‘The computer will see what we see’: Microsoft outlines bold AI shift in Windows 2030 vision

Microsoft has released the first in a series of videos outlining its long-term plans for the Windows operating system, under a campaign dubbed the “Windows 2030 Vision”. The video, published this week, features David Weston, Corporate Vice President of Enterprise and Security at Microsoft, offering a glimpse into what the future of Windows could look like as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly central to computing.

A shift towards agentic AI in Windows

The company appears to be signalling a significant shift in how users interact with their devices. In the video, Weston suggests that by 2030, Windows may be driven by what Microsoft calls agentic AI, a type of AI designed to act on behalf of the user. This evolution could fundamentally alter the desktop experience, potentially reducing reliance on traditional input methods like mouse and keyboard.

“I truly believe the future version of Windows and other Microsoft operating systems will interact in a multimodal way,” Weston said. “The computer will be able to see what we see, hear what we hear, and we can talk to it and ask it to do much more sophisticated things.”

He also commented on how conventional computing methods might become outdated, likening the use of a keyboard and mouse in the future to how modern users might perceive MS-DOS, the command-line interface common in the early days of personal computing.

Building on previous AI ambitions

While the video does not go into specifics, it builds on earlier comments made by Microsoft executives suggesting that AI could eventually operate within, alongside, and outside of applications. This idea was notably discussed at Microsoft’s Build 2023 developer conference, where the company explored how AI might manage files, tasks, and applications more independently through natural language commands.

CEO Satya Nadella echoed similar sentiments at the Snapdragon Summit in 2023, where he said AI would “fundamentally change what an operating system is, what a UI looks like, and how application interaction goes.”

Currently, AI in Windows is largely embedded in tools such as Copilot or used within specific applications. However, this new direction points to deeper integration at the operating system level, where AI could play an active, autonomous role in user workflows.