Microsoft unveils Project Solara, an Android-based OS built for AI agents instead of apps

Microsoft's Project Solara is an Android OS designed for agents instead of apps

Microsoft has been deeply committed to the growth of generative AI technology in recent years through its now-fragmented partnership with OpenAI. At Build 2026, the company remains all-in on AI, and it's looking toward the future with a new software platform. The new Android-based OS is called Project Solara, and Microsoft says Solara is designed to run agents instead of apps. Project Solara is not something you'll have to worry about killing your apps anytime soon. It's limited to a few pieces of concept hardware and software that are awaiting the magical agents of the future. The vision is for Solara to run on myriad specialized devices with interfaces generated on the spot, and it's all powered by the explosive intelligence of models that Microsoft and others insist will soon exist. According to Microsoft, Solara is a chip-to-cloud platform intended to free agents from reliance on single interfaces. Much of Microsoft's messaging around AI is speculative and self-serving, but the company rightly points out that new computing form factors have always required specialization, and that process is complex and expensive. The shift to mobile computing, for example, tripped Microsoft up multiple times as it fell behind on app availability, security, and long-term support. But imagine none of that mattered because you have a gaggle of AI agents that build what you need based on context. That's Project Solara, which is based on an open source build of Google's Android software (AOSP). Microsoft can't really call it Android as it's not a licensed package -- the underlying OS is called the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform. It includes various Microsoft enterprise technologies, along with a shell that can interact with multiple AI agents. Microsoft says Solara is being designed around a concept called just-in-time UI. Rather than manually designing interfaces and content for a watch, a desktop monitor, or smart glasses, Solara would use agents to create interfaces that make sense in the moment. So your work badge, which runs a full Android OS for some reason, could display a minimal interface with one or two functions, but the same functions on a smart display would include more data and features. However, Microsoft is clear that this is still just a concept. None of it works, but the company is committed to spending money on it as part of its massive AI expansion plans. Agentic concepts Microsoft has shown off two concept devices that illustrate where it hopes to go with Project Solara. The more conventional is the Desk Concept, which looks like a typical smart display. It's got a touchscreen, microphones, and a camera. While you sit at your desk, this gadget would keep you apprised of what your theoretical AI agents are doing on your behalf. It can act as a secondary monitor or become a standalone Windows PC with Windows 365 cloud computing. This concept is built around MediaTek IoT chips. The other Solara concept skews weirder. What if the work badge at the end of your lanyard had a touchscreen, 5G connectivity, a camera, microphones, and a fingerprint scanner? That's the Badge Concept. It would have the same Solara software, piping in generative interfaces from your preferred AI agent. Microsoft envisions this Qualcomm-based device providing biometric-authenticated access to your agents -- just tap the sensor and start telling your personal robot what to do. It could also record and summarize meetings and use the camera to "take action on the environment," whatever that means. You can't even get in line to buy either of these devices. Microsoft's next step is to demo its agent-first devices with industry partners, including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, and Target. Microsoft has struggled to branch out beyond traditional computing and enterprise services, having tried and failed on numerous occasions to gain a foothold in mobile computing. With AI, Microsoft was uncharacteristically at the forefront of change. With its OpenAI deal sputtering, the company is now looking to the future, and this is it: agents instead of apps. This is an interesting pitch for how we might actually use AI agents, and it's not coming totally out of left field. Google is also pursuing agentic interfaces in its search products. At I/O, Google previewed new agent-first search tools that can instantly build dashboards and mini-apps based on your search queries. As vague and pie-in-the-sky as Project Solara may be, Microsoft is pretty in tune with the rest of big tech's AI plans. If any of it works, we can only hope it doesn't lead to a new generation of touchscreen millstones around our necks.

Microsoft's Project Solara is an OS for AI agent gadgets

Microsoft just announced "Project Solara," a new OS designed for gadgets that run AI agents, at Build 2026. The company is calling it "a new platform built from the ground up to power agent-driven experiences." It's built on Android, not Windows. Microsoft demonstrated two concept Project Solara devices at Build today: Desk concept and badge concept. The desk concept is an Amazon Echo Show-like device that unlocks with facial recognition and provides access to AI agents. The badge concept is a wearable, the type of badge you'd typically use to access a work building. It has a camera and a fingerprint scanner, which can wake an AI agent with a single press. Microsoft demonstrated the ability to tap and record a conversation, and instantly transcribe it. The camera can also be used by the agent to see what a user can see. Microsoft isn't planning to ship these two devices, but they'll be reference designs that it hopes other hardware makers will build into real products, according to GeekWire. Project Solara is designed for agent-first devices, and the platform is "highly flexible," according to Microsoft fellow Steven Bathiche. Companies like AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Healthcare, and Target are planning to kick off pilots of the hardware. Microsoft picked a version of Android, the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, instead of Windows to "run on smaller, lower-power devices while keeping the management and security features IT departments expect," GeekWire reports. The work on this initiative is early. But Microsoft wants to get involved in AI hardware as the category is expected to heat up in the coming months and years. Traditional rivals like Google and Meta are working on their own AI gadgets, and OpenAI is building devices in partnership with Jony Ive.

Microsoft unveils Project Solara AI, a chip-to-cloud platform built to power a new generation of 'agent-first' enterprise devices -- hardware designed to run AI agents instead of traditional apps

