The Results of the Tally
The article enumerates them like a species census: the ones in Windows, in the Office suite, in GitHub, in Azure, in the security product line, in the sales tools, plus the gray areas of double-counting from before and after renames. They differ in function, differ in their underpinnings, and differ in subscription systems—their only common trait is that they're all called Copilot. The author counts and gripes at the same time: the same name spans wildly different capabilities across products, and a user who bought the Copilot in place A, assuming the one in place B would work too, wakes up to find they're two separate subscriptions.
The Roots of the Naming Disaster
The root of this chaos is a top-down brand directive colliding with bottom-up product reality: leadership demanded that all AI capabilities fly the Copilot banner to tell one grand story, each department executed independently, and the result is a name diluted to the point of losing meaning. By contrast, competitors' naming discipline becomes an advantage—users at least know what they're using. The practical value of this piece of research is unexpectedly high: enterprise buyers and IT admins can use it as a reference table. As for Microsoft, historical patterns suggest it will eventually do another grand rename and knock everything down to recount.
via: Hacker News