(Credit: Microsoft)
Ready to hang an AI assistant around your neck? Microsoft is floating the concept as part of Project Solara, an effort to create a wide range of smart devices built for more powerful AI agents.
At its Build conference today, Microsoft touted Solara as a way to usher in a new generation of computers, focused on leveraging the latest AI tech. It might sound redundant, considering we already have smart speakers, smart displays, and PCs, laptops, and phones with access to the latest AI chatbots. But a key difference is that these AI agents will be able to flow across an entire ecosystem of devices, rather than being constrained to a single screen or device.
“The next computer is not one device; it is all these devices working together as one system, with agents showing up closer to where and when you need them,” said Steven Bathiche, CVP of Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group.
Project Solara is technically a “chip-to-cloud platform designed for an open, multiple agent world.” But in a blog post, Microsoft also framed it as a “liminal” operating system meant to transcend the device and cloud. The project will focus on overcoming software fragmentation by offering a low-cost unified framework that all kinds of AI agents can use to interface through an ecosystem of devices.
(Credit: Microsoft)To pull this off, Microsoft is betting on a capability called “just-in-time UI,” which leverages AI models to generate user interfaces from computer code. This means an agent can “adapt across devices and modalities without requiring developers to redesign everything for every new form factor,” Bathiche said. That’s a huge departure from a software maker needing to manually optimize their apps to fit the specs and inputs for a hardware device.
“AI changes that equation. We are already seeing models generate content, images, and layouts tailored to different contexts. If those capabilities become part of the agent loop, an agent can adapt its visual, voice, or multimodal interface to the device it is running on, without forcing developers to redesign the experience for every form factor. We call this broader capability just-in-time UI,” he added.
(Credit: Microsoft)To demo the project, Microsoft introduced two concept devices: a standard-looking smart display powered by a MediaTek chip and a portable Qualcomm-powered access badge you can wear around your neck. They both include a touch screen, a microphone, cameras, and speakers.
However, Bathiche noted, “These new devices are not meant to run traditional apps. They are designed for agents. That shift gives us more flexibility in the user interface, because the experience can adapt to the device, the screen size, the content, and even the mode of interaction—whether visual, voice, touch, or multimodal.”
(Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft developed the badge concept so that IT employees, nurses, and other front-line workers could easily access an AI agent on the go. Bathiche added that “inside Microsoft, hundreds of employees are already using these concept devices to improve their workday.”
In a demo at Build, Bathiche also used the badge prototype, which reminded him to gather content for a social media post. He then used the badge’s camera to record the Build audience and asked Microsoft’s Copilot AI to edit the video into photos for review.
In another demo clip, he showed that the badge could also be used at a hospital to perform patient check-ins and capture patient vitals for documentation. “The same foundation, the same software can be adapted for many verticals, and workflows, such as retail, industrial, hospitality, financial services, legal and so forth,” Bathiche said.
(Credit: Microsoft)There’s no word on pricing or a potential launch date. Microsoft’s announcement seems more like an early step to attract partners to support the new ecosystem. "We will extend our collaboration with silicon partners to create reference designs for a range of categories spanning portable, ultra-portable, wearable, desktop, and others," Bathiche wrote. "With those reference designs, we’ll enable OEMs and product makers to develop specialized solutions for specific scenarios, environments, across a variety of industry segments."
That said, Microsoft is preparing to pilot the current prototype devices with companies including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi’s, Target, and others in the coming months.
It’s also unclear if Project Solara devices will target consumers. The company’s announcement focused more on the potential to bring these "AI-agent first devices" to various enterprises. Still, Microsoft posted an image, hinting that the project aims to support a wide range of devices, including smart glasses, headphones, and smartwatches.