The requirements remain, the name recedes
Microsoft is stepping away from prominent use of the Copilot+ PC name even as new Windows computers continue to meet the hardware threshold and support features created for the category. The shift was confirmed by Surface corporate vice president Brett Ostrum in an interview reported on September 26, after observers noted that Microsoft’s 2026 Surface launches no longer carried the Copilot+ label in their product names.
Ostrum said the new systems are not called Copilot+ PCs, while also saying they satisfy the earlier requirements. Microsoft continues to emphasize on-device artificial intelligence and hybrid processing, but compatibility now appears more often in specifications than in the main branding. Other manufacturers have also reduced use of the label in marketing and product names.
Microsoft and Qualcomm introduced Copilot+ PCs in 2024 as a category of Windows hardware designed for local AI workloads. A central requirement was a neural processing unit capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second, with the initial Qualcomm-based machines commonly marketed around higher performance. The name was meant to identify systems eligible for a group of Windows AI experiences rather than merely computers carrying a Copilot key or application.
Qualcomm compute executive Kedar Kondap described the original purpose as defining a hardware bar for NPU experiences. His comments indicate that vendors can continue delivering those capabilities without keeping the Copilot+ terminology on the box. Nvidia has likewise avoided the label for its forthcoming RTX Spark platform despite systems in that family meeting the underlying specification, according to the report.
A troubled introduction
The branding retreat follows a difficult launch for Microsoft’s AI-PC push. Recall, the most visible early Copilot+ feature, drew immediate criticism from security researchers over how it captured and stored snapshots of activity. Microsoft delayed the feature, leaving the first wave of marketed machines without their flagship experience at launch. The episode associated the category name with security concerns before its promised software package was fully available.
The change does not mean Microsoft has abandoned local AI features or withdrawn the technical baseline. Rather, it separates those requirements from a consumer-facing name that did not become a durable shorthand for the hardware. Buyers may therefore need to inspect specifications and feature-support lists instead of relying on the Copilot+ badge alone.
For PC makers, dropping the label offers flexibility to promote processors, battery life, graphics or individual AI functions without tying an entire machine to Microsoft’s assistant brand. For Microsoft, it preserves investment in Windows features and NPU requirements while allowing the marketing language to fade. The result is a quieter transition: the class of capable hardware survives, but the label created to unify it is disappearing from view.
