Microsoft to reveal AI devices and features before developer conference

Before its developer conference, Microsoft will show off AI-enabled devices, such as new versions of the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with Qualcomm chips. This is to highlight the shift in the PC market towards Arm architecture.

On Monday, Microsoft will hold an event at its Redmond, Washington, campus to unveil several consumer device-related products.

The company that makes Windows is likely to show off a new version of its Surface Pro tablet and Surface Laptop with Qualcomm chips that are based on Arm Holdings’ architecture. Intel’s processors ruled the PC market for decades. Now, Qualcomm and other companies that make lower-power Arm parts are trying to compete in the Windows PC market. A neural processing unit in the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips speeds up AI-focused apps like Microsoft’s Copilot software.

Journalists and industry analysts can attend Microsoft’s product event in person, which takes place a day before the company’s annual developer conference. There will be no live streaming. In the race to make AI tools that people will pay for, Microsoft wants to build on its early lead. It got ahead of Alphabet because it collaborated with OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT. Other big tech companies are also racing to dominate the new field.

Last week, OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google demonstrated competing AI technologies that can respond in real time and withstand interruptions, two aspects that AI voice assistants have struggled with in real conversations. Google also said it would be adding several generative AI features to its popular search engine.

Apple has been putting more and more pressure on the PC industry ever since it pulled Intel’s processors and started making its chips based on Arm designs. The processors that Apple made for Mac computers have longer battery lives and faster performance than chips made by competitors that use more energy. Microsoft selected Qualcomm to spearhead the transition of Windows to Arm’s chip designs in 2016. Qualcomm’s license to manufacture only Microsoft Windows devices expires this year. Other chip makers, like Nvidia, are also working on Arm-based PC chips.