Microsoft is not only bringing AI to its development platforms, so that developers can integrate AI into their apps widely, but is making AI front and centre in a forthcoming version of Windows 11, in what it clearly hopes will absolutely revolutionise computing, and our ability to easy take advantage of all that power, for the better.
At Microsoft’s Build 2023 conference, the company said Windows is the first PC platform to announce centralised AI assistance for its customers. It will do this with a Windows Copilot sidebar that can stay persistently on screen and work with all your apps, and work with a range of first and third-party plug-ins.
At the “Build 2023 Book of News” website, Microsoft has listed in great detail what all of the announcements are, and why they matter, but let’s take a look at a couple of the big announcements. You can also watch the keynote videos at the end of this article.
So, what is Windows Copilot and when is it coming to Windows 11?
Windows Copilot is coming to preview in June 2023, and will be invoked by an icon that will live on your taskbar. It will also fuel the desire to upgrade to Windows 11 for those who haven’t yet done so, which will also drive sales of new PCs that come with Windows 11, especially for older computers that don’t have the necessary hardware to run Windows 11 officially.
If everything works as expected, it will be the 2023 embodiment of what Microsoft’s Office XP Clippy assistant was trying to do in 1996, except on a system-wide basis with Windows and every app you use, and is trying to succeed as wildly as Microsoft’s previous assistant, Cortana, failed.
Cortana was a worse version of Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa, but Windows Copilot aims to ultimately revolutionise the way you interact with your PC, into a much more natural way of interacting.
Ultimately you can imagine it will feel as though you are interacting with a person, and given the way humans have already taken to the interactions we can have with ChatGPT, Bing, Bard and other systems, it’s easy to foresee this happening – and without the annoying frustrations that can crop up when using Siri, Assistant or Alexa, where the limitations of those systems are all too apparent.
So, what is a taste of what Windows Copilot will feel like? Whether it is asking the AI to change a Windows setting for you, like turning on dark mode, sending what you see on your PC screen to your TV set, starting up a playlist in Spotify, transcribe your votes notes into text or translate them into another language, it’s all about just asking to get things done.
Even better, it’s all about the AI making intelligent suggestions to help you get things done, and doing all of this without having to manually open programs, remember to save files, or do things in what will soon be seen as “the old fashioned way”.
With the aforementioned first and third-party plug-ins, Microsoft’s description of what I said above is that “users can focus on bringing their ideals to life, completing complex projects and collaborating instead of spending energy finding, launching and working across multiple applications.”
Microsoft further explains that Windows ropily “provides personalised answers and help users take action within Windows 11, like changing a setting, playing a specific playlist or opening a relevant app. Windows Copilot brings Bing Chat, the knowledge of the web and can even include the current context across a user’s applications to help them get even more relevant answers.”
Microsoft is also creating a home for developers. Microsoft has famously courted developers for decades, because a computer without applications or sites on the Internet to visit, which are often applications delivered through a web browser, it would be like a VCR without any tapes to play, or Netflix without any shows to stream.
Windows is famously home to over a billion users, so developers are very important, and as such, Microsoft has also create a new Dev Home environment, just for developers.
Tis will allow developers to quickly set up the computers to be development powerhouses, to connect to Microsoft’s GitHub (a developer destination to store, manage, track and control changes to their apps, and to monitor and manage workflows in one central location.
If you’re not a developer, Dev Home is of no use to you, but for developers it is just the beginning of a range of enhancements Microsoft has actively developed to make life as easy as possible for developers, so they can do their best work. There’s plenty more information that developers can devour here.
You’ll also find Microsoft Windows Executive Panos Panay’s blog post here recapping all of the important announcements. (link coming soon)
