In the world of tech, a year is an eternity. Yet, for many users this week, it felt like Microsoft had just committed a sudden act of brand regicide. The victim? “Microsoft Office” – a name so synonymous with productivity that it has outlived many of its users’ first computers. The replacement? The Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
While social media erupted in a collective “Wait, what?”, the truth is that Microsoft actually sounded the death knell for the Office brand over a year ago. In January 2025, the tech giant released a quiet but definitive support article titled “The Microsoft 365 app transition to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app”.
The frenzy was reignited this week by a series of tweets from accounts like Unusual Whales and AskPerplexity, which framed the news as a fresh, almost “breaking” development. This sparked a wave of disbelief, leading to a prominent Community Note on X to remind the internet that they were, essentially, twelve months late to the funeral.
The “Weird” Double-Down
There is something undeniably “weird” about Microsoft’s relentless push here. Despite vocal pushback from users who find the AI integration intrusive – often referred to as “AI slop” – Microsoft isn’t just leaning in; they are doubling down. For a professional in Nairobi paying roughly KES 3,800 a month for a premium business subscription, the change feels forced. Critics argue that instead of opening a tool to work, they are now opening a tool to be “sold” an assistant they didn’t ask for.
A $135 Billion Gamble
This isn’t just a clumsy renaming exercise; it is a high-stakes survival strategy. Microsoft has invested approximately $13.75 billion into OpenAI since 2019. Following a major recapitalisation in late 2025, Microsoft now holds a 27% stake in the newly restructured OpenAI Group PBC, valued at a staggering $135 billion.
This is the ultimate “all-in” bet. If the AI bubble – currently a subject of fierce debate among economists – were to burst, the fallout for Microsoft would be catastrophic. By rebranding Office to Copilot, they are tying their most stable revenue stream to their most speculative venture. It’s a “too big to fail” move: if Copilot is Office, then Copilot must succeed for Microsoft to remain Microsoft.
The Race for Mindshare: Copilot vs. The World
Perhaps the most jarring part of this effort is the disconnect in public conversation. While Microsoft is busy renaming icons, the “cool” factor remains elsewhere. ChatGPT continues to dominate the cultural zeitgeist, and Google Gemini has recently gained massive momentum by being baked directly into the Android ecosystem and the world’s most popular search engine.
Microsoft is fighting a two-front war: trying to convince legacy users that they need an “AI exoskeleton” for their spreadsheets, while trying to catch up to the sheer visibility of Gemini and ChatGPT. It feels like the “Copilot” brand must become the new “Office” – not because we the users love it yet, but because Microsoft has simply spent too much money for any other outcome to be acceptable.
