Microsoft Copilot experiences major service disruptions affecting Word, Excel, Outlook.

Microsoft Copilot is experiencing widespread disruptions today, with users reporting that the AI assistant in Word, Excel, and Outlook is slow or unresponsive. The glitch began in the early hours of the morning and has persisted across both web and desktop versions of Microsoft 365. Many people rely on Copilot for drafting emails, summarizing documents, and generating data insights, so the outage has caused frustration in workplaces and among individual users.

Copilot was launched in 2023 as part of Microsoft’s push to embed generative AI into its productivity suite. The feature promised to save time and boost creativity by automating routine tasks and providing intelligent suggestions. Its rollout has been closely watched, as businesses expected a competitive edge from AI-powered tools. The current problem comes after a recent update that added new language models and expanded integration with third‑party services, which may have introduced compatibility issues.

Microsoft’s support team is actively monitoring the situation and has acknowledged the problem on its official forums. Users have reported error messages such as “Service unavailable” and “Unable to connect to Copilot.” The company has released a statement saying it is working to restore normal service and will provide updates as the issue is resolved. Some users have turned to manual workarounds, such as disabling Copilot or using older versions of the Office apps, but these are temporary fixes.

The company has promised a fix within the next few hours, citing “critical bugs” that were discovered during the latest deployment. In the meantime, Microsoft recommends that users keep their applications updated and avoid using Copilot until the service stabilises. If the outage persists, businesses may need to revert to manual processes or use alternative AI tools. The incident highlights the growing pains of integrating advanced AI into mainstream software and underscores the importance of robust testing before large‑scale rollouts.