Microsoft unveils AI agents and new hardware at developer conference

Microsoft announced a series of AI initiatives at its annual developer conference in San Francisco on June 2, including autonomous workplace assistants, new hardware prototypes, and an in-house reasoning model. The company presented devices designed to host AI agents that perform tasks without traditional apps or operating systems.

One prototype family, called Project Solara, includes hardware the size of a smart speaker or badge that connects to cloud systems for functions such as documenting medical visits.

Hardware and software updates Microsoft also showed a development computer called the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box equipped with an Nvidia chip. The device ran an AI model with 120 billion parameters during demonstrations. Executives displayed tools that allow Windows to run OpenClaw, open-source software that coordinates groups of AI agents.

A corporate IT control was shown that can block accidental file deletion.

New models and partnerships The company introduced an AI agent called Scout inside its Copilot software that gathers emails and messages requiring user decisions. It also released MAI Thinking-1, a reasoning model described as matching the performance of a recent model from another firm.

Microsoft said it reached an agreement with a major medical center to develop healthcare AI using its reasoning systems and the center's clinical data. Officials stated the goal is faster and more accurate diagnoses.