Microsoft has unveiled Project Solara, a chip-to-cloud platform designed to power a new generation of "agent-first" enterprise devices -- hardware designed to run AI agents instead of traditional apps. Announced at the Microsoft Build 2026 Developer Conference on the 2nd of June, the platform, developed by Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group, features a lightweight edge OS called the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP). Interestingly, the OS is built on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) rather than Windows. MDEP is paired with Azure-hosted agent services and persistent cloud-based state, meaning devices act as interfaces to AI agents running across Microsoft's cloud infrastructure rather than as fully self-contained computers. Together, the software stack forms what Microsoft describes as a chip-to-cloud architecture for enterprise AI devices, combining cloud-hosted agents with centralized security, management, and orchestration capabilities. "The 'operating system' is liminal, transcending the device and the cloud. The system brings a lightweight window to the edge, where the agent manifests and where the state, via Azure, can encompass a constellation of specialized devices," explained Steven Bathiche, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Technical Fellow in the Applied Sciences Group. To populate that ecosystem with hardware, Microsoft has partnered with Qualcomm and MediaTek as its first silicon partners -- Qualcomm for portable and wearable form factors and MediaTek for stationary devices. The company has no plans to manufacture end products itself. Instead, the company is releasing reference designs for OEMs to build from, alongside an "approved chipsets" requirement that gives Microsoft certification-level control over which hardware qualifies for the platform, similar to Google's GMS certification model for Android. To demonstrate Solara, Microsoft unveiled two concept reference designs built on the platform. A stationary desk-mounted AI hub built around MediaTek IoT silicon and a wearable AI badge powered by Qualcomm hardware. The desktop companion features a display, a camera, a UWB (ultra-wideband) presence sensor that handles automatic login and lock, dual far-field mics, and two USB-C ports. Connected to an external display, the device can double as a Windows 365 cloud PC client. Meanwhile, the wearable badge is equipped with a touchscreen, Hello for Business fingerprint sensor, far-field high-SNR microphone array, side-facing camera, and 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GNSS connectivity -- targeting front-line workers such as nurses, retail staff, and field workers. Microsoft confirmed that both devices are intended as reference designs for OEM partners rather than retail products. Central to the platform is what Microsoft calls just-in-time UI -- an adaptive interface layer that allows a single agent to render appropriately across different screen sizes and input modalities without requiring developers to rebuild the experience for each device. Microsoft positions this on a spectrum between conventional responsive design and fully generative UI, where AI constructs interfaces dynamically with no predefined structure; Solara currently targets the middle ground, prioritizing consistency while avoiding per-device redesign overhead. "The same agent can render a custom experience on multiple screen sizes and modalities with little or no additional work from the developer. For us, that is the first proof point: a path to specialized devices without requiring developers to rebuild the experience from scratch each time," said Bathiche. Another notable aspect of Solara is Microsoft's decision to build MDEP on Android rather than Windows. AOSP scales naturally to the lightweight, constrained hardware that wearables and embedded devices run on -- something Windows, with its memory and processing overhead, was never designed to do. It also sidesteps the application compatibility expectations that come with Windows. Because Solara devices are built around cloud-hosted agents rather than traditional software, Microsoft can optimize the platform for dedicated AI hardware without carrying decades of legacy PC baggage. To manage multiple agents running simultaneously, Microsoft is also working on an agent dispatcher and agent task manager -- components that automatically surface or activate the right agent based on context, rather than requiring users to launch each one manually. Neither component is shipping yet. Early agent integrations include Dragon Copilot for healthcare workflows and GitHub Copilot for developer task tracking -- both exploring how persistent, context-aware agents behave differently on dedicated hardware than they do inside a browser or IDE. The platform appears to be aimed at enterprise buyers in retail, healthcare, and field service sectors, where dedicated agent hardware makes more sense than repurposing a smartphone. Microsoft has already lined up pilots with Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, Target, and AccuWeather, with broader OEM deployment targeted across healthcare, hospitality, financial services, legal, and industrial verticals. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Meet Project Solara: Microsoft's Effort to Push AI Agents Into Smart Devices

Ready to hang an AI assistant around your neck? Microsoft is floating the concept as part of Project Solara, an effort to create a wide range of smart devices built for more powerful AI agents. At its Build conference today, Microsoft touted Solara as a way to usher in a new generation of computers, focused on leveraging the latest AI tech. It might sound redundant, considering we already have smart speakers, smart displays, and PCs, laptops, and phones with access to the latest AI chatbots. But a key difference is that these AI agents will be able to flow across an entire ecosystem of devices, rather than being constrained to a single screen or device. "The next computer is not one device; it is all these devices working together as one system, with agents showing up closer to where and when you need them," said Steven Bathiche, CVP of Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group. Project Solara is technically a "chip-to-cloud platform designed for an open, multiple agent world." But in a blog post, Microsoft also framed it as a "liminal" operating system meant to transcend the device and cloud. The project will focus on overcoming software fragmentation by offering a low-cost unified framework that all kinds of AI agents can use to interface through an ecosystem of devices. To pull this off, Microsoft is betting on a capability called "just-in-time UI," which leverages AI models to generate user interfaces from computer code. This means an agent can "adapt across devices and modalities without requiring developers to redesign everything for every new form factor," Bathiche said. That's a huge departure from a software maker needing to manually optimize their apps to fit the specs and inputs for a hardware device. "AI changes that equation. We are already seeing models generate content, images, and layouts tailored to different contexts. If those capabilities become part of the agent loop, an agent can adapt its visual, voice, or multimodal interface to the device it is running on, without forcing developers to redesign the experience for every form factor. We call this broader capability just-in-time UI," he added. To demo the project, Microsoft introduced two concept devices: a standard-looking smart display powered by a MediaTek chip and a portable Qualcomm-powered access badge you can wear around your neck. They both include a touch screen, a microphone, cameras, and speakers. However, Bathiche noted, "These new devices are not meant to run traditional apps. They are designed for agents. That shift gives us more flexibility in the user interface, because the experience can adapt to the device, the screen size, the content, and even the mode of interaction -- whether visual, voice, touch, or multimodal." Microsoft developed the badge concept so that IT employees, nurses, and other front-line workers could easily access an AI agent on the go. Bathiche added that "inside Microsoft, hundreds of employees are already using these concept devices to improve their workday." In a demo at Build, Bathiche also used the badge prototype, which reminded him to gather content for a social media post. He then used the badge's camera to record the Build audience and asked Microsoft's Copilot AI to edit the video into photos for review. In another demo clip, he showed that the badge could also be used at a hospital to perform patient check-ins and capture patient vitals for documentation. "The same foundation, the same software can be adapted for many verticals, and workflows, such as retail, industrial, hospitality, financial services, legal and so forth," Bathiche said. There's no word on pricing or a potential launch date. Microsoft's announcement seems more like an early step to attract partners to support the new ecosystem. "We will extend our collaboration with silicon partners to create reference designs for a range of categories spanning portable, ultra-portable, wearable, desktop, and others," Bathiche wrote. "With those reference designs, we'll enable OEMs and product makers to develop specialized solutions for specific scenarios, environments, across a variety of industry segments." That said, Microsoft is preparing to pilot the current prototype devices with companies including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, Target, and others in the coming months. It's also unclear if Project Solara devices will target consumers. The company's announcement focused more on the potential to bring these "AI-agent first devices" to various enterprises. Still, Microsoft posted an image, hinting that the project aims to support a wide range of devices, including smart glasses, headphones, and smartwatches.

