Microsoft Has Officially Killed the Copilot+ PC Branding Without Any Explanation

Microsoft has had a rough time when Copilot+PCs first launched in the market. From being called out for Windows Recall to users mocking with “Microslop” term for integrating AI features across Windows, Microsoft had seen it all. As the company is rethinking its Copilot strategy within Windows 11, it has quietly dropped the Copilot+ PC branding it spent the past two years building around Windows 11 AI laptops.

Copilot+ PC moniker has officially been killed

The confirmation was received by Windows Central’s Zac Bowden from Microsoft’s Surface CVP Brett Ostrum, who reportedly said that the company’s new Surface PCs are no longer being marketed as Copilot+ PCs, even though they continue to support the features associated with the platform. Here’s what Ostrum exactly said:

These are not called Copilot+ PCs. They do meet all the requirements of our previous bar for what Copilot+ devices are. We still lean into the narrative around AI on the edge and being able to have a hybrid solution out there.

That simply means the moniker is going away, but Copilot features are here to stay. Microsoft’s new Surface laptops can still run the same Windows 11 AI experiences, including features that rely on the hardware’s NPU, but they don’t come with Copilot+ PC branding.

Microsoft has gradually become less aggressive with the branding. The Surface Laptop Ultra, for example, launched without the Copilot+ PC label despite Microsoft privately confirming that the devices remain Copilot+ PCs and include an NPU. There is also a hardware problem with the label.

Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop Ultra can reportedly reach 1 petaflop of AI performance with its NVIDIA RTX Spark configuration, while the minimum NPU requirement for Copilot+ PCs is far lower. Putting both under the same consumer-facing label does not exactly communicate the difference in hardware capability.

Copilot features are staying, even if the name isn’t

Although Microsoft has dropped the moniker, it isn’t abandoning local AI on Windows 11. The company is still building PCs around NPUs and continues to develop AI features for its operating system. What appears to be changing is the marketing language around those devices. Microsoft and PC makers are increasingly focusing on the hardware itself, performance and what the laptop can actually do instead of putting Copilot+ PC front and center.