Microsoft stops insisting you need a "Copilot+ PC"

Microsoft's latest Surface laptops meet the technical standards that had been marketed under the "Copilot+ PC" label but will not carry that branding, the company confirmed. Surface's corporate VP Brett Ostrum said the new devices meet the prior requirements for Copilot+ but are not being called Copilot+ PCs.

By AI Newsroom· Reviewed by Pranav, Founder & Editor-in-ChiefPublished 1 minute agoUpdated 1 minute ago0 views

Microsoft stops insisting you need a "Copilot+ PC"

Why It Matters

The change signals a shift in how Microsoft is presenting Windows machines optimized for local AI workloads, which could affect how consumers and partners identify PCs built to run on-device AI features. It also highlights continued collaboration with chip makers like Qualcomm, whose NPUs exceed the previously advertised performance thresholds.

Key Facts

branding change: New Surface PCs announced this week will not be called "Copilot+ PCs"
company comment: Brett Ostrum, corporate VP of Surface, confirmed the devices meet Copilot+ requirements but are not labeled as such
Copilot+ hardware requirements: 16GB RAM, 256GB storage, and an integrated NPU rated at 40 TOPS or better
new Surface models: Surface Pro 12-inch (2nd Edition) and Surface Laptop 13-inch (2nd Edition)
availability date: Both devices available October 13

Microsoft's newest Surface laptops meet the technical benchmarks that had been associated with the company's Copilot+ PC initiative but will not carry the Copilot+ name, Surface executives told Windows Central. Brett Ostrum, corporate vice president of Surface, said the machines "are not called Copilot+ PCs" even though they fulfill the prior criteria for that label.

The Copilot+ designation was introduced as a consumer-facing way to identify Windows systems capable of running AI-accelerated workloads locally. Microsoft previously set hardware thresholds for that class of devices, including at least 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) delivering 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) or more.

The two Surface models launching October 13—the Surface Pro 12-inch (2nd Edition) and the Surface Laptop 13-inch (2nd Edition)—use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Plus processors and include a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU rated at 80 TOPS. Qualcomm's Kedar Kondap, senior vice president of compute, said the intent behind the Copilot+ category was to define a performance bar for on-device NPU experiences, citing examples such as a 45 TOPS metric while noting the new devices deliver similar experiences without using the Copilot+ terminology.

Microsoft's marketing presence for the Copilot+ label has already been reduced. A Copilot+ PCs landing page that existed as recently as May, according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, now redirects to a performance PCs page that mentions Copilot+ far less prominently. Ostrum said Microsoft still emphasizes "AI on the edge" and hybrid AI solutions, even as the explicit Copilot+ branding is being de-emphasized.