Microsoft announces Project Solara, its take on an AI agent platform - Engadget

The company demoed Solara on an Echo Show-style smart display and a smart key badge. Microsoft has announced that it's building a platform for AI agents. It's called Project Solara, and at Build 2026 the company showed it powering two different reference devices, a smart display and a smart key badge. Like many other companies, Microsoft believes the next platform shift is from apps to AI agents, and it wants Solara to be the platform the coming wave of AI-first devices run on. The smart display reference design is able to access information stored in Microsoft 365, like upcoming events from Outlook, or data from Excel. It also accepts voice input, and is theoretically capable of executing tasks on your behalf, if the company's concept video is to be believed. The smart key badge has similar functionality but is fully mobile, with a touchscreen and a camera that lets you input new kinds of information on the go.

Microsoft designed some new Android-based hardware, and it's not at all what you're expecting

Solara is built on a framework that's ultimately based on the AOSP. AI is everywhere these days, but so many times it feels like something that's been tacked on to an existing product: It's a smartphone with AI, or earbuds that are equipped with AI note-taking. And while that usually works well enough, Microsoft envisions a new kind of hardware that's AI agent-first in its design and execution -- and is tapping into Android to make that a reality. Project Solara is Microsoft's dream for this new platform, and rather than running on any kind of Windows, it's built on top of the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, which is itself based on Android. Right now, Microsoft doesn't plan to sell any Solara hardware itself, but it has come up with a couple reference designs intended to inspire other manufacturers: a Nest Hub-like desktop screen, and a wearable smart ID badge. The idea is that instead of running a set of fixed apps, or tying devices to a single, general-purpose AI, Solara would expose users to multiple specialized agents, each dialed in for particular skills -- sort of like Gemini Gems. Even the look of the interface needn't be fixed in stone, with a " just-in-time UI" that empowers AI to choose the best way to present its output. If that sounds incredibly lofty to your ears, we don't blame you -- this feels like one step beyond vibe-coded apps, just leaning entirely on the promise of AI perfectly understanding our needs, and being able to optimally address them without a developer having curated every moment of the experience in advance. Whether that's possible, to say nothing of practical, we just don't yet know. But Microsoft sure sounds optimistic about the possibilities. Solara devices are much more intended for enterprise than anything else: Microsoft notes potential use cases like retail and healthcare environments. The company is already partnering with MediaTek and Qualcomm for the silicon that will power this "chip-to-cloud" platform, but right now it's anyone's guess who might actually build products based off Microsoft's reference designs. That means it's probably going to be a while before we see anything approaching a real-world deployment of this tech -- and learn whether or not it's half as impressive as Microsoft's trying to make it sound.

Inside Microsoft's Project Solara: A new platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps

[Editor's Note: Agents of Transformation is an independent GeekWire series, underwritten by Accenture, exploring the adoption and impact of AI and agents. See coverage of our related event.] A team inside Microsoft has been quietly building a platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps, based on Android instead of Windows, with two working hardware designs so far, and an initial set of big-name companies lined up to run pilots. The platform, dubbed "Project Solara," is Microsoft's bet that AI will open up entirely new scenarios for computing -- using agents to avoid the constraints of traditional software, and off‑the‑shelf components to develop new devices quickly and inexpensively. Microsoft is racing against Google, Amazon, OpenAI and others to bring AI to devices and provide the technical backbone for a new generation of computing. In effect, the company is attempting to repeat with AI what it did for personal computers five decades ago, with much stiffer competition this time but also far greater technical freedom. "Boundaries are collapsing," said Stevie Bathiche, the Microsoft corporate vice president and technical fellow who leads its Applied Sciences Group. "You don't necessarily need the traditional app model. You don't need the traditional way of developing experiences." The company unveiled Solara on Tuesday at its Build conference in San Francisco, describing it as a new platform that spans from chip to cloud. GeekWire got a behind-the-scenes look at the project during a briefing last week in Redmond, including demos of the first two concept devices based on the platform: * A desktop hub that sits beside a PC and responds to voice commands, signs users in using facial recognition, and surfaces the day's most pressing items. With a monitor attached, it becomes a full Windows machine running in the cloud. * A wearable badge that reimagines the standard employee ID card. A fingerprint button wakes an agent in one press; a single tap records and transcribes a conversation; and a built-in camera lets the agent act on what the user sees. Microsoft says it won't ship these devices itself. Instead, it envisions hardware makers and other industry partners turning the reference designs into implementations of their own, each intended for a specific industry, company, or scenario. For example, in one demo shown by the company, the high-tech badge ran on agents designed for use by a health-care worker, including the ability to scan a patient's QR code, record and transcribe the visit, log vitals, and start a prescription. In another application of the same badge, the built-in camera scanned a brainstorm board with ideas for an office revamp, and made a suggestion: add some plants. The two devices are a starting point. The bigger opportunity, the company says, is all the tasks and workflows where a PC or phone gets in the way or isn't practical to use. A display inside the Microsoft Applied Sciences lab gave a hint of where things could be headed, including smart glasses, rings, earbuds, scanners, and other form factors. "This is a way to put computing in those spaces easily and cheaply, but more importantly, it's a way to put your agent into those spaces," Bathiche said. In the coming months, companies including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, and Target are expected to begin pilots of devices based on the reference designs. The operating system is the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, or MDEP, an enterprise version of Android that Microsoft developed for devices including Teams meeting-room hardware. The company says it chose MDEP over Windows deliberately, to run on smaller, lower-power devices while keeping the management and security features IT departments expect: patch and over-the-air updates, device integrity, Microsoft Defender, Intune, and Entra ID sign-in. What's different At first glance, the concept devices raise a couple of natural questions: 1) Why not just use a phone? Bathiche said companies have tried, particularly in healthcare, and it didn't go well. Asking a nurse to pull up patient data on a personal device felt wrong to patients and created security problems. A purpose-built device, he said, has a far smaller attack surface, can last a week on a single charge, and can orient its camera for face-to-face interaction rather than forcing the user to hold up a screen. "Computers are continuing to specialize," he said, describing a trend he has been calling out for years now. "Computers are continuing to come closer to you." 2) Isn't the desk device basically an Amazon Echo? Here, Bathiche drew a distinction: Alexa is one agent trying to do everything, while Solara is designed for each organization's own agents, secured and managed by its IT department. The practical difference was visible in the demo. The desk hub pairs with a PC over Bluetooth, hands off tasks between the two, and keeps them locked in sync. An Echo Show sitting next to the same PC wouldn't know it was there. Pushing the timeline Still, the project is very early, by Microsoft's own admission. Bathiche said CEO Satya Nadella liked what the team was doing and suggested showing it at Build this week, much sooner than the company would normally show its behind-the-scenes work in public. That underscores just how competitive and fast-moving the AI world is right now, but it also illustrates the pace that the new technologies are enabling. For example, Bathiche said the team got the badge running on the platform in about three days, using the same software as the desk device on a different chipset from a different company. Yet some fundamental details still need to be figured out. Asked by GeekWire about the business model for the platform, Bathiche pointed to one clear piece: the devices run on Microsoft's Azure cloud. Beyond that, he said, the economics are still taking shape. Even the potential scenarios are in the preliminary stages. For example, Bathiche said the healthcare demo was designed to illustrate the concept, not to serve as an actual clinical tool. The devices can run multiple agents at once, with a coordination layer that taps whichever agent a task requires. Microsoft offers its own agents, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, but the platform is designed for organizations to use other agents, as well. Qualcomm and MediaTek are the first chip partners. The badge runs on a new Qualcomm wearable chip; the desk hub runs on MediaTek IoT silicon. Both are off-the-shelf, not custom, which is central to how Microsoft plans to keep devices cheap and fast to build. Notably, OpenAI's reported AI-agent phone is also being developed on MediaTek and Qualcomm silicon, underscoring the competition emerging in this category. For Bathiche, Solara is a bet on what the next computer looks like. "What is the next thing that comes closer to you?" he asked. That, he contends, is where computing is ultimately going.

