REDMOND, September 25 — Microsoft and its PC manufacturing partners have quietly begun stepping back from the “Copilot+ PC” branding the company introduced in 2024 to market Windows 11 computers built with dedicated neural processing units for on-device artificial intelligence work. The label was unveiled at a Microsoft event on May 20, 2024, ahead of the company’s Build developer conference, with initial devices from Surface, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Asus and Acer.
Microsoft pitched Copilot+ PCs as a new class of Windows 11 hardware able to run AI features locally — Recall, Cocreator, Live Captions with translation, and Windows Studio Effects among them. The launch was positioned as a direct challenge to Apple’s Mac lineup and a way to set Windows PCs apart in a slowing market.
Recall drew scrutiny before the hardware found buyers
The rollout ran into trouble almost immediately. In June 2024, security researchers and privacy advocates raised alarms over Recall, which periodically takes screenshots of user activity to build a searchable visual history. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office said it was making inquiries.
Microsoft initially delayed Recall’s broad release, then made it opt-in and added encryption and Windows Hello authentication. The feature began rolling out to Windows Insiders in November 2024 and reached broader availability in 2025.
Those changes did not rescue the branding. Analysts noted that many buyers did not understand what an NPU does or why the AI features mattered, and some capabilities required specific hardware or were limited at launch. By 2025, Microsoft and its partners had begun de-emphasizing the term in marketing materials, with some retailers and manufacturers dropping it from product listings altogether.
A quiet retreat, not an announcement
Microsoft has not issued a formal announcement ending the Copilot+ PC program. The company has continued to fold AI features into Windows 11 and its Copilot assistant, but its messaging has shifted toward broader AI integration rather than a distinct device category. Dell, HP, Lenovo and the other PC partners have adjusted their marketing along the same lines.
The episode says something about the mature PC market. Building a new premium tier is hard when the benefit is invisible to the person standing in the store aisle, and AI technology is moving fast enough that a specific product label can look dated within a couple of years.
What to watch next is whether Microsoft settles on describing AI as something Windows simply does, rather than something stamped on a box. As of 2025, the company keeps promoting AI features in Windows 11 — the “Copilot+ PC” name is just increasingly absent from new product launches and advertising.
