A leaked memo says that Microsoft will give a description of its vision for Windows at a special event

Surface Laptop Studio 2: The Beginning of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence Resurrection Mission? A Commentary on Bathiche’s Impact on Computer Use

It is possible that Microsoft will give some details of the work it is working on on Thursday, if it has already briefed partners on its plans. Microsoft’s work here might also involve pushing OEMs to ship laptops with a neural processing unit (NPU) chip for AI tasks and future versions of Windows. Microsoft is expected to announce its Surface Laptop Studio 2 at the event on Thursday, and it may include its own NPU.

WinFuture reported last week that it will be the first Surface device to ship with 64GB of RAM. Adding a new port for existing peripherals and a card for storage expansion appears to be part of the reason Microsoft appears to be improving its internal specifications. Microsoft is rumored to start shipping the Surface Laptop Studio 2 on October 3rd.

It’s unlikely that we’ll see Microsoft tease its plans for AI-powered features in Windows 12, which is expected next year, but many of the new Surface and Windows AI features will lay the groundwork for Microsoft’s AI focus on Windows. We’re likely going to hear the beginning of Microsoft’s work toward reinvention, because “artificial intelligence” is going to “redesign how you do everything on Windows, quite literally.”

With text-to- image prompt, Paint is rumored to be getting the artificial intelligence treatment. Photos is also rumored to be getting a new feature to identify people or objects in photos and then cut / paste them elsewhere — much like a similar feature on iOS.

Steven Bathiche, the head of Microsoft’s applied sciences group, said in an interview that artificial intelligence will have a profound impact on how computers are used.

The Surface Edge: Moving Windows to the Cloud to Lead the Way for People, Businesses, and the Web? Part I: The Moment of Microsoft

The Surface team has been focused on AI for years now with features like Windows Studio Effects. These first started shipping on the Arm-powered Surface Pro X in 2020 with a feature that automatically adjusts your eyes during a video call to make it appear like you’re always making eye contact through the camera.

Microsoft also turned to AI to help power its Surface smart camera recently, so there’s a chance we might see other accessories that leverage AI smarts for Surface.

Copilot in Office apps will allow businesses to instantly summarize documents, generate emails, and speed up Excel analysis. Microsoft is trying to brush off the competition of its own features in search, collaboration, and messenger.

Microsoft also started rolling out a preview of Bing Chat Enterprise earlier this year, which is essentially the same Bing Chat that’s available to consumers but with added commercial data protection. We are likely to hear about some additional features for the consumer and enterprise versions of Bing chat when it comes out of preview.

Mehdi finished up his internal memo to Microsoft employees by rallying the troops after Panay’s departure, in a sign that Microsoft will need its various businesses to work closely together if it wants to execute its ambitious AI goals:

Shilpa Ranganathan, head of Windows product management, and Jeff Johnson, who leads Windows client engineering, now report directly to Parakhin — who is only one of a handful of Microsoft leaders who have a CEO title. The Windows team will now be focused on integrating web technologies, AI, and services into Microsoft’s operating system. It’s clear Microsoft is increasingly pivoting Windows to a web-based future here, and we heard during the FTC v. Microsoft hearing that Microsoft wants to move Windows fully to the cloud on the consumer side.

We lead in this race to put Al in service of people and businesses around the globe. We offer a wide range of products, including software, services, and devices. Through our partners and platform, we have a compelling vision for delivering the advantages to our customers. We have to take a collective team approach to deliver on this vision.

Our moment this Thursday is only the beginning. We are coming soon with more experiences and capabilities. It’s an exciting time to be at Microsoft.