Microsoft's Big New Idea for AI Gadgets Is a Badge With a Camera

AI gadgets weren't on my Build bingo card, but Microsoft had other plans. During the unveiling of "Project Solara," a new platform for AI agents launched by Microsoft during its annual developer conference, the company also unveiled two new concept devices, and one of them is here to revolutionize the form factor we've all been eagerly anticipating the next generation of: the humble badge. I know, I know... thank god, right? Old badges are so flat and small and screenless, which is fine, but so outdated, which is why Microsoft's next-gen concept badge has loads of bells and whistles like a touchscreen, a fingerprint sensor, Wi-Fi, 5G connectivity, a microphone for voice inputs and recording, and -- I'm not joking -- a side-facing camera. To demonstrate this last part, a Microsoft technical fellow Steven Bathiche gave a brief demo using a prototype on stage by uttering the phrase, "Copilot, find some good shots from this, clean them up, and then send them to me for me and my team to review." Here's the concept in Microsoft's words: "We've reimagined a form factor that information workers, nurses, front-line workers, and millions of others use every day: the access badge. This on-the-go, lightweight, always connected companion empowers each person to do more by having their agents always by their side." While the badge has AI pendant vibes, like the kinds we've seen from companies like Plaud and Motorola, it's geared more toward enterprise -- think healthcare and retail. Beyond that, Microsoft seems to be treating the concept as a way to help insert its AI agents into real-life situations. Workers with a high-tech badge in their hands could be "using the integrated camera, the platform allows agents, with user permission, to better understand and help take action on the environment around them," for example. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because AI gadgets/wearables like smart glasses have been positioned in a similar light. Amazon, for example, has hopes of harnessing the form factor for use in its own business, helping delivery workers and people in its factories to expedite order fulfillment. The big difference here is that smart glasses already kind of exist, though, which is more than I can say for AI badges. But hey, every new form factor starts somewhere. Maybe this is the start of the badge era...

