Overview
- Multiple outlets reported on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026 that Microsoft and several PC partners have stopped using the Copilot+ PC badge without a formal public discontinuation notice.
- Microsoft’s Surface executives confirmed new 2026 Surface models meet the former Copilot+ hardware requirements but are not being marketed with the Copilot+ name.
- Qualcomm said the Copilot+ effort was meant to set an NPU performance bar for local AI, and the company expects partners to deliver the same experiences without using the Copilot+ terminology.
- The Copilot+ launch was undermined when Recall — a feature that captured screenshots and other on-device context for local search — was judged insecure by researchers, delayed, and suffered low user engagement.
- The technical baseline for local AI remains in effect (high-performance NPUs, roughly 40–45 TOPS, plus 16GB+ RAM and 256GB+ storage) and newer platforms such as NVIDIA’s RTX Spark exceed that bar while avoiding the Copilot+ label, signaling a shift to broader 'AI on the edge' messaging.