For the general public, AI is often equated with LLMs and those chatbots you can ask anything and receive nearly instant answers. Yet AI goes far beyond a “simple” generative AI. A variety of tasks can be handled by more specialized models, what we call SLMs. Smaller in size and less demanding in terms of computing power, these models can run locally on the user’s machine, which is precisely the goal behind PC Copilot+, a PC that includes a dedicated SLM chipset. “Having a NPU (neural processing unit) on your device isn’t about installing an LLM locally. The objective is above all to boost the user’s productivity with AI features that are ready to use right away,” explains Frédéric Oster, Partner Account Manager at Microsoft.
AI features integrated into Windows 11
On a PC Copilot+, Windows 11 already offers multiple features accelerated by this component. Some are tucked away in the operating system, while others are clearly visible, such as background blurring in video conferencing apps, or the “Recall” function. Recall lets you retrieve an action performed on the PC at any moment: you can go back to the moment you deleted a block of text in a document by moving the cursor along the timeline at the bottom of the screen to find the moment you’re after. Everything that happens on your computer screen is now available at any time. An Atlassian study recently showed that a desk employee wastes an average of 8.65 hours per week just looking for information.
“Recall is far more than a simple timeline,” stresses Frédéric Oster. “The AI indexes in real time all content the user has consulted, generated, and manipulated. More importantly, you can search within this memory and retrieve what was said during a discussion on Teams or WhatsApp with a particular person.” In this spirit of making data more accessible, the PC Copilot+ also marks the introduction of semantic search in Windows File Explorer. With AI, you no longer need to know in which document and which folder the information resides. Each file is indexed not by its name but by the full content it contains. A fragment of a sentence, an idea, is enough to locate the original document. Everything is indexed by default, including images and soon videos.
Windows 11 also gives PC Copilot+ users access to the Action by Click feature, available via right-click or via a Windows Q. This capability enables a user to literally interact with their screen. By indicating an element on screen, the thumbnail of a video call participant can be used to launch Paint and perform a two-click cut-out of that person. Likewise, a user can request a summary of the on-screen text without having to send it to ChatGPT or a comparable service. The time saved is immediate. The actions proposed by Action by Click are selected by the AI based on the nature of the on-screen element selected. This new example shows that Microsoft continues to roll out optimizations with each Windows update. Bit by bit, AI will become pervasive in the user interface itself.
AI at the user’s side for greater productivity
According to a Forrester study, AI executed closest to the user delivers a productivity gain of 6% to 13%, depending on the function studied, which translates to an average of $4.9 million to $9.6 million in three years of amortization for a PC equipped with AI capabilities. This is only the beginning, because every software maker will harness the technology to embed ultra-specialized SLMs into their applications to boost user efficiency. Lenovo, for instance, is developing such models for all of its devices. “We have an AI Lab of about 200 people in the United Kingdom who are exploring new interactions for European users,” explains Yann Le Rhun, Chief Technology Officer of Lenovo France. “The founders’ models—the famous LLMs—are all racing to push performance. We chose to position ourselves on models that are both more specialized and less resource-intensive. The PC Copilot+ is the ideal field in which to run these SLMs close to the user, and that is what we do with Kira.” The Kira agent provides a unique continuity of the user experience across the brand’s devices. The AI is fully cross-device and cross-OS, so a user who starts an interaction on a Lenovo smartphone can continue it on a PC without interruption.
Windows 11 also grants free access to all NPU-related APIs, which will encourage software vendors to implement new AI features in their business software and to exploit this power. This is particularly evident in customer-relations scenarios for real-time client interactions, or in industrial contexts where latency must be kept very low.
Refreshing a fleet of devices with PC Copilot+ is also about preparing for the future, emphasizes Frédéric Oster. “There are immediate productivity gains with a PC Copilot+, but it’s also a hardware platform that makes the machine software-upgradable. We are developing new APIs that will leverage this power, and we will be able to offer new modes of interaction.” Tomorrow, interactions may rely much more on voice, with diminishing reliance on keyboard and mouse. Use cases will determine the future of AI on the client, but choosing a PC Copilot+ also means preparing for the rise of agentic AI. In the near future, intelligent agents will be able to act in earnest and advance business processes under user supervision or with user collaboration. This new approach will trigger a leap forward in workflow execution, with analysts predicting acceleration factors ranging from 2 to 10.
