After months of speculation, Microsoft has finally announced its AI PCs, called Copilot+ PCs. At its event, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella described the Copilot+ PCs as a “new class of Windows PCs.” As the name suggests, next-gen AI features and experiences for Windows 11 will ship with these Copilot+ branded PCs, launching this summer.
These PCs come with hardware designed to perform generative AI Copilot processes locally rather than relying on the cloud. To handle all the generative AI tasks, these PCs will require a chipset with a neural processing unit (NPU). Chipmakers like Qualcomm have already started working on chips with NPUs, such as the Snapdragon X Elite.
Copilot+ represents the next generation of AI PCs, capable of performing more advanced AI functions that Microsoft is building for the next version of Windows 11. For a PC to be classified as a Copilot+ PC, it must have an NPU with at least 40 TOPs (tera operations per second) of power. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite series chipsets are the first on the market to reach this benchmark, indicating that the initial Copilot+ PCs are powered by Windows on ARM. Intel and AMD are also developing chipsets for these AI-based PCs.
Some of the new AI features exclusive to these PCs include:
- Recall anything you have seen just by asking for it
- Visually and contextually aware Copilot
- Live caption translations
- Auto super-resolution
- Enhanced image and text generation with Cocreator
- Advanced Windows Studio effects
Microsoft is working closely with partners to make its Copilot+ PCs. Along with chipmakers like Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD, OEMs such as ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and HP are also involved.
Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft EVP, and Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, stated that Microsoft has completely reimagined what a Windows PC is. He noted that these Copilot+ PCs are the most powerful computers ever, adding that the first generations of these PCs are “unbelievably thin, light, and beautiful.”
While other computers with some AI capabilities deliver 10 TOPs of performance, to qualify as a Copilot+ PC, a device must deliver 40 TOPs of NPU performance. Additionally, these PCs require at least 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
Yusuf Mehdi also mentioned that these PCs are 58 percent faster than the M3-powered MacBook Air. The company announced during the event that these PCs will have 22 hours of battery life while playing local videos and up to 15 hours of battery life while browsing the web.
