Microsoft’s newest Surface Pro and Surface Laptop meet the technical requirements for a Copilot+ PC, but the company is no longer using that name for them. The shift moves the focus away from a label Microsoft introduced in 2024 to distinguish Windows computers built for local AI workloads.
The new models include 16GB of memory, at least 256GB of storage and Qualcomm neural processors rated at 80 trillion operations per second, comfortably above the previous Copilot+ threshold. They are due on October 13. A Microsoft executive said the machines still support AI at the edge and hybrid cloud workflows, even without the branding.
The label had also become associated with Recall, a feature that drew sustained security and privacy criticism. More broadly, demand for a separate “AI PC” category has weakened as cloud services remain widely available and useful on-device features stay limited. Microsoft’s former Copilot+ landing page now redirects to a broader performance-PC page, while Dell has also reduced AI-PC language. Buyers will still get the specialized hardware; they just may not be asked to treat it as a separate class of computer.