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MIcrosoft ditches "Copilot+" branding for "AI PCs" [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2026-09-27  

Microsoft and chip company Qualcomm launched the "Copilot+" PC branding in 2024 for so-called "AI" PCs. They even had a "Copilot" button that you could press to bring up the "AI". Though it at least indicated decent hardware, it was a hamfisted grasp at a vague buzzword and the "AI" features were badly implemented. Two years on, the specs are frozen in amber, the AI associations are becoming negative for regular customers, and the "Copilot+ AI PC" era is dead. Windows Central's Zac Bowden reports the branding absent at a trade show last week.

At this year's Snapdragon Summit, I had the chance to ask Surface CVP Brett Ostrum about the lack of Copilot+ PC branding on its recent Surface PCs, and he confirmed that "these are not called Copilot+ PCs. 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." I've also asked Qualcomm's SVP of compute, Kedar Kondap, about his thoughts on the usage of the Copilot+ PC branding. He told me that "the purpose for Copilot+ PCs was to be able to deliver [NPU] experiences. So it was to define a certain category of devices with a certain bar and metric, like for example, a 45 TOPS NPU … So from that perspective, it's more offering the same experiences, probably without just using [Copilot+ PC] terminology now."

Perhaps they wanted it thoroughly forgotten before Nvidia's upcoming RTX Spark devices start showing up. The leaked base spec is nothing to write home about, but the flagship models will be beasts.

Techspot's Daniel Sims called it when Dell revived its XPS branding and the RAM price crisis—itself driven by shortages caused by AI companies—forced Microsoft itself to put out new 8GB models that didn't meet the spec. "Nobody wants an AI PC," Sims writes.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/09/27/microsoft-ditches-copilot-branding-for-ai-pcs.html

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