Microsoft shows off new Windows software, revamped for agentic AI

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at Dogpatch Studios in San Francisco. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)Heather Diehl—Getty Images


Microsoft’s Windows operating system, the long-standing flagship of the company’s software empire, is getting a revamp for the AI age.

The company unveiled a variety of updates to Windows on Wednesday, including incorporating AI agents and other AI tools directly into the PC software, as Microsoft seeks to ensure that its products remain at the center of a rapidly changing tech industry.

Speaking at San Francisco’s Dogpatch Studios, Chief Executive Satya Nadella said Windows is becoming a “hybrid intelligence” system, meaning there will be capabilities for cloud-based AI, as well as AI that runs locally through products like the coding tool GitHub.

“Just having the [AI] model doesn’t do much for anything,” Nadella said, explaining that Microsoft is bringing together local AI, AI-powered software, and devices built natively for AI, such as the new Surface Laptop Ultra that the company unveiled at the event. “Some of the things you’ve been using all click together.”

A big part of Microsoft’s plans involves integrating the reimagined Copilot AI app seamlessly into Windows. This means having Copilot run tasks without having to access the cloud when those tasks don’t need heavy compute, according to Jacob Andreou, the head of Copilot. 

A user, for example, will be able to have Copilot autonomously pull all of the files they need to file taxes from various parts of their laptop and do so without accessing the cloud, making it cheaper and faster.

“Copilot now truly understands your PC,” he said. “It’s Copilot built natively for Windows.”

Microsoft is also tying its updates to its new Surface Laptop Ultra, a high-end device built for developers and creators. A user on the Ultra, the company showed, can play video games while editing a video and running AI workloads. 

The new Surface Laptop Ultra uses Nvidia’s RTX Spark “superchip” and will cost $2,599. It will be available beginning October 16. —Sebastian Herrera