Microsoft unveils Project Solara: an OS for agent-first devices

Microsoft unveiled Project Solara at Build 2026, a chip-to-cloud platform for "agent-first devices" that run AI agents instead of traditional apps. Two concept devices, a wearable badge and desk companion, are being piloted with Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, and Target. Microsoft unveiled Project Solara at Build 2026, a new chip-to-cloud platform designed from the ground up for devices that run AI agents instead of traditional applications. The platform includes a lightweight operating system built on AOSP, enterprise-grade security and management through Intune and Entra ID, and what Microsoft calls "just-in-time UI," the ability for agent experiences to adapt their interface dynamically to whatever device they are running on. Two concept device reference designs were shown: a wearable badge and a desk companion, both targeting enterprise workers. The announcement is significant because it represents Microsoft's first attempt to build an operating system and hardware platform around the premise that apps are being replaced by agents as the primary way people interact with computers. Google, Salesforce, and OpenAI are all building agent platforms, but Microsoft is the first to extend the concept to purpose-built hardware that is neither a phone, a PC, nor a tablet. What the devices look like The badge concept reimagines the corporate access badge as an always-connected AI companion. It includes a touchscreen display, a fingerprint sensor for Hello for Business authentication, a far-field microphone array and speaker for voice interaction, a side-facing camera, and WiFi, Bluetooth, 5G, and satellite connectivity, all powered by Qualcomm wearable silicon. A nurse, a retail associate, or an office worker wearing it can glance at upcoming meetings, tap to record an in-person conversation with full transcription, or ask their agents questions hands-free. The desk concept is a small stationary device with a touchscreen, dual microphone array, speaker, UWB presence sensor, and MediaTek IoT silicon. It authenticates via facial recognition (Hello for Business) and provides ambient access to AI agents while the user works. Plugged into an external display via USB-C, it transforms into a Windows 365 cloud PC client, giving enterprises a single device that serves as both an agent companion and a thin client. Both devices are explicitly not designed to run traditional applications. There is no app store, no browser-first experience, no traditional desktop. The entire interaction model assumes that the user's relationship with software is mediated by agents rather than by opening and navigating individual applications. The platform architecture Project Solara runs on MDEP (Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform), an enterprise-grade operating system built on the Android Open Source Project. This is notable: Microsoft is building its next-generation device platform on Android's open-source base rather than on Windows, a pragmatic choice that gives the platform access to Android's hardware compatibility and driver ecosystem while allowing Microsoft to layer its own agent shell, security model, and management stack on top. The platform is built on three pillars. First, enterprise readiness: Intune device management, Entra ID authentication, Hello for Business biometrics, and physical privacy controls including a hardware mic mute button. Second, an agent-driven interaction model with just-in-time UI that adapts across different screen sizes, form factors, and input modes. Third, extensibility for multiple agents, both Microsoft's own (Copilot, Researcher, Facilitator, a new Priority Agent) and third-party agents built on Microsoft 365 Agents SDK, Copilot Studio, or the Microsoft Agent Framework. Enterprise AI agents are already being deployed in retail, financial services, and healthcare, but they run on existing devices. Project Solara's thesis is that purpose-built hardware, shaped around how agents work rather than how apps work, can deliver better experiences in specific workflows and environments. Just-in-time UI The most technically ambitious element of the announcement is just-in-time UI. Traditionally, every new device form factor requires developers to redesign their applications for the new screen size, resolution, and input method. This is one reason new device categories are expensive to create and why they struggle without a strong app ecosystem. Microsoft's answer is that agents should generate their own interfaces. On a small badge screen, an agent might render a minimal card with a single action. On a desk device, the same agent produces a richer visual layout. On a connected display, it generates a full dashboard. The agent adapts its presentation to the device rather than requiring developers to build separate experiences for each form factor. Today, this works through semi-structured approaches like adaptive cards. As AI models improve at generating layouts and interfaces, Microsoft expects the system to move toward increasingly dynamic and eventually fully generative UI. The company is explicit that fully generative UI "is not here yet" but is investing in the middle of the spectrum between responsive design and unconstrained generation. Who is testing it Hundreds of Microsoft employees are already using the concept devices internally. The company has also announced a private pilot programme with AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi's, and Target, a list that spans retail, healthcare, and consumer services. GitHub Copilot and Dragon Copilot (Microsoft's healthcare AI) are both exploring agent-first experiences on the platform. The enterprise agentic AI market is consolidating rapidly, and Microsoft is betting that the next competitive advantage is not just having the best agents but delivering them through the best-suited devices. A nurse wearing a Solara badge that captures patient interactions, surfaces relevant records, and tracks follow-up tasks is a fundamentally different value proposition from the same nurse typing into a laptop between patients. Whether enterprises will adopt yet another device category, with all the procurement, management, and change management that entails, is the central question. Microsoft's answer is that agents reduce the cost of specialisation: because the agent adapts to the device, not the other way around, the barrier to creating new form factors drops. The platform is designed to make it possible, not inevitable. The pilot partners will determine whether it is also desirable.

Microsoft's new mobile effort ditches Windows for Android, and it's not a phone

Microsoft has revealed it's working on a new mobile-related platform called Project Solara, which it demonstrated on stage during its Build 2026 developer conference. It's closer to Android than Windows Mobile, and not only is one of the first prototypes closely linked to a smartphone, it may come to cutting-edge wearables including smartglasses in the future too. What is Project Solara? Microsoft has had a few goes at pulling attention away from Apple, Google, and Samsung with phones and other mobile devices in the past. Unfortunately, whether it's through the acquisition of Nokia, the creation of Windows Phone, or the release of devices like the Microsoft Surface Duo, it has never quite succeeded. Project Solara isn't a smartphone operating system, although Microsoft's platform is based on Android Open Source Project (AOSP), but an app-less, AI agent-first platform made for both mobile and stationary devices. It's also, at this stage at least, not aimed at consumers. Microsoft's targeting businesses with Project Solara, but the familiarity of the prototypes shown during Build 2026, and Microsoft's vision for its future, suggest it may not stay that way forever. Agentic ID badge Microsoft demonstrated a prototype ID badge concept equipped with Project Solara, which turned it into a mini phone you wear on a lanyard. The ID badge has a touchscreen, a fingerprint sensor, a camera, a Qualcomm processor, microphones and speakers, Wi-Fi, and 5G connectivity. It may look like an ID badge, but it sounds a lot like a phone. Instead of Android or Windows, it uses Project Solara to put Microsoft's Copilot AI to work. Microsoft's demo video showed the prototype badge working like a phone in a healthcare environment. The camera scanned information, AI agents responded to voice commands, tasks were received and displayed on the screen, and a fingerprint sensor kept all the data safe. Other Project Solara hardware The other Project Solara prototype demonstrated was a smart display reminiscent of some Amazon Echo Show devices, and powered by MediaTek. It was also aimed at businesses. In the background of Microsoft's promotional material for Project Solara, there are outlines of other possible devices, including smartwatches, smart rings, earbuds, and smartglasses. Microsoft's CVP of Applied Sciences, Steven Bathiche, writes: We imagine a diverse ecosystem of agent-first devices, from small to large, from fixed to hypermobile, from personal to professional. This is where computing and new types of computers are headed. A device on a desk. A device worn in the field. A device in a hospital, a store, a factory, a school, or a home. Each one becomes a new access point for your agents, and a new way to bring productivity, intelligence, and assistance into places where computing has not reached as naturally before. For agent builders: Think big. The agents you are creating today will not be limited to the screens and devices we know today. They will be able to show up across a variety of new form factors -- devices designed around them, tuned for them, and deployed into the moments where they can create the most value. Microsoft platform, not hardware? All of this shows Project Solara is very much a mobile platform from Microsoft, just all dressed up in agentic AI finery. Microsoft didn't say it's going to build any hardware, and instead the prototypes at Build 2026 show developers and hardware manufacturers what's possible with Project Solara. However, it's also clear from Bathiche that it may not always restrict Solara to businesses, or to one type of hardware, and Microsoft definitely has its eyes on the AI future. It means if it's a success, and AI agents take off in the way Microsoft, Google, and others expect, it may reach a device you use in your daily life in the future, either at home or at work.

