Smart Answers AI-generated summary
In summary:
- PCWorld investigates whether Microsoft’s core productivity apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can withstand disruption from advances in AI technology.
- External AI applications such as ChatGPT and Claude offer similar document formatting, content creation, and compositing capabilities that rival Microsoft’s own Copilot capabilities.
- This analysis suggests that Microsoft’s traditional productivity suite may become obsolete as AI chatbots increasingly handle tasks that previously required dedicated office applications.
Are Microsoft’s core productivity apps Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in jeopardy due to the rise of AI?
That’s what Bloomberg and its sources addressed in a report this week, pointing out that Microsoft is experiencing AI disruption as its stock price plummets. “It remains to be seen whether AI will make Microsoft Word and Excel obsolete,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment strategist at Cresset Wealth Advisors, which owns the stock, according to Bloomberg.
“We don’t know what the environment will look like in a few years, and that raises very real questions, like do we even need to use the Microsoft suite anymore?” added Keith Fitz-Gerald, principal at Fitz-Gerald Group.
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Microsoft’s productivity apps have historically been designed to help you organize, format, and translate ideas into actionable results. But now Microsoft wants to bring in more AI and, through Copilot, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to actually produce those results.
The problem is that external AI applications such as ChatGPT and Claude can already do the same things as CoPilot for a variety of functions. And you can do it without requiring any Microsoft applications, let alone a subscription. — at all.
So is it possible that millions of users will simply throw away Word, PowerPoint, and Excel? Yes, once Microsoft users begin to realize what AI applications can do.
Let’s take a look at Word’s menu options. Most of it is simply related to formatting and layout. But now you can ask ChatGPT to format your straight text notes into beautiful documents. In fact, Word these days is little more than a scratchpad of file formats that everyone uses.
AI chatbots also shine in content synthesis, which puts PowerPoint at risk. One of the strengths that Microsoft touts is Copilot’s ability to import multiple documents and create PowerPoints from them. But what Microsoft doesn’t acknowledge is that similar things are possible with other AI applications, and many organizations already rely on Claude and its competitors for just that task.
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Excel is not invincible either. One of the things that holds business users back from Excel is the vast connective tissue of linked spreadsheets. When you adjust a value, the change propagates throughout the shared document. But what users want from Excel and what Microsoft provides is deeper analysis of trends and the actions they can take as a result. Connecting these dots is one of the strengths of AI. But again, AI is not have Created by Microsoft.
Copilot itself doesn’t do Microsoft any favors in the AI race. User complaints, or simply apathy, are so prevalent that a quick survey of our office revealed that no one was using Copilot. We are PCWorld for Pete. And while millions of users have grown up with Office apps, is anyone really a “fan” of them? While feature creep has made Word, PowerPoint, and Excel very heavy and often have unreadable interfaces, LLM is essentially just a single-field chatbot.
Microsoft’s 365 Family plan currently costs $12.99 per month. As an example, Anthropic’s Claude Pro Plan costs $20 per month. Although it costs $7 more, you can do more with a typical LLM, and AI has a tailwind.
In news about productivity
This week’s productivity tips
Clinical psychologist Melanie Chinchilla of Approach Therapy recommends determining your most productive times of the day and scheduling your tasks accordingly. today segment. For most people, this means: What tasks can you do or not do during your 2pm post-lunch crash? I tend to schedule quick, purposeful tasks in the morning and longer, more thoughtful tasks in the afternoon.
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