On June 2nd (US time), at the annual developer conference "Microsoft Build 2026," Microsoft announced "Project Solara," a platform for a new generation of devices centered on AI agents.
The company has welcomed Qualcomm of the US and MediaTek of Taiwan as silicon partners, and has released two types of concept reference devices, a portable type and a stationary type, jointly developed with the two companies.
The company plans to launch pilots in the coming months with companies such as AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, and Target.
Project Solara is a chip-to-cloud integration platform. The aim is to create an agent-first device that "calls an agent and conveys its intentions," rather than a conventional computer that "opens and operates an app." "The next platform shift is from apps to agents, from software that opens to intelligence that summons, and from GUIs of buttons to expressing intent through agents," Microsoft explains on its official blog.
The underlying OS is not Windows, but the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), which is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). MDEP is an enterprise OS that Microsoft has already developed for Teams meeting room devices, and includes features required by corporate IT departments such as device management using Microsoft Intune, authentication using Microsoft Entra ID, biometric authentication using Windows Hello for Business, protection using Microsoft Defender, and OTA updates. Much of the agent's reality and state resides on the Azure side, and the device is designed to function as a "window to long-running intelligence in the cloud."
In partnership with Qualcomm, we jointly developed a portable reference device. It's a re-envisioned version of the employee identification card worn every day by information workers, nurses, field workers, and more. It features a touch display, a fingerprint sensor with Windows Hello for Business, a privacy switch and volume control, a far-field high-SNR microphone array, a side-facing camera, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/GNSS/5G connectivity, and is powered by Qualcomm's wearable Snapdragon silicon. "Snapdragon powers much of today's wearable experiences and has brought advanced AI to billions of mobile devices," Qualcomm said, adding that the partnership is based on the company's ability to combine the high performance required for agent AI with industry-leading power efficiency.
We jointly developed a stationary desk concept device with MediaTek. It features a touch display, Windows Hello for Business with facial recognition, a privacy lock button, dual far-field microphone arrays and full-range speakers, a UWB occupancy sensor, two USB-C ports for power and external display, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, and is powered by MediaTek's IoT silicon. In addition to being used alone, it can be paired with an existing Windows PC via Bluetooth to take over tasks, and can also function as a Windows 365 client by connecting an external display.
On these devices, users can use voice interactions with Microsoft 365 Copilot using wake words or taps, ``Researcher'' to manage the progress of long-term projects, ``Facilitator'' to record face-to-face meetings and transcribe them and extract action items, and ``Priority Agent,'' an experimental agent that dynamically presents ``what to pay attention to right now'' based on the user's work signals.
Hundreds of Microsoft employees are already using these concept devices in their work. Additionally, GitHub Copilot and Microsoft's Nuance's medical-grade Dragon Copilot are also considering using the agent-first experience.
Third-party developers can build agents for Project Solara using Microsoft 365 Copilot extensions, Copilot Studio, the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK, and the Microsoft Agent Framework.
Microsoft has targeted industries such as healthcare, retail, hospitality, financial services, legal, industrial, and field services, and aims to create an ecosystem where OEMs and product manufacturers can develop devices specialized for the workflow of each industry based on reference designs. The timing and price of general sales and consumer availability have not been disclosed.
