It has actually been useful for walking me through setting up complex Excel spreadsheets and helping to interface with Google Applications, but I prefer Gemini or Grok for most AI Functions. Gemini has been very useful for my pure research functions (like having an assistant to do the manual referencing etc.) But I don’t trust it for pure advice. And I always check the references.
I had a similar experience.
I wanted to try copilot so I gave it the task of writing a piece of music in the style of Bach's Aria from the Goldberg Variations.
It said, "I can't do that but I can teach you how".
It guided me in the process of downloading programs and linking to websites. Step by detailed step. When I said I was going to give up, it encouraged me to keep going and I did until I had what I wanted.
Granted copilot isn't good at writing music like other AI programs but it did teach me how to do it.
I'm not going to trust AI with my life but it's a useful tool.
I’m geeky with Excel and use it throughout my workday to develop analytics, models, combine different data sets, reporting, etc. Just startled testing copilot in excel last week, and had it write some formulas for me. Went well, it provided some observations of the data and recommended actions. So I asked it to create a dashboard. It then provided me a picture of what it would look like and asked if I wanted it built…
My takeaways: 1) I can write some formulas faster than describing what I want, but could become an issue of me explaining differently. 2) This will save me time, lots of time, especially on more complex work, and 3) it will allow me to produce some things beyond my skill level. I also know that I will need to test everything until I personally can trust it.