Microsoft Build: AI and Windows 11 at the Heart of Announcements

Microsoft Build: A Crucial Meeting for the Future of AI and Windows

This week, Microsoft is heading to San Francisco for its annual Build conference, a key event to reconnect with the developer community. Historically known as the Professional Developers Conference, this gathering holds particular significance as Microsoft continues to refocus its efforts around artificial intelligence. The choice of a more intimate venue for this event underscores the urgency for the company to restore confidence in its flagship products, Windows and GitHub, and to chart a new course for the future.

Sources inform me that we will hear about new AI models in Windows, a new reasoning model from Microsoft AI, and a super app called Copilot. But perhaps more importantly for Build attendees, I understand that Microsoft will reveal more about its efforts to enhance the Windows experience for developers. I have been told that Microsoft will unveil a new optimized experience for developers on Windows 11 this week, which includes many features requested by developers: a distraction-free environment with pre-installed apps, tools, and scripts.

I also expect to hear more about Microsoft's efforts to rewrite certain parts of Windows 11 to improve performance and the overall experience. Microsoft outlined its plan to fix Windows 11 earlier this year, and we have already begun to see many preliminary improvements. The Windows Insider team is preparing to showcase more customization changes later today, ahead of the opening keynote at Build tomorrow.

Microsoft will also have other news on how Windows is adapting to new silicon like the Nvidia RTX Spark. I have been told there will be a greater emphasis on local models running on Windows at Build this year, allowing developers to harness local computing power instead of relying on costly cloud models. Windows chief Pavan Davuluri hinted last week that "something new is coming for developers" at Build, so I expect to hear more about the next generation of Microsoft's smaller AI models. Microsoft's and HP's miniature RTX Spark PCs were also notably absent from a list of manufacturers during Nvidia's Computex opening speech, so perhaps there is more to come.

As Satya Nadella discusses the new RTX Spark announcement with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during his speech, I also expect to hear about Qualcomm and its ongoing work with Microsoft to develop Windows on Arm. Qualcomm and Microsoft have laid much of the groundwork for Arm improvements in Windows 11, allowing Nvidia to return to Windows on Arm after a rocky start with the Surface RT. Microsoft now has to balance two major Arm silicon suppliers, just as it has had to keep both AMD and Intel satisfied over the decades.

Sources also inform me that we will hear about Microsoft's latest internal models at Build this week. I have been told that Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman will unveil a new model called MAI-Thinking-1 at Build, the company's first reasoning model. Microsoft did not use distillation to create its reasoning model, meaning it was not trained by learning from the results of another AI model. I expect this reasoning model to be primarily aimed at enterprise use.

The reasoning model is one of several new models I expect to hear about at Build, including MAI-Image-2.5 and MAI-Image-2.5-Flash. Suleyman teased the release of MAI-Image-2.5 last week, promising more information at Build.

Microsoft will also discuss its upcoming super app Copilot at Build. Fortune first reported this last week, and it is essentially an application that combines Microsoft's various Copilot AI assistants into a single interface. Sources inform me that work is underway to build the app, but the leaked screenshot that appeared on Friday is just a mockup prepared for Build demonstrations.

The image also includes an early glimpse of Microsoft Scout, which would be a new AI agent based on Microsoft's work on OpenClaw. This super app Copilot will not be available at Build, as Microsoft is still in the process of creating it, so I wouldn't expect to see it in preview until the end of summer.

I also hope we hear much more about improvements to GitHub at Build this week. I wrote last month that GitHub is facing a fight for its survival at Microsoft, following a wave of departures, outages, and security incidents. Microsoft desperately needs to regain GitHub's trust here, especially as prominent developers begin to sound the alarm. There is no quick fix, but given that Build is led by some members of the GitHub team, Microsoft cannot ignore the issues it is facing here.

We will cover all the news from Microsoft Build this week, so stay tuned for comprehensive coverage when the conference kicks off at 9:30 AM PT / 12:30 PM ET on Tuesday, June 2.