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Microsoft<\/a> launched its AI productivity tool Copilot with the goal of increasing efficiency and eliminating menial tasks. But office workers who discovered a questionable advertisement<\/a> for the feature are wondering if Microsoft isn\u2019t itself adding to that unnecessary work.<\/p>\n In the ad, a user brags: \u201cCan I be in three meetings at once?\u201d \u201cWatch me,\u201d complete with a frowning woman at a computer. Actual office workers were not sold on the function.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not an expert on Microsoft Copilot, but what feature specifically is enabling this to work?\u201d one tech worker said in an Instagram video<\/a> reacting to the ad. \u201cThis is implying they got the AI sitting in the meeting for her, but I haven\u2019t heard about that feature.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey are marketing this like crazy and I\u2019m like how on earth is it going to be productive if like a third of the meeting attendees are just these AI stand ins,\u201d another user commented. \u201cMost meetings could be a well written email.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCopilot, enabling burnout, overwork, underpay and untimely death of people,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n Copilot, introduced for Microsoft365<\/a> in November 2023, is one of many productivity tools introduced by tech companies promising AI bot stand-ins<\/a> to take notes and summarize telecall meetings. They\u2019re a result of the rapid proliferation of meetings\u2014and the growing frustration of the people having to attend them.<\/p>\n Since 2020, Microsoft Teams users have tripled the time they spend in meetings, according to a September 2022 Microsoft blog post<\/a>, with the rates of overlapping Teams meetings increasing to 46%. A Microsoft spokesperson told Fortune, <\/em>\u201cCopilot can help users summarize a missed meeting nearly 4x faster than non-Copilot users,\u201d citing internal research<\/a> from the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the anonymous angry comments regarding the program have validity, according to Jeanine Turner, professor of management and director of the communication, culture and technology program at Georgetown University\u2019s McDonough School of Business. Microsoft even admitted it: There are too many meetings. And rather than solving this problem through apps and tools, Turner said, Microsoft Copilot is at best a treatment to a symptom of a systemic issue\u2014and at worst, enables a massive workplace culture flaw.<\/p>\n \u201cMicrosoft Copilot is solving a micro-problem that emerged as a result of all of these other factors that are creating so many meetings,\u201d she told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cYou can see how that doesn\u2019t really solve the overall systemic problem with too many meetings. It just allows people to go to more meetings. Because three\u2014why stop at three?\u201d<\/p>\n Tech companies are already starting to push the boundaries of what AI is capable of in meetings. Zoom<\/a> founder and CEO Eric Yuan is hoping to create an AI avatar, or \u201cdigital twin<\/a>,\u201d to attend meetings on behalf of employees. The feature would eventually be able to respond to most emails and answer calls, Yuan said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou and I can have more time to have more in-person interactions, but maybe not for work,\u201d Eric Yuan told The Verge<\/em><\/a> earlier this month. \u201cWhy not spend more time with your family? Why not focus on some more creative things, giving you back your time, giving back to the community and society to help others, right?\u201d<\/p>\n But Turner argued these AI bots are enabling attendees to zone out: \u201cNo one has ever wanted to be in a meeting,\u201d she said. With more excuses to not pay attention, there\u2019s \u201cmore and more of a disconnect between this relationship between people and what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n From a managerial perspective, zoned-out meeting attendees not only miss out on spontaneous watercooler interactions that promote workplace bonding<\/a>, but also the magic of riffing off employees to unravel a challenging problem and create unique solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the serendipitous task-like conversation is not happening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Beyond<\/a> the interpersonal disconnect is the potential for a logistical nightmare, Turner said. Sure, your AI double may be taking thorough notes, but now you, the employee or a manager has to actually go through all those notes. Without having attended the meeting in person, they also have no idea which bullet points on that meeting summary are the most important. What comes next in this confusion spiral\u2014recruiting AI tools to decipher which parts of the AI-generated notes summary are most important?<\/p>\n \u201cNow we\u2019re getting more and more disconnected from our work,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThey are really just perpetuating the madness,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Not only are AI bots potentially harmful to workplace connection, they also perpetuate the pandemic-era problem of overly abundant meetings that remain deeply ingrained in workplace culture post-pandemic. Turning to Zoom and other digital productivity tools in March 2020 was a split-second decision for many managers made out of necessity, but it\u2019s not a necessity now.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had 48 hours, basically\u2026[to] figure out how to address the fact that we couldn\u2019t be in person anymore,\u201d Turner said. \u201cWe solved that\u2014in a time of global crisis\u2014with Band-Aid solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n These temporary solutions have become problems in their own right: Not only did the onslaught of remote meetings balloon\u2014to the tune of 300 million daily Zoom users<\/a> by April 2020\u2014but those meetings are not guaranteed to be a source of productivity. About 30% of employees complete unrelated work tasks<\/a> during Zoom meetings, like responding to emails or editing a document. Retailer Asos blamed its virtual meetings<\/a> on the company\u2019s sluggish post-COVID recovery, it told employees in an internal correspondence this week.<\/p>\n Meetings have lost their potency and power, Turner argued, because they are happening with frequency\u2014but not urgency.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using them as a mechanism for kicking the can down the road, when we really should have been thinking, What is it we\u2019re doing that requires a meeting?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\nWhy you can\u2019t trust your digital twin<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Too many meetings<\/strong><\/h2>\n