Microsoft builds AI capabilities into new Windows PCs for better user experiences

Copilot+ PCs include AI features like Recall, subtitles and Cocreator for better collaboration and creativity

Alice Chambers | 21 May 2024

Microsoft’s new category of personal computers with artificial intelligence features aims to help individuals improve efficiency, collaboration and creativity.

The Copilot+ PCs are powered by Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus processors to enable AI-powered tasks without connection to the internet, saving time and security measures. The devices aim to run applications 100 times faster than other PC models, according to Microsoft, via Microsoft Azure-powered large language and small language models.

For example, users have access to a new feature called Recall, which will track all activity on the computer and provide access to virtual memories of what they have seen or done on the PC. It does this be searching the semantic index of the device from simple cues to provide “photographic memory” for people, said Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, in a recent blog post.

Recall helps users to remember what they have done on the PC

The devices will also have several AI-powered features for collaboration powered by the Qualcomm Oryuon central processing unit. Users will be able to make quick annotations in documents with AI features that run on-device so that data stays private in LiquidText. Plus, live captions will translate any live or pre-recorded audio in any app or video platform from over 40 languages into English subtitles instantly and automatically without connection to the internet.

There are several features and tools for enhanced creativity too including the new CoCreator feature that enables AI-powered image creation and editing, and Restyle Image, which will enable photo editing in real time.

“Over the past year, we have seen an incredible pace of innovation of AI in the cloud with Copilot allowing us to do things that we never dreamed possible,” said Mehdi. “Now, we begin a new chapter with AI innovation on the device. We have completely reimagined the entirety of the PC – from silicon to the operating system, the application layer to the cloud – with AI at the centre, marking the most significant change to the Window platform in decades.”

Additionally, the devices will come with built-in security features and applications native in Microsoft Windows Arm64, including Microsoft 365 apps and external Microsoft apps like Adobe Photoshop, Chrome and Spotify.