(Credit: Microsoft)
It’s that time of year again. The Microsoft faithful are making their way to the Northwest to get their heads filled with Azure, Copilot, Edge, M365, SQL Server, Visual Studio, and even a smidge of Windows. If they’re lucky, they may get a celebration at Lumen Field or T-Mobile Park.
That’s right, Microsoft Build is here, running from May 19–22 in person at the Seattle Convention Center and online around the world. It will kick off at 9:05 a.m. PT, likely with a keynote from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Microsoft’s Build page describes Build as “an event by developers, for developers.” So, it tends to get into the weeds of programming. That’s not to say we haven’t seen general technological advances announced at the conference. Once you sign up, you can watch the keynotes and sessions, and even get some “digital swag” (think wallpapers).
How to Watch Microsoft Build
Anyone can register as an online attendant for free via the registration page with a Microsoft account. Even without doing that, you can watch the keynotes at Microsoft’s main Build site. You can also watch the main stream on the Microsoft Developer YouTube channel. For individual sessions, go the Build site instead.
Copilot Agents and Appearances
Microsoft’s AI formerly included “plug-ins” for things like making restaurant reservations with OpenTable. Those went by the way, but now they’re being reincarnated as Agents. We can expect to hear more about Agents and new Agents available at this year’s Build. The company has announced a Settings Agent for Copilot+ PCs that will let you change Settings and troubleshoot by semantically interpreted voice commands.
A very early preview look at Copilot Appearances was one of the more striking things shown at Microsoft’s 50th Anniversary Event. Up to now, Copilot has had an increasingly lifelike voice that you hear while animated waves of water show on the screen. At the event, Microsoft gave an early glimpse of visual, animated personifications of Copilot. These could be animated objects, fantasy animals, or more human-like appearances. Perhaps they’ll even reintroduce the beloved Clippy, which continues to have mindshare nearly 30 years after its departure.
A New Copilot AI Model Developed by Microsoft
It’s been reported that Microsoft is testing its own AI models for use in Copilot in place of those from OpenAI. That would certainly be something to announce at Build, especially if the company could demonstrate that its models are superior to OpenAI’s. Microsoft already uses its own small language AI model, Phi Silica, in Copilot+ PC’s neural processing units (NPUs).
New Copilot+ PC Features
A couple of things haven’t yet made their way into Copilot+ PCs. We’ve seen semantic search in Settings, File Explorer, and Windows Search; Recall; Click to Do, Paint Cocreator; and Studio Effects for videoconferencing. Microsoft has announced more features for Copilot+ PCs that build on these. In addition to the Copilot Agents for Settings mentioned above, look for things like Relight in Photos, more Click to Do actions (like starting a Reading Coach or create bullet lists), smarter screenshots.
And for Regular Windows 11 Users?
The lion’s share of new Windows features have been Copilot+ PC exclusives of late, but Windows 11 users on standard PCs can expect some feature news, too. The company has been talking about adding a Phone panel to the Start menu for many months, so maybe we’ll actually see it arrive at Build. We may even see Copilot Vision, which lets you interact with Copilot about things on the screen. Ask it how to fix a picture, for example. The semantic search features that have appeared in Copilot+ PCs could make their way in to standard PCs, too.
What About Hardware at This Year’s Build?
It doesn’t seem likely that new Copilot+ Surface PCs will be unveiled at this year’s Build, particularly because we just saw new thinner, cheaper Surfaces announced early this month.
What we could see are updates to the AI processors announced at last year’s Build, the Arm-based Azure Cobalt 100 processor to power its hosted Azure virtual machines. Since those are purely for Microsoft’s in-house data centers, knowledge of them is mostly academic for the rest of the world.
Quantum Takes a Quantum Leap
Microsoft made news earlier this year with its supposed invention of a fourth state of matter to get more reliable quantum computing results. Could that Majorana 1 be followed up by a Majorana 2? In any case, I’d be shocked if we didn’t hear more about quantum computing developer tools and possibly hardware announcements.
Azure and Other Developer and Business Tech News
Developers and businesses are Microsoft’s bread and butter, so there’s no question that we’ll hear about new and updated tools for them. Azure is becoming infused with Copilot features, as are Microsoft’s business offerings. Microsoft 365 already includes Copilot capabilities to justify its higher subscription price. The standard code repository, GitHub, actually boasted the first Microsoft Copilot tool, GitHub Copilot. But Copilot features for Visual Studio are likely to be highlighted as well, with Copilot Chat and Copilot Edit already in there and Copilot Agents in preview.
What About Gaming?
Build isn’t usually heavy on video game news, but we may see mention of the new handheld gaming PCs like the MSI Steam Deck and ROG Ally or more info on Microsoft's "Project Kennan" Xbox PC Handheld.
But more likely are new Windows gaming capabilities, especially those involving, you guessed it, Copilot. Microsoft has demonstrated Copilot Vision assisting with gameplay, and we could see more advancements on that front.
PCMag will be there to keep you informed on all the Microsoft Build 2025 happenings, so be sure to check out our Build event page periodically.