Microsoft and its PC Partners Are Phasing Out the “Copilot+” Brand

The “Copilot+ PC” brand that Microsoft introduced two years ago with its first Qualcomm-powered Surface devices is on the way out. The company stopped using the branding on its new 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop that were announced earlier this week, and Surface CVP Brett Ostrum also confirmed in an interview with Windows Central that the company was moving away from it.

“These are not called Copilot+ PCs,” Ostrum said about Microsoft’s new Surface devices. “They do meet all the requirements of our previous bar for what Copilot+ devices are. We still lean into the narrative around AI on the edge and being able to have a hybrid solution out there.”

In other words, Copilot+ PC features such as improved Windows Search, Click to Do, Windows Studio Effects, Live Captions with translation, and the controversial Windows Recall aren’t going away. These features still require an advanced 40+ TOPS NPU capable of handling AI-specific workloads.

However, in recent months, Microsoft’s messaging about AI features has been that all Windows 11 PCs support AI experiences. This is made possible by the Microsoft Copilot app, which will soon evolve again into a unified app with new Code and Autopilot features.

Microsoft and its PC partners probably hoped that slapping “Copilot+” on new devices would help to kickstart a PC refresh cycle. However, it’s hard to find any killer app in the list of Copilot+ features.

Earlier this year, the Redmond giant also acknowledged that forcing a new Copilot key on PC keyboards wasn’t necessary. That’s why it’s now allowing Windows 11 users to remap that key. Moreover, Microsoft also agreed to remove the Copilot branding for AI features in apps like Notepad and Paint, and this was probably for the best.