Microsoft's Windows future is built on Al, voice, cloud, and context

Microsoft wants you to get used to chatting with your PC.

- MARK HACHMAN

Can you imagine yourself having a conversation with Windows about what your PC is doing? Microsoft's Windows chief can—and is trying to build a future where those interactions are the norm.

In an interview with Microsoft Al product manager Christiaan Brinkhoff, the chief of Microsoft's Windows + Devices group, Pavan Davuluri, explained that the company is trying to work toward a future where you can access Windows pretty much anywhere via the cloud, then use Al to fine-tune what you're trying to accomplish.

Microsoft described the conversation as “the next chapter of Windows,” with an eye toward delivering the changes within the next few years. Davuluri described what he hoped the Windows team could accomplish from a strategic level, without targeting any future version of Windows with these goals in mind.

Like many projects at Microsoft, Davuluri's vision begins with businesses in mind. Instead of (or adjacent to) the PC, Microsoft said it's backing the Windows 365 Link, a sort of dumb mini PC (fave.co/47EKgMy) that connects directly to the cloud and to Windows 365. “People are not talking about multiple steps; they're just trying to get to the cloud PC as seamlessly as possible,” he said.

"They can't tell when they're using their local CPU and when they're using a CPU in Azure,” Microsoft's cloud, Davuluri added.