Microsoft is pitching a future the place AI controls all the pieces in your PC and brokers go and do give you the results you want within the background. However earlier than the corporate will get there, it has to construct the instruments to make these techniques work and persuade its personal builders that AI is definitely able to attaining these massive guarantees.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed earlier this 12 months that as much as 30 p.c of the code of “a few of our tasks” is written by AI, and I’ve been desperate to study precisely how Microsoft’s builders are utilizing the know-how ever since. I’ve been chatting with sources and firm execs to get a greater concept of how AI is being utilized by Microsoft builders. Some staff have advised me they’re skeptical that AI brokers will be capable to absolutely change the work of people, leaving builders to repair the errors of automated brokers.
After I ask the corporate for extra specifics, although, Microsoft touts its early success in deploying AI internally.
“We need to actually have a look at the place there’s developer toil, the place we have now inefficiencies,” says Amanda Silver, a CVP in Microsoft’s CoreAI staff who leads product for the corporate’s Apps & Brokers platform, in an interview with Notepad. “A part of what we’re is each how we are able to apply [AI] and the place we are able to apply it.”
There are over 100,000 code repositories inside Microsoft, from model new tasks to legacy codebases which can be greater than 20 years previous and nonetheless up and operating. “We now have just about each programming language, structure, and lifecycle stage that you can think of, and this actually displays plenty of our prospects,” says Silver. That’s plenty of code for AI to doubtlessly contact, particularly as Microsoft pushes past easy code completion in direction of extra automation with AI brokers.
In Might, Microsoft embedded a coding agent immediately into GitHub Copilot, letting builders assign it work to do. The agent then goes off and creates its personal improvement atmosphere, runs within the background, and creates draft pull requests. “What we see is that builders save on common half-hour on easy duties, over a half day on medium duties, and two weeks on advanced duties,” says Silver. Microsoft’s builders are utilizing it for time-consuming and monotonous duties like fixing bugs and bettering documentation for apps and providers.
Microsoft appears to be like at developer hours saved, incidents mitigated, or estimated hours saved for duties to get to those numbers. “Moreover, we have a look at the actions accomplished by the agentic capabilities, such because the variety of pull-requests it contributes to,” says Silver.
Measuring the affect of AI on developer productiveness is one thing that I hear Microsoft is obsessing about internally, even when some research present AI could make skilled builders slower. Some staff, who want to stay nameless, really feel that Microsoft executives aren’t pleased with how usually builders use AI proper now. There’s a push internally to get builders to make use of AI first for all the pieces, however I hear that adoption isn’t all the time natural.
“It does require a bit little bit of intentional engagement to permit the mindset shift to click on in,” admits Silver. Whereas Microsoft’s builders may ignore GitHub Copilot Chat as a result of it was in a separate window, the agentic mode and coding agent are proper within the context of how builders work. “It turns into behavior forming and modifications habits,” says Silver.
Microsoft says 91 p.c of its engineering groups use GitHub Copilot, however sources have shared information that means, in some elements of the corporate, general AI instrument adoption is way decrease – nearer to the 51 p.c of builders who advised Stack Overflow they’re now utilizing AI instruments professionally every single day.
Silver rattles off an inventory of groups which have sped up their work with AI. The Xbox staff used Copilot’s app modernization agent to improve their core Xbox service from .NET 6 to .NET 8 not too long ago. “They noticed an 88 p.c discount in guide migration effort,” she says, taking “months of labor and compressing it down into days.” Microsoft’s discovery and quantum staff used the Copilot agent emigrate a Java app to the newest model, and noticed the same “discount within the effort that was wanted, because of the AI agent auto detecting deprecated APIs, suggesting fixes, and figuring out safety vulnerabilities.” The corporate’s “ES Chat” agent, which might reply questions on Microsoft’s engineering techniques, has saved engineers “46 minutes per job in comparison with conventional search strategies.” Microsoft can also be utilizing AI brokers to assist Web site Reliability Engineers (SRE) reply to outages of techniques and apps. There, the corporate has already saved over “10,000 hours of operational time.”
All of those time financial savings imply that Microsoft’s code is more and more being constructed by AI as an alternative of simply people, however Silver received’t put a quantity on how a lot of Microsoft’s code is being constructed by AI. She argues it’s too arduous to trace all the pieces as AI is embedded in code technology, overview processes, take a look at generations, and deployment pipelines. “The brokers actually turn out to be a core a part of the engineering system itself,” says Silver. “This is without doubt one of the the reason why it’s so arduous to pin a exact quantity on the variety of traces of code that the AI is contributing.” I additionally get a way that selling a quantity that’s both too excessive or too low could be counterproductive to Microsoft’s advertising and marketing efforts, each internally and externally.
Nonetheless, I don’t doubt the complexity of the duty. A human engineer may submit code whereas Copilot is operating inside their editor, or the engineer may copy and paste AI code into their editor. It’s honest to say that AI is prevalent in some elements of Microsoft’s developer output. You solely want to have a look at the codebases of Aspire, Typescript Go, and Microsoft’s Agent Framework to see that Copilot is a serious contributor to all of them.
The AI techniques additionally aren’t excellent. Silver says engineers overview their work. And a supply at Microsoft advised me that a few of the instruments aren’t all they’re cracked as much as be. “ES Chat saves me time in that I don’t use it,” the individual joked.
