Microsoft is shaking things up in the laptop market with a bold new initiative: Copilot Plus PCs. This new branding signifies Windows laptops that come equipped with built-in AI hardware and support a range of AI-powered features seamlessly integrated into the Windows 11 operating system.

The announcement, made at a Microsoft HQ event on Monday, signifies a major push by the tech giant to bring AI capabilities directly to laptops.

Microsoft isn’t going it alone in this endeavor. All the major players in the laptop industry are on board, including Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Acer, and Asus. Microsoft itself will also be releasing two new Copilot Plus PCs under its Surface brand (7th gen Surface Laptop and 11th gen Surface Pro).

Interestingly, while Microsoft is heavily promoting Arm-based processors for these laptops, Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, assured that even laptops powered by Intel and AMD chips will have access to these AI features.

The key to these enhanced capabilities lies in a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) built into the laptops. This NPU acts as the engine for features like “Recall,” an innovative AI-powered tool that promises to function as a searchable “photographic memory” of everything you’ve done and seen on your PC.

These Copilot Plus PCs will boast over 40 pre-loaded AI models within Windows 11, powering a variety of new features. Microsoft’s very own AI assistant, Copilot, also gets a significant upgrade with support for OpenAI‘s recently unveiled GPT-4o model.

Yusuf Mehdi, head of Windows at Microsoft, touted the performance gains of these new laptops, claiming they’ll be “58 percent faster” than a MacBook Air with an M3 processor. He also emphasized impressive battery life that will last “all day.” However, it remains unclear if these claims apply to all Copilot Plus PCs or just those making the switch to Qualcomm’s Arm processors.

Microsoft is confident, projecting sales of 50 million Copilot Plus PCs within the next year.

To ensure consistent performance across the board, Microsoft has established minimum hardware requirements for Copilot Plus PCs. These include a minimum of 16GB of RAM (double the base offering of a MacBook Air) and a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD). The Arm-based models powered by Qualcomm chips boast a battery life that can support “up to 15 hours of web browsing.”

Microsoft is clearly positioning Copilot Plus PCs as the dawn of a new era for Windows laptops. The shift towards Arm-based processors, something Microsoft has attempted (unsuccessfully) in the past, has the potential to significantly improve battery life on Windows machines. The integration of AI features, designed to function across various processor architectures, presents another exciting prospect.

While these advancements represent substantial bets on unproven hardware and software, the potential for transformation is undeniable, provided they deliver as promised.

“Today marks a special day,” declared Yusuf Mehdi at the event. “We get to reimagine the platform that fuels our work and passion…on a whole new category of PCs.”

The first wave of Copilot Plus PCs, equipped with Qualcomm processors, will be available starting June 18th. Models powered by Intel and AMD processors will hit the market at a later date.