The new Microsoft Office logo could be the most confusing rebrand of the year (yes, already)

It's often a sign of a misguided rebrand when people continue to use a brand's old name (Elon Musk might want to take note for X). Microsoft's suite of office apps is a prime example. For many, it will always have the utilitarian, easily comprehensible name of Microsoft Office, despite the tech giant's strange insistence on trying to change that.

In 2022, Microsoft Office became Microsoft 365 in a rebranding that did little more than confuse users. In recognition of the power of the name it was trying to kill, even Microsoft continued to call the package 'Microsoft 365 (Office)' in the Apple App Store and Android Play Store until a couple of days ago. But now the iconic 'Office' name has been dropped completely as Microsoft 365 becomes Microsoft Copilot 365. And to make things even more confusing, the office suite now has the same logo as Microsoft's AI chatbot.

Ostensibly, the rebrand is intended to highlight the addition of Copilot AI integration into well-known Microsoft Office apps like Word and Excel. But said integration isn't exactly anything to shout about yet. So far, much of the feedback from users involves complaints about the price hike and people wanting to know how to turn off an AI assistant they see as a glorified resurrection of Clippy (perhaps we underestimated the AI potential of Microsoft's anthropomorphic paperclip).

As for the logo, the icon for Microsoft Copilot 356 (formerly the Microsoft 365 (Office) app) is differentiated from the existing Copilot icon only by the addition of a 'M365' label. That makes it easy to open the AI bot by mistake when you want to use an Office app. Microsoft could have learned from the reaction to the array of similar-looking Google logos that users like icons to be distinguishable from each other to help them find the app they're looking for.

"You made a nice logo for Microsoft 365 and got everything looking nice only to confuse people with another pointless rebrand that uses the same name for every product," one user complained on Twitter– I mean X – on Friday.

The move follows the rebranding of Microsoft's Surface line of tablets and laptops as Copilot+ PCs last year. That was a bizarre decision in itself, akin to releasing a computer in 1983 and calling it a 'Microsoft Word PC'. Only that Microsoft Word was a fully functioning product when it was released on the world; Copilot is very much a work in progress.

I don't believe that Microsoft can truly think that its AI chatbot is so appealing that people will run out to buy a new PC or download a software package on the back of its name. It seems more likely that the company is thinking the other way around, adding the Copilot name to everything in an attempt to get people to notice and care about a product that so far doesn't do much that Chat GPT can't do.

There's a risk to this. As Jez Cordon points out over at Windows Central there's a danger that the entire Microsoft ecosystem, including the more solid products, could become tarnished if people deem Copilot to be a useless gimmick.

The new name for Microsoft Office follows a string of strange and confusing naming decisions from Microsoft. After the tongue-twisting Xbox Series X, the company more recently renamed Microsoft Remote Desktop as Windows App. Meanwhile, its web portal has reverted to MSN after the spectacular failure of the rebrand to Microsoft Start. Perhaps it should start asking its AI Copilot for ideas.