% of users say they are more productive" because that survey doesn't necessarily account for actual productivity gains, just perceived gains. "We take seriously our responsibility to provide clear, transparent, and accurate information to our customers," Jared Spataro, Microsoft's AI at Work chief marketing officer, said in a statement. "Companies choose Microsoft 365 Copilot because it delivers measurable value, securely and at scale." Spataro also said a "record number of customers" returned to purchase additional Microsoft 365 Copilot seats last quarter, and that the company's deal sizes continue to grow. "From Barclays rolling out Copilot to 100,000 employees, to Dow identifying millions in potential savings—the data speaks for itself," Spataro said. A Microsoft spokesperson added that the company disagrees with NAD's conclusions about the phrasing of its advertising and whether it implied certain claims, but will follow NAD's recommendations. Recently, the company developed a new plan to simplify its many AI offerings by streamlining how the products are pitched to customers, according to internal slides from a recent presentation.
Forbes
10-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Microsoft Is Reimagining The Future Of Work Using AI
| Jun 10, 2025, 03:30PM EDT Microsoft's CMO of AI at Work, Jared Spataro, explains why AI is the single most important technology for businesses navigating today's volatile landscape.
Bloomberg
29-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Microsoft on the Future of Human and AI Work: Tech Disruptors
'The average knowledge worker is interrupted every two minutes during work hours.' Mentions Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Jared Spataro, 'You're getting an email, a meeting kind of request, a chat coming in, and if you do the math, that's 275 times a day.' On this episode of Tech Disruptors, Spataro joins Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst Anurag Rana to discuss emerging trends in they way employees work and how AI is already changing the game. The two define the 'Frontier Firm' and why this is a big year for them, the introduction of new research and analyst AI agents, and the future of headcount and staffing needs.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Microsoft says everyone will be a boss in the future
Microsoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we're all going to be bosses – of AI employees. The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a 'frontier firm', where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks. Everyone, according to Microsoft, will become an agent boss. 'As agents increasingly join the workforce, we'll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI,' wrote Jared Spataro, a Microsoft executive, in a blog post this week. 'From the boardroom to the frontline, every worker will need to think like the CEO of an agent-powered startup.' Microsoft, a major backer of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, expects every organisation to be on their way to becoming a frontier firm within the next five years. It said these entities will be 'markedly different' from those we know today and will be structured around what Microsoft calls 'on-demand intelligence'. 'These companies scale rapidly, operate with agility, and generate value faster,' the company said in its annual Work Trend Index report. It expects the emergence of the AI boss class to take place over three phases: first, every employee will have an AI assistant; then AI agents will join teams as 'digital colleagues' taking on specific tasks; and finally humans will set directions for these agents, who go off on 'business processes and workflows' with their bosses 'checking in as needed'. Microsoft said AI's impact on knowledge work – a catch-all term for a range of professions from scientists to academics and lawyers – will go the same way as software development, by evolving from coding assistance to agents carrying out tasks. Using the example of a worker's role in a supply chain, Microsoft said agents could handle end-to-end logistics while humans guide the system and manage relationships with suppliers. Microsoft has been pushing AI's deployment in the workplace through autonomous AI agents, or tools that can carry out tasks without human intervention. Last year it announced that early adopters of Microsoft's Copilot Studio product, which deploys bots, included the blue-chip consulting firm McKinsey, which is using agents to carry out tasks such as scheduling meetings with prospective clients. AI's impact on the modern workforce is one of the key economic and policy challenges produced by the technology's rapid advance. While Microsoft says AI will remove 'drudge' work and increase productivity – a measure of economic effectiveness – experts also believe it could result in widespread job losses. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion This year, the UK government-backed International AI Safety report said 'many people could lose their current jobs' if AI agents become highly capable. The International Monetary Fund has estimated 60% of jobs in advanced economies such as the US and UK are exposed to AI and half of these jobs may be negatively affected as a result. The Tony Blair Institute, which supports widespread introduction of AI across the private and public sectors, has said AI could displace up to 3m private sector jobs in the UK. However, job losses will ultimately number in the low hundreds of thousands because the technology will also produce new jobs, the institute estimates.