Microsoft reboots computing: New Solara OS powers agentic devices

Microsoft is laying the groundwork for what it believes will be the next era of computing, unveiling a new software platform designed specifically for AI-powered devices that rely on intelligent agents rather than traditional applications. At its Build 2026 developer conference, the company introduced Project Solara, an operating system built for a new class of agent-first hardware. Instead of launching apps and navigating menus, users interact directly with AI assistants that can access information, understand context, and perform tasks across connected services. Microsoft argues that AI agents will become the primary interface for future devices, and Project Solara is intended to provide the foundation for that transition. Unlike Microsoft's Windows platform, Project Solara is built on Android and optimized for dedicated AI hardware. The company describes it as a flexible environment capable of supporting continuous, agent-driven experiences across multiple device categories. To demonstrate the concept, Microsoft showcased two prototype devices that serve as reference designs for hardware partners. The first is a desktop smart display resembling a compact home assistant screen. The device uses facial recognition for authentication and provides access to AI agents that can surface information from Microsoft 365 services. Users can review calendar schedules, access documents, and interact with workplace data through voice commands and touch controls. Microsoft also highlighted the possibility of agents carrying out actions on a user's behalf, reducing the need to manually navigate software interfaces. The second prototype takes a different approach. Designed as a wearable badge, the device combines a touchscreen, camera, and fingerprint scanner in a compact form factor intended for mobile use. With a single button press, users can activate an AI agent and capture information in real time. During demonstrations, Microsoft showed the badge recording conversations and generating instant transcriptions. The onboard camera also allows the agent to analyze a user's surroundings and respond using visual context. Microsoft does not plan to commercialize either device. Instead, the company hopes hardware manufacturers will use the concepts as starting points for their own products built on the Solara platform. Several organizations, including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, and Target, are expected to participate in early pilot programs involving Solara-based hardware. Alongside Project Solara, Microsoft introduced Scout, a new AI assistant designed to bring persistent agent capabilities into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Built on the OpenClaw framework, Scout functions as an always-available digital assistant that develops an ongoing relationship with its user. Each instance can be given a custom name and personalized through continuous feedback, allowing it to adapt its behavior and preferred working style over time. Scout operates primarily in the cloud but can work across desktop environments and web browsers. The assistant can connect with calendars, email inboxes, and other productivity tools while helping users manage schedules, organize meetings, and automate routine tasks. Microsoft plans to offer Scout through its Frontier program. Access will require a GitHub Copilot subscription. Together, Project Solara and Scout offer a glimpse into Microsoft's vision of a future where AI agents become the primary gateway to digital experiences, replacing many of the app-centric workflows that define computing today.

Microsoft CEO: We're moving from OS and apps to agents instead

Today, Microsoft Build brought the announcement of Project Solara, a new chip-to-cloud platform for AI agents. With the reveal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared an interesting quote on the company's vision for an agent-first computing future. Microsoft CEO shares vision for very different future of computing Microsoft and Qualcomm are partnering on a new initiative called Project Solara to advance agent-first computing. Per Qualcomm, Solara is "a new chip-to-cloud platform where silicon, software and cloud come together to power AI experiences that are more personal, more aware and always with you." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon filmed a video where they discuss the initiative, available here. In it, Nadella highlights a shift from traditional software platforms -- operating systems and apps -- to an agent-first future. Here's his exact quote: "There's a real platform shift. We're moving from building operating systems, devices for apps, to agents." It's a bold claim, to be sure. Nadella is casting vision for a very different future of computing than what we've all grown accustomed to today. Microsoft's pivot to building agents also sets the stage for Apple to outline its own vision for computing at WWDC next week. Apple's developer conference is all about traditional software -- new OS versions, tools for building apps. But it will also bring the unveiling of iOS 27's new Siri and rumored new agentic capabilities. You can read more about Project Solara here on Microsoft's website. What do you think of Satya Nadella's vision for an agent-first computing future? Let us know in the comments.

An AI agent in a security badge? That's Microsoft's Project Solara pitch

This platform aims to streamline AI integration across purpose-specific devices, potentially expanding to smart glasses, watches, and rings for enhanced workplace security and IT management. AI agents will soon be everywhere, we're told, but where exactly? Clearly they're in the cloud, on our desktop PCs, and even on our phones, but they could also live on other devices, like smart speakers, glasses, and perhaps, even a smart security badge. That's the idea behind Project Solara, Microsoft's new platform for putting AI agents in a wide range of devices beyond the standard form factors. But in a larger sense, Project Solara (which Microsoft unveiled during its Build conference on Tuesday) hints at a future where AI agents are seeping into the physical world in ways we hadn't previously imagined. As for Project Solara itself, it's being described as an "OS for AI agents" that would streamline the process of building AI into purpose-specific workplace devices. The platform incorporates a variety of Microsoft technologies designed to boost security, allow for IT administration, and incorporate other business and enterprise-level functionality. That's the boring stuff. Where Project Solara gets more interesting is with a pair of concept ideas that Microsoft shared during its Build briefing-one fairly conventional, and one that's more out-of-the-box. The first Solara concept device is essentially a smart speaker, complete with an Alexa Show-style shell and touchscreen that lets you see the status of your agents, speak with them, and otherwise interact with them. There's also Hello for Business authentication to ensure only the right users can chat with your agents. Interesting, but not completely unexpected. The second concept is a bit more thought provoking: a smart security badge with a touchscreen that can show either your name and face (in its standard badge mode) or a list of agents, which you could summon with a tap. The Solara badge concept boasts a camera and microphone, allowing your agent to scan a barcode, speak with you, or record conversations. The badge would also boast a fingerprint scanner for Windows Hello authentication and 5G cellular connectivity. There's even a lanyard for clipping the badge to your belt or coat pocket. The Project Solana documentation includes imagery that alludes to other form factors, running the gamut from the expected, like smart glasses and watches, to more fantastical devices like rings and barcode scanner guns. What other gadgets, portable and otherwise, might AI agents wind up in? Good question, and I'm sure product designers and AI-minded entrepreneurs will come up with plenty of creative answers. I also wonder if purpose-build devices with AI agents inside would expand their roles from helping employees do their jobs to doing more invasive things, like tracking their productivity. I don't see why not, unfortunately.

