Who thought this made sense?
The “AI at Work Roadmap”
The Roadmap still lists a vast number of product updates that have nothing to do with AI. That inaccuracy makes it confusing if you’re looking for updates on non-AI features. Then again, maybe it also proves that, to Microsoft, there are no non-AI features in the company any longer.
This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to create a separate Team for a small group because they want a Private Channel, but they also want to use Planner in it, or some other app that wasn’t supported in Private Channels.
I think there are some opportunities in AI for completing tasks, but I also think there is a serious risk in taking action without proper oversight. I’ll be very interested in seeing how Microsoft gets this out to business customers.
The slop problem is the kind of PR problem that kills industries. It’s the Ford Pinto’s exploding gas tank, New Coke, and the iTunes U2 album fiasco all rolled into one. People see all the hype about AI, then experience entire websites and tens of thousands of social media accounts spewing content no one wants, generated by AI.
That’s a perception problem that won’t go away because you want customers to stop talking about it. You have to build a tool that doesn’t create this problem.
A few months ago, I wrote about people using AI Notetakers in Teams meetings. I’ve spoken several times about the privacy implications of recording Teams meetings, using Copilot, and related practices. One thing I’ve been encouraging people to understand is that, even if you host the meeting and turn off all AI, recording, and transcription…
As I’ve said many times, Microsoft has invested too much money in AI to let users opt out of using it, even if it does ruin everything Microsoft has been known for.
Have to agree, branding it as the AI at work roadmap feels a little unnecessarily narrow. As an admin, I would wonder: does it still include non-AI features? Are there any non-AI features? If the intent was just to broaden the scope, I would have called it the “Microsoft at work roadmap”.
But obviously they didn’t ask me.