Microsoft’s Copilot + Initiative Founded last year with a clear goal: To produce capable laptops that people eagerly expect powerful features. Read that sentence again, and it’s pretty obvious that Microsoft’s system is flawed from the start. Most consumers are not nearly as hyped for AI features as companies are eager to achieve artificial intelligence. And those features aren’t exactly compelling, either. Microsoft’s memory – which screens your PC to create a database of everything you’ve done – has been plagued with privacy concerns since the beginning. And to be honest, I didn’t find its ability to remember the files and websites I opened to be useful.
Without any sort of Killer Ai App, most consumers wouldn’t pay the premium for Copilot + Systems. Not in this struggling economy, anyway. So it wasn’t much of a surprise to see sales of Copilot + Programs skyrocket last year. By the third quarter of 2024, they accounted for less than 10 percent of systems shipped, according to data from Mercury Research (via Tom’s Hardware). Strong research IDC (with PCWorld) and found that Copilot + systems made up only 2.3 percent of Windows devices sold in the first quarter of 2025 (and 1.9 percent of the entire PC market).
Instead of continuing to promote Copilot +, Microsoft now wants to “make every Windows 11 computer an AI PC”. The new “Hey Copilot” voice commands and Copilot Vision, a feature that allows the AI assistant to see what’s on your screen, are powered by the cloud. That means you won’t need the beefy 40-plus neural processing units (NPU) found in Copilot+ systems to run it. Microsoft spent the last few years using NPUS as a gateway to useful AI features, such as Realtio and Windows Studio Webcam effects, but only one of its new AI capabilities actually requires an NPU. (And even that’s just a small click update, which lets you send zoom invitations by right-clicking on email addresses.)
It is easy to look at the whole process of Copilot + as a critical way to start AI Hype and move forward for people who are looking for new expensive laptops, especially as the date of support for Windows 14. But it also led to some truly useful changes: Microsoft made 16GB of RAM the standard of Copilot + System, and 256GB of storage and 40 designated NPUs. The launch of Copilot was also the kick in the pants Microsoft needed to update Windows Mobile ARM processors. I never thought I would like a place with a snapdragon chip, but the advanced arm support in su force pro and this year’s smaller model finally won me over.
Dell 16 premium sitting in the category.
I wouldn’t call the Copilot+ system a big Swing, but it’s still an industry wide cat design that’s refreshing to see in the PC space. Microsoft could not pull its fingers and convert all PCs to mobile chips that work well with powerful NPUS, as happened with apple itself years ago. Microsoft had to wait for new NPU hardware from Qualcomm (and eventually Intel and AMD). It should have finally fixed the windows in Arm problem. And it was also worth toning down the AI aspects that felt really transformative. It’s just a shame the buyers didn’t seem to care.
Microsoft said Copilot + Systems accounted for 15 percent of PRIM PCS sales during the holiday season, but the company has not released any new sales figures since then. “This is the fastest adoption I’ve seen for a new category of hardware, and we’ve done it faster than the usual silicon replacement,” James Howell, Microsoft’s VP, Microsoft’s VP of Windows Marketing, said in an interview with Engadget. “Copilot + PC continues to be a turning point for us to move forward and prioritize. But I can’t give you specific numbers beyond that … We’ve been in the last two months, we’ve been doing well with year-over-year growth for Windows.”
Surface Pro Copilot + (Devindra Hard Hardawar for Engadget)
While Microsoft ultimately doesn’t have much to show for the Copilot+ program, continued hardware improvements will lead to AI PCs ruling the next five years. Omdia’s Research Feature predicts that AI PCs will account for 55 percent of computers shipped in 2026, highlighting 20.5 percent of PCs shipped in all AI PC market systems.
Predictions for Omdia Ai PC Shipping (Omdia)
“It is important to note that this acceptance curve adount [for AI PCs] It is driven more by the product lines of the PC market, rather than consumers and businesses looking for PCS directly AI, “according to Omdia Research Analyst Kiren Jessop.”
Microsoft was right about it: AI PC is the future. But it turns out the AI features people actually want to use – like chatgpt, sora and your own copilot – are powered by the cloud, making Onboard NPUS Superfluous. That won’t be true forever. There are virtual security, spelling and simple benefits of ONOBODE AI processing, such as recording sensitive audio instead of sending it to the cloud. But for now, those areas of AI work are niche, and not enough to make Copilot+ a real success by any measure.