Is this 'the next computer'? Microsoft's Project Solara looks to break AI out of the PC and into the real world

* Microsoft reveals Project Solara proof of concept for new AI devices * Portable devices allow AI agents to break into new form factors and use cases * Pilots are underway, but wider launches are still some way off Microsoft has unveiled Project Solara, its bid to help free your AI agents from the PC or smartphone and unleash them into the wider world. Announced at Microsoft Build 2026, the new service, described as "a chip-to-cloud platform...a turnkey solution for building unique agent-first devices", looks to give hardware makers a low-cost way to make AI agents more portable, and open them up to more use cases. The company showed off two concept devices at Build - one resembling a mobile speaker for your office or home desk, and a more portable option resembling an office lanyard. Project Solara "When we think of a computer, we tend to picture something familiar: a laptop, a phone, maybe a tablet," Steven Bathiche, CVP & Technical Fellow, Applied Sciences Group, Microsoft, wrote in a blog post announcing the news, "But computing has never really stood still. It keeps moving closer to us, closer to the work, closer to the moment where it can provide the most value." "Mainframes did not disappear when PCs arrived. PCs did not disappear when phones arrived. Phones did not disappear when watches arrived. Each new form became more specialized, closer to you, closer to the solution you need. Each one found a new place in our lives because it was better suited to a specific context, a specific task, or a specific moment. So, what's next?" In its presentation, part of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's opening keynote at the event, the devices, built using Qualcomm and MediaTek hardware, were shown as benefitting a wide range of use cases. For the card device, which packed a camera and fingerprint scanner, we saw a healthcare professional scanning in to quickly access information on a patient, and a warehouse worker using their device to send tracking information on a package, all without the need to go through multi-stage processes that take time and effort. The desk concept, which immediately recalls the Amazon Echo Show, was shown in more of a business setting, unlocking with facial recognition and provides access to AI agents or a user's Windows files and calendar. Project Solara is still in the concept stage, but the company is hopeful it will lead to further development, revealing it had signed up the likes of AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Healthcare, and Target for pilot launches. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Microsoft unveils Project Solara for an agent-first future

Microsoft announced Project Solara, a new software platform and associated hardware solutions aimed at creating agent-first experiences that enhance user interactions with computers. The initiative seeks to develop a diverse ecosystem of agent-first devices, transitioning the focus from traditional software applications to agent-driven intelligence applicable across various workflows and environments. The platform is intended to enable a diverse set of specialized devices, starting with enterprise-oriented concepts. Project Solara will feature two initial device categories: a portable badge concept for on-the-go use and a stationary desk concept designed for office settings. These concepts are designed to provide seamless connectivity and interaction with agents tailored to user needs. At the Build 2023 conference, Microsoft shared insights on how AI applications will evolve through three structures: AI operating beside applications as a helper, inside applications as an integral component, or outside applications by orchestrating workflows across multiple services and devices. These structures indicate a shift towards agents as a new programming and interaction technology. The Applied Sciences Group at Microsoft is spearheading this initiative, indicating that as human-computer interaction evolves, users will benefit from specialized computers that simplify daily tasks. Through natural language dialogs with AI, the need for traditional interaction methods is diminished, allowing for more local and context-aware computing solutions. Project Solara aims to reduce historical costs associated with specialization in computing, enabling rapid innovation in device development. The platform will support multiple agents addressing various organizational needs and tasks, reinforcing enterprise security, privacy, and user control as foundational elements. Piloting for Project Solara will begin with industry leaders such as AccuWeather and Best Buy. Leading semiconductor partners MediaTek and Qualcomm are collaborating to deliver the initial device concepts, focusing on portability and practical applications for users across various industries. The release will provide reference designs for new devices, enabling companies to customize solutions for specific environments, including healthcare, retail, and finance. Microsoft emphasized that Project Solara will unlock new computing opportunities, fostering an ecosystem where users can integrate agent-driven experiences effectively into their workflows. "Project Solara is an important step in advancing agent-first experiences across a wide range of devices and form factors," said Dino Bekis, Qualcomm Senior Vice President for Personal and Wearable AI. "We're proud to partner with Microsoft to help accelerate this next era of intelligent, personalized computing." Overall, Project Solara is designed to elevate the role of agents in computing, delivering powerful interaction capabilities in tailored devices, thereby reshaping how users interact with technology in their daily lives.

Microsoft shows off Project Solara smart badge and smart display concepts as AI-first hardware

