Microsoft made a significant announcement at a digital event for commercial customers and partners, introducing generative AI (genAI) updates, including the addition of Copilot through its new Surface laptops optimized to use AI tools.
One year ago, the company launched its ChatGPT-powered Copilot bot for the Microsoft 365 (M365) cloud productivity platform. With Copilot, users can get answers and solutions to queries, draft emails, generate images from text prompts, receive writing suggestions, and create to-do-lists, among other capabilities.
According to Melissa Grant, Microsoft’s senior director of product marketing for Windows Enterprise, “With Windows 10 end of support coming in October 2025, now is the time to move to Windows 11 with a new Surface for business device and with Windows 365, and the best way to get there is using cloud management in Intune.”
Microsoft also announced two new AI-enabled Surface for Business laptops, the Surface Pro 10 for Business and the Surface Laptop 6 for Business, both of which will become available in April.
By “optimized,” Microsoft means it has added a Copilot key to the keypad, which opens the chatbot for quick use. The Copilot key is located on the right side of the keypad between the Alt key and arrows.
J. P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, called Microsoft’s news “incremental announcements,” but noted much of it is about unifying what enterprise buyers can expect, such as more Surface devices. “And this time with AI PCs…, and lots more Copilot features, it probably helps business buyers to see just how deep Microsoft’s commitment to Copilot runs.”
Microsoft’s Copilot announcements are primarily about the commercial and enterprise Surface model releases (i.e., the Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop for Business), he said.
“The Copilot key symbolizes how central Microsoft believes Copilot will be to the future of computing and also could empower greater usage by employees,” Gownder said. “The integrations between Microsoft Copilot for Windows 11 and Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 are subtle, but if your organization subscribes to the latter, you’ll be able to use one interface in Windows 11 to take advantage of all the Copilot features you have access to.”
Microsoft
Microsoft has added a Copilot key to its upcoming Surface for Business laptops, the Surface Pro 10 for Business and the Surface Laptop 6 for Business.
“Surface has also been leading in Neural Processing Unit (NPU) integration to drive AI experiences on the PC since 2019, and the benefits of these connected efforts are evident,” Nancie Gaskill, Microsoft’s general manager for…
2024-03-23 23:00:04
Original from www.computerworld.com