Microsoft Wants to Make Windows 11 ‘AI-native’, whether You like it or Not

After Office, Microsoft now wants to transform Windows 11 into an AI-driven experience. It’s being built around their own Copilot technology.

Microsoft wants to transform Windows 11 into an ‘AI-native’ platform. That’s what VP Stefan Kinnestrand writes in a blog post. While there are no concrete announcements at this time, Kinnestrand outlines a vision that seems to suggest Microsoft wants to move Windows 11 increasingly away from its core functionality as an operating system towards the AI-driven software experience it thinks users are waiting for.

AI Everywhere, Including for Businesses

“Windows 11 is evolving into an AI-native platform,” it states. “It’s secure, scalable, and built for working with agents.” The AI-driven vision isn’t just for consumers: “With the latest AI functionality, organizations get access to an enterprise-level foundation where AI capabilities run securely and efficiently.” This would enable new levels of productivity and agility.

Kinnestrand makes the vision concrete by referring to Copilot Voice, Vision, Action, and Click to Do. With this collection of functionality, you can talk to your PC, get contextual support, and instruct agents to perform tasks on your computer.

Microsoft is heavily focusing on AI integration at the expense of existing functionality. For instance, Office transformed into M365 Copilot and the effective Office functionality moved to the background. Opening the former Office app now leads to a chat interface: useless when you want to open Excel or PowerPoint. On mobile devices, useful functionality like scanning is deeply buried. This vision, where Microsoft puts AI front and center at all costs, now seems to be coming to Windows.

Forcing and Bundling

Two questions are particularly important here. First: do customers even want this? There are no signs that users (especially professional ones) need an imposed Copilot experience that essentially interferes with existing functionality. Windows 11 is (or was) at its core an operating system: a layer of software on which you can run other applications. Microsoft sees Windows 11 evolving more towards an AI-native platform that is ubiquitous with integrated AI capabilities. That’s hardly an added value for those who use a Windows PC to answer emails and edit spreadsheets.

Second: is this even allowed? Microsoft Copilot is just one of many gen-AI technologies. The integration of Copilot into Windows 11 equals the artificial bundling of a technology suite. Where Copilot exists, there’s less room for ChatGPT, Mistral, or other alternatives. By artificially positioning AI as part of Windows, Microsoft hopes to get away with this. In practice, however, an operating system and an AI suite are two different products.

Determined

Either way, Microsoft has embarked on the AI path and has no intention of deviating from it. In November, Ignite will focus on ‘the next chapter of Windows and AI’. Those who have just left Windows 10 and are actually looking for the next chapter of an efficient operating system that adapts to what the user wants will likely be disappointed.