Microsoft says Copilot, the companion for AI, will work seamlessly across all of the apps and experiences most commonly used by Windows.
This week, Panos Pannay, the head of Microsoft's hardware business, announced his departure. He has led the development of Windows and Surface devices in recent years and is one of the people most pushing the vision of multipurpose devices. Microsoft's hardware route can be variable.
Microsoft defines Copilot as a "daily AI companion."
On September 21, local time, Microsoft announced at a press conference in New York that it will launch a new unified Copilot (co-pilot) experience in Windows 11 on September 26. This "everyday AI companion" feature, now called Microsoft Copilot, will be "seamlessly used across all the apps and experiences you use most," including the Windows 11 desktop, Microsoft 365, Outlook, the Edge browser, and search engine Bing. As a result, Microsoft will build a complete experience that puts users head-to-head on the big model.
For Microsoft, the focus this year is of course on artificial intelligence. Much of the launch focused on Copilot rather than hardware. But the company did introduce new Surface models: the Surface Laptop Go 3 and Surface Go 4, designed to access AI content in a lighter, more portable way, as well as a more powerful, creator-focused Laptop Studio 2, among other things.
On the day, shares of Microsoft Inc (MSFT) fell 0.39% to $319.53, but still outperformed some of its rivals, including Apple and Google parent company Alphabet. Turning Microsoft 365 Copilot into a big business can take time. Microsoft Finance Chief Amy Hood told analysts in July that growth in AI services would be "gradual."
Enterprise Edition launched on November 1
Yusuf Mehdi, chief marketing officer for Microsoft's consumer business, wrote in a press release on its website, "Copilot will uniquely integrate the environment and intelligence of the network, your work data, and what you're currently doing on your PC to help better — putting your privacy and security first." It's going to be a simple, seamless experience available in Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and our Edge browser and Bing. It will run as an application or it will appear when you right-click. ”
With the right permissions, the new Copilot will be able to pull data from calendars, emails, documents, and more to help quickly draft texts and emails, and make recommendations in real-time in apps like Outlook. It is also able to get context from Bing and Edge on smartphones.
The updated Copilot will debut in the Windows 11 update on September 26. It will be available on the desktop and can be launched via the Windows + C shortcut keys or right-click. Copilot's AI capabilities will appear in many of Windows 11's default apps, including Photos and Paint.
Paint is launching the image generation tool Cocreator.
Microsoft also announced updates to AI features in Bing Chat, Bing Image Creator, Microsoft Shopping, and launched Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Chat Enterprise on November 1 to help enterprise customers sort through more data at work, including emails, meetings, chat logs, documents, and more.
In addition, Microsoft announced that Bing will add support to OpenAI's newly launched literary graph tool, DALL· Support for E 3. (For details, see The Paper report, "Understanding ability has improved greatly!") Venson Diagram Tool DALL· Integrating ChatGPT).
Microsoft said that Bing will also provide a new artificial intelligence shopping experience, which can ask specific questions or other more personalized questions based on product usage to help users find products that suit their needs. Bing can also help users find and use coupon codes. Because it remembers previous chats, these personalized responses become smarter and more effective.
Microsoft's Copilot is one of the results of the company's close collaboration with AI development agency OpenAI. In March, Microsoft first revealed plans to Microsoft 365 Copilot. As of May, 600 large organizations are using it in paid Early Access programs. In July, the company announced that the enhancements were priced at $30 per person per month in addition to the existing subscription cost of Microsoft 365.
The launch of AI tools will expand an already market-leading segment of Microsoft's business. Office applications contribute 24% of Microsoft's total revenue.
The hardware lead just left
At the conference, Microsoft unveiled the new Surface Laptop Go 3, saying it can run for 15 hours on a single charge while still remaining thin and light, weighing less than 1.134 kilograms, equipped with a 12.4-inch touchscreen, and a power button with fingerprint for biometric login.
Surface Laptop Go 3。
In terms of performance, Microsoft says the Surface Laptop Go 3 is 88% faster than the Laptop Go model launched 3 years ago. It runs a 12th-generation Intel Core i5 CPU as well as an Intel Iris Xe graphics card. Users can configure it with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of storage (512GB for the commercial version).
Studio 2 has a similar form factor to its predecessor.
The Laptop Studio 2 retains the overall aesthetic of its predecessor, including a pull-forward 14.4-inch display, making it a more touch-friendly device and also adding some popular premium user features.
Studio 2 is powered by Intel's 13th generation chip and has a built-in NVIDIA RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 GPU (graphics processor). It also comes with an Intel Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the first time an Intel NPU has been equipped in a Windows computer. Users can configure up to 2TB of storage and 64GB of RAM. Microsoft called it "the most powerful Surface we've built to date" and promised twice as much performance as previous devices.
Studio 2 also offers some important new connectivity options: two USB-C ports, a USB-A port, a microSD card reader, and the Surface Slim Pen 2. There's also a new customizable and more responsive touchpad, which Microsoft calls "the most inclusive touchpad on a laptop."
Microsoft also introduced the Surface Go 4, the latest version of its two-in-one notebook series. The Surface Go 4 has some performance upgrades relative to its predecessor, but is specifically geared towards the enterprise. In terms of configuration, the previous two-core Intel Pentium processor is now replaced by a slightly more powerful quad-core Intel N200 chip. However, Microsoft said the Surface Go 4 will be "exclusively for organizational use," so the device will not be available unless the requirements are met.
The high-end Surface Laptop Studio 2 starts at $1999, the Surface Laptop Go 3 starts at $799, and the Surface Go 4 starts at $579. All three devices will be available on October 3.
Surface Hub 3 supports smart rotation and portrait mode.
Microsoft also released the Surface Hub3, the latest version of the company's all-in-one collaboration touchscreen device. Unlike its predecessor, the Surface Hub 3 supports Smart Rotation and Portrait modes, allowing users to physically rotate the screen to vertical.
The Surface Hub 3 comes in two sizes: 50-inch and 85-inch. Like its predecessors, the Surface Hub 3 is intended to be installed in conference rooms as an alternative to TVs and monitors. Microsoft says the Surface Hub will also be equipped with an AI-powered Copilot in the future.
It's worth noting that just on September 18, Panos Panay, head of devices in charge of Microsoft's hardware business, announced that he was leaving the company after nearly 20 years at Microsoft. In recent years, Parnay has led the development of Windows and Surface devices and is one of the people most pushing Microsoft's vision of a multipurpose device. Mehdi, the new head of Windows and Surface business, may have different ideas about where Microsoft should go.