Microsoft is building an AI agent-first platform called Project Solara, and is showing off some interesting hardware designs. Microsoft has announced Project Solara, which is a new platform built for AI agents rather than applications. During the Build 2026 keynote, Microsoft says it expects the next wave of AI-first devices to run on the Android-based Project Solara, rather than Windows. The company already has a couple of hardware form factors in mind, unveiling concepts for a smart display and a smart badge. The badge is the more interesting of the two devices, as it is designed to mimic a smart identity badge that workers in certain professions use gain to access to their offices, etc. "We've reimagined a form factor that information workers, nurses, front-line workers, and millions of others use every day: the access badge. This on-the-go, lightweight, always connected companion empowers each person to do more by having their agents always by their side," the company says in the announcement. "Using the integrated camera, the platform allows agents, with user permission, to better understand and help take action on the environment around them." It has a touchscreen display, a Hello fingerprint sensor, a privacy switch, speaker, side-facing camera, WiFi, Bluetooth and 5G. It'd run off a Qualcomm wearable chip. The idea behind the display is for a new "Priority Agent" service that shows the user what's most important in that moment, while users are only one tap away from using their "Facilitator" capture in person meetings, transcribe the entire thing, and pull out action points. Microsoft is also working on a desk-based smart display similar to an Amazon Echo Show that offers access to Microsoft 365 Copilot as a "thought partner" with users able to hand off tasks. It'll also offer access to a "Researcher" agent that enables users to kept tabs on their longer-range projects and share reports. "Together, the badge and desk concept devices show what becomes possible when agents are no longer confined to one app, one screen, or one device. They show how agent-first experiences can move across stationary, portable, and wearable forms -- adapting to the user, the context, and the work," Microsoft says. Microsoft plans to start piloting devices - not necessarily these ones - in the enterprise realm.

Microsoft introduced Project Solara: Operating system for wearable AI devices

Microsoft announced this week at its Build 2026 conference Project Solara - a new operating system built from scratch for devices that run artificial intelligence agents. The platform is built on Android rather than Windows, and its purpose is to power AI agent-centric experiences on small and power-efficient devices. In other words - it allows you to get artificial intelligence agents directly from the cloud with wearable devices such as an employee badge. Everyone remembers Humane's failed attempt, but from what Microsoft presented at the developer conference - this looks like a completely different opera: Microsoft demonstrated two prototypes: A desktop tablet and a smart employee badge. The desktop tablet resembles the Amazon Echo Show, featuring facial recognition unlock and access to AI agents. But the real star is the badge. The badge is a wearable smart badge - just like an office building entry badge or an employee ID badge - but it is actually a tiny computer. Inside, it has a camera, a fingerprint scanner, a microphone, and a single button that activates an AI agent with a press. Microsoft demonstrated recording a conversation with instant transcription at a single press. The camera allows the agent to see exactly what the user sees, and to respond accordingly. Microsoft does not plan to market the devices itself - they will serve as reference designs that other hardware manufacturers will implement. Retail giants like Target and Best Buy have already expressed interest in the smart employee badge. The choice of Android is clear: These are devices with processing and battery limitations where Windows is simply not suitable, and they run on a weak Qualcomm processor that fits the thin and small form factor. Microsoft wrapped the platform in a management and security layer for enterprise deployment, and they immediately showcase advantages for industries such as medicine, construction, and more. The work on Project Solara is still in an early stage. But the direction is clear: While Google and others are also working on wearable artificial intelligence, and Jony Ive is also developing a similar device for OpenAI, which has already become a competitor - Microsoft wants to be first in this space of intelligent wearable products, and it steps onto the field with major swings.

Microsoft unveils Project Solara for mobile AI devices By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Microsoft Corp. announced Project Solara on Tuesday, a new platform designed to power products that users interact with primarily through artificial intelligence agents on mobile devices for businesses. The company revealed the platform at its Build developer conference in San Francisco. Microsoft demonstrated two concept designs created with chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. and Taiwan's MediaTek Inc. Steven Bathiche, a technical fellow in Microsoft's applied sciences group, presented a device resembling an employee badge that includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and wireless connectivity, a touch-screen display and fingerprint reader. The second device is a small desktop unit with a screen that looks similar to smart speakers like Amazon's Echo Show line and Google's Nest Hub. Microsoft showed a video featuring Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon discussing the need for new devices that can run specific AI agents in form factors suited to their operating environments. The executives said existing interfaces such as personal computers and smartphones won't always be the best solution. Microsoft said AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health and Levi Strauss are working with the technology. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

What is Microsoft's Project Solara: The platform that wants to end the app era

For decades, the way we've used computers has followed the same basic script: open an app, do a thing, close it. Repeat. Microsoft thinks that script is ready for the bin. Announced at Build 2026, Project Solara is Microsoft's most ambitious swing at redefining what a computer even is. It's not a new version of Windows. It's not a smarter Copilot button bolted onto your existing laptop. It's a chip-to-cloud platform, built from scratch, designed around a single premise: agents, not apps, are the future of computing. Also read: Microsoft's Majorana 2 Quantum Chip explained: 20 second Qubit lifetime and an AI-assisted design From apps to agents The fundamental premise behind Project Solara is the paradigm shift from the interaction design model we have been following since the advent of graphical interfaces. It has delivered us unprecedented power - but with an enormous amount of friction. We had to approach our tools. Project Solara wants the tools to approach us. As per Microsoft, it represents the move "from software you open to intelligence you invoke." Users do not navigate through different applications, notifications, or user interface layers; rather, they state their intent, and the agents act on it. The agent is the user interface. What makes Project Solara a truly compelling endeavor is that Microsoft is going beyond software with its implementation. The platform works in conjunction with two concept reference devices, which point out how things will evolve. Also read: Microsoft has built its own AI reasoning and coding models: No OpenAI, no shortcuts The first device is a form-factor badge - a lightweight wearable solution meant to help frontline workers, nurses, and knowledge workers access AI-powered agents right at their fingertips. The other device is a desk companion, a small touchscreen device meant to be used along with your existing PC configuration for frictionless access to agents without disrupting the workflow. Both devices are built on Microsoft's MDEP enterprise OS, support biometric authentication via Hello for Business, and are powered by silicon from Qualcomm and MediaTek respectively. Why it matters Microsoft's case is that the advent of artificial intelligence will slash the costs associated with creating custom computers. In the past, creating an entirely new class of computer meant redesigning its software - operating system, applications, development platforms, and interface. Artificial agents will disrupt this paradigm because they allow what Microsoft refers to as "just-in-time UI" in which interfaces change dynamically based on context, without requiring developers to do any heavy lifting. This would lead to an incredible boom of devices tailored for healthcare, retail, services, and so on - none of them running even one app. Project Solara is very much a work in progress. Conceptual devices are mere prototypes and not yet products. Regardless of their current state, however, there is no doubt about Microsoft's vision. It has had enough of apps.