12 WAYS AI COULD IMPROVE WINDOWS 11 (OR WINDOWS 12)

COULD WINDOWS 12 BE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR AI

- MARK HACHMAN

AI is going to end up everywhere within Microsoft’s consumer products: search, Office, business intelligence…and yes, eventually, even Windows. So what could an AI-powered Windows actually look like?

We can speculate. If we had to guess, we’d say that the first drips of Bing’s AI (fave. co/3xKL0fW) won’t transform into a flood until some ways down the road. In part, that’s because AI requires either a persistent internet connection, AI-infused PC processors, or both. Both AMD and Intel are waiting for upcoming processor generations to include AI, with only Qualcomm Snapdragon Arm chips offering it today.

But fast-forward—six months? A year? Suddenly an AI-powered Windows future is here. What could Windows powered by AI look like? We have a dozen ideas.

1. A SUPERCHARGED CORTANA

This seems so obvious it’s hardly worth mentioning: Microsoft already has a chatbot within Windows, though it lacks the sophistication of what it offers in its new AI-powered chat interface. Cortana has slowly faded into the background (fave.co/3IIi0KT) since her introduction within Windows 10. “True” AI could bring her out of hibernation.

The idea is that Cortana would become the front door for both AI-powered search and instructions within Windows.

• “Send a text to Erica at 8 p.m. saying, ‘Time for Halo Infinite!’ and then launch game.”