What to expect from Copilot, Windows 11 and AI agents

While the company might be pulling back some of its investments in the infrastructure that makes it run, Microsoft remains, at least publicly, intensely focused on AI and Copilot. The company’s annual Microsoft Build developer conference runs from May 19 to 22 and typically touches on all of the company’s various platforms, but it seems like AI will once again be the star.

Microsoft Build is typically a pretty dry affair — Azure comes up a lot — but in the last few years the company has also used the conference to introduce new AI features that eventually make their way into consumer products. Since Microsoft recently released a new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, too, the event should be all about software.

You’ll be able to watch the opening Build Keynote hosted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CTO Kevin Scott on the Build website, or if you want the highlights as they happen, follow along with Engadget’s liveblog. In the meantime, we can make some educated guesses as to what Microsoft might touch on.

Adding more AI to Windows 11

Microsoft talked up agents — AI that can take action on your behalf — a lot at Microsoft Build 2024, and the ways AI is automating work in Windows will likely come up this year, too. Microsoft has announced plans to introduce an agent into the Settings app that can make adjustments to your computer for you. An in-depth look at the feature or a tease of other agents coming to Windows 11 seems like obvious subject for the keynote to touch on. The company will likely get in to how third-party developers can build agents into their own apps, too.

Microsoft has also shared that its making changes to File Explorer to let you find and tweak files without jumping into another app, and upgrading the start menu so you can find and download apps without having to open the Microsoft Store. Both features could be highlighted at Build.

Letting Copilot see your desktop

One of the most impressive features Microsoft has demoed for Copilot is the ability for the AI assistant to selectively see what you’re doing and talk to you about it. Copilot Vision, as the feature is called, is already available on mobile, and Microsoft has teased an expanded version of the feature that can see your desktop or select app windows. Windows Insiders can already use Copilot Vision, but Microsoft hasn’t shared when it’ll come to normal users. Detailing the feature in-depth and expanding where it works seems like a natural things that could come up during Build.

Microsoft introduced a new “Researcher” tool to Copilot in March 2025 that uses OpenAI’s o3 reasoning model, but limited the feature to Microsoft 365 subscribers. The tool can perform research on your behalf, compiling information from multiple sources, like data from your OneDrive and web searches. Microsoft didn’t announce plans to bring Researcher to the free version of Copilot in Windows, but it could do that at Build 2025.

Everything else

Microsoft maintains multiple platforms that act as the backbone of the world’s other gigantic businesses. AI is more interesting to the average person, but the company will likely have more to share on Azure, .NET and GitHub at Build 2025, too.