Join me as I continue exploring Microsoft Copilot through each letter of the alphabet. (Well, we’ve got to start somewhere!)

You might have read my previous A-Z blog series on Microsoft Teams. I’m doing it again, and this time I’m A-Zing Microsoft Copilot. We’re looking at the good, the bad, the AI-sloppy, and everything in between. I promised more fun this time than my lecture on being careful in my last blog, so this week, let’s look at Copilot Create.

Getting Sidetracked

I’ll be honest: when I sat down to write this, I immediately got sucked into the frivolous. I started by giving Copilot Create a photo of me and asking it to turn me into a superhero. And yes, it worked:

Note: Don’t I look GREAT as a superhero?!

I’ve done the same trick with Google’s Gemini and got a similar result.

We’re not pitting these tools against each other, but if we were, I’d say we’re about even-stevens here in terms of image quality and creativeness. Plus, it actually does look a bit like my face. But maybe let’s try to keep this blog actually useful, shall we?

Using Copilot to Create Graphics

I’ll say it: graphic design is not exactly a key skill of mine. I’ve never been particularly good at making things look “pretty” in a professional sense. I mean, just take a look at the header on this blog. (No offence taken.)

We live in an era where tools like Canva promise to let anyone create stunning graphics in minutes. And they do… mostly. But I find the quality is often more “that’ll-do” than “spot-on”. I usually end up tinkering with fonts and alignment for ages, when all I really wanted in the first place was a quick, professional solution.

I’ve started to wonder if wanting a “quick solution” is actually part of the problem. There’s a specific human talent involved in bringing a vision to life—one that factors in the tiny nuances of audience, personality, history, culture, and everything else that a skilled designer draws upon. Maybe the reason I’m not getting the results I want from simple tools is the very reason humans get paid to do this: they actually spend the time required to get it right.

Putting Copilot Create to the Test

I wanted to see if a more detailed prompt in Copilot Create could generate something that didn’t require my usual endless tinkering.

When you open the Create interface, it gives you a starting point for all sorts of different content:

• Images
• Word Documents
• PowerPoint Presentations
• Excel Documents & Videos

I decided to start where my struggle is realest: a blog banner. Since we’ve established mine is “basic” at best, it felt like the perfect experiment.

My prompt asked for a “simple and clean” design with “friendly fonts” and relevant AI graphics.

The results? See for yourself:

The one with a face coming out of a book was definitely weird, but the others were “not bad” and definitely hit the “that’ll-do” mark. Comparing it to Canva, I’m getting similar value for the effort I’m putting in (which is not much!). 

However, you don’t get the Canva-esque ability to tweak individual parts. You have to re-prompt to generate the whole thing over again, which is just as much of a time drain as playing with fonts in Canva.

Making It Work: Word Documents

Let’s not forget that Copilot can create other documents too. I asked it to create a Word Document Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for a podcast production process – something I know a lot about and could therefore easily judge the end product. 

I liked how it asked for further clarification before “cooking the document up.”

After a while (I should have timed it, sorry!), out popped a Word doc. It was over 10 pages long with snazzy tables:

techy bits

and solid suggestions for titles and distribution.

This was much more in-depth than I was expecting! I have no idea how much of it is actually true (especially the techy bits), so it’s given me a lot of double-checking work, but what AI response doesn’t? Interestingly, Google Gemini gave me a very basic overview for the same prompt. It’s 1-0 to Copilot here if I were judging (which I’m not).

The “Rat-Hole”: PowerPoints and Fabrications

Finally, I tried the thing I really wanted: creating a PowerPoint using existing files as reference. I asked Copilot Create for a summary deck of our Quarterly Company activity based on three real “All Hands” decks that I attached.

Given how well the SOP went, I had high hopes. But the PowerPoint it gave me had a load of TOTALLY MADE UP STUFF in there! It claimed 45 new hires… we are a company of 8 people!!

When I asked what went wrong, Copilot admitted it couldn’t access my files because the “enterprise search timed out,” so it just used template data. It turned out my image-heavy PowerPoints were likely too big for it to “read.” Frustrating.

I tried again using PDF versions. The results were better, but a lot of the wording still sounded fabricated. I wouldn’t mind so much if Copilot was more obvious about where it was drawing from real data, and where it was totally making things up!

My takeaway? It’s a brilliant “starter motor.” Whether you’re looking for a blog banner that’s “good enough” or a 10-page document to get your project moving, it’s a massive time-saver. Just don’t trust it with your company’s quarterly stats just yet—unless you actually want 37 imaginary new colleagues.

So, have you dipped your toe into Copilot Create yet? Has it done anything more useful for you than making great images of you as a superhero?

Let me know in the comments. Next time, let’s see what D is for…