Microsoft’s aggressive push in direction of AI brokers coding for builders has additionally obtained some staff inside the corporate involved concerning the future. I’ve spoken to engineers in Microsoft’s CoreAI division which can be apprehensive about using autonomous AI brokers, notably as they choose up the varieties of tasks that junior builders may very well be assigned. There’s an actual concern within the trade, and inside Microsoft, that junior developer roles are disappearing, leaving skilled devs having to babysit the output of AI instruments.
With Nadella’s objective of overhauling Microsoft into an organization that’s targeted on AI brokers doing work, this all feels like much less people concerned in coding sooner or later. Silver is taking the optimistic view that AI will merely permit builders to dump the boring duties and give attention to creativity as an alternative.
“No developer obtained into the trade as a result of they wished to be assigned a months-long code upkeep migration effort,” says Silver. “They need to be on the innovative, they need to create, they need to innovate. These are the sorts of issues they need to offload to AI to allow them to get again to the method of creation.”
- Now you can attempt the Xbox Full Display Expertise (FSE) on any PC, laptop computer, or pill. Microsoft launched the Xbox FSE on all handheld units final week, however it’s additionally began testing it on any PC, laptop computer, or pill. It provides a console-like UI to the principle Xbox app that seems at boot, making it supreme for a front room PC. I’m stunned to see the Xbox FSE seem on all handhelds so shortly, particularly as Lenovo’s Legion Go 2 was the primary handheld outdoors of Asus confirmed to be getting Xbox FSE in spring 2026. It seems like Microsoft is quickly rolling out Xbox FSE to get extra folks utilizing it and extra bug stories. I’m certain the emergency of the Steam Machine can also be part of why it’s rolling out so shortly.
- Xbox Ally units get a brand new sport profile function. Should you’re an Xbox Ally or Xbox Ally X proprietor, Microsoft has began previewing its new default sport profile function this week. It routinely optimizes body charges and energy consumption throughout 40 video games, saving you from manually tweaking sport settings. The settings ought to assist save battery life, and Microsoft says the sport profile for Hole Knight: Silksong will add almost an hour of battery life in comparison with the efficiency mode.
- Microsoft is dashing up and decluttering File Explorer in Home windows 11. Microsoft is making some modifications to the File Explorer in Home windows 11 that imply it’s going to preload “to assist enhance File Explorer launch efficiency.” This preloading seems to be focused at low-end techniques the place efficiency is constrained, and also you’ll be capable to disable it on any PC. Microsoft can also be tweaking the context menus in File Explorer to take away a few of the muddle and cut back the quantity of house much less generally used actions take up.
- Notepad is getting tables. Don’t fear I’m not including tables to the publication. Microsoft is now testing tables inside Home windows Notepad. It’s the newest addition to the app, that takes it method past only a default textual content editor. I’m certain some folks will moan that this makes Notepad “bloatware,” however the addition of tables and a full-featured Markdown editor are nice enhancements for my use of Notepad.
- Microsoft’s AI-powered copy and paste can now use on-device AI. Microsoft is upgrading its Superior Paste instrument in PowerToys so you’ll be able to route requests by way of the corporate’s Foundry Native instrument. You can even use the open-source Ollama, and each choices will run AI fashions on a tool’s NPU as an alternative of from the cloud so that you received’t must buy credit to carry out some Superior Paste options.
- Microsoft makes Zork open-source. The unique Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III video games are actually accessible beneath the MIT license. Microsoft, Xbox, and Activision have teamed as much as protect the intelligent Z-Machine engine that powered the Zork video games and permit college students, academics, and builders to check the code and study from it. Microsoft has additionally labored with Jason Scott, from the Web Archive, to grant this open-source license.
- Xbox Crocs are actual. Microsoft has launched Xbox-themed Crocs this week, priced at $80. After releasing Home windows XP-themed Crocs earlier this 12 months, the Xbox restricted version Crocs mimic the Xbox One X’s controller. Each Xbox Crocs sneakers function the basic X, Y, B, A buttons, D-pad, left and proper analog sticks, and a white Xbox button and bumpers on the edges. There’s even a $20 set of shoe charms with characters and icons from Halo, Fallout, Doom, World of Warcraft, and Sea of Thieves.
- Copilot is leaving WhatsApp. ChatGPT and Copilot are each disappearing from WhatsApp, because of Meta’s new platform insurance policies. Copilot will stay inside WhatsApp till January fifteenth, 2026. Should you have been one of many few counting on this function, you’ll have to modify over to the devoted Copilot cellular app as an alternative.
- Fara-7B is Microsoft’s first agentic small language mannequin for pc use. Microsoft is constructing on the work of its Phi small language fashions by releasing Fara-7B this week. As a substitute of offering you with text-based responses, Fara-7B is designed to manage pc interfaces and use a pc for you. It’s an experimental launch for now, and Microsoft is inviting folks to get an early hands-on and supply suggestions earlier than it’s launched extra broadly.
- Copilot in Edge is now a procuring assistant. Simply in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Microsoft has up to date its Copilot in Edge function with a bunch of procuring assistant capabilities. Copilot in Edge now has instruments like cashback, worth comparability, worth historical past, and worth monitoring. It really works on supported retailers to supply comparisons towards different retailers to make it straightforward to get one of the best worth for a product.
- Microsoft’s AI enterprise apps get new icons, too. After rolling out new Workplace icons, Microsoft is now overhauling the icons for its enterprise AI apps and providers. The enterprise apps and brokers all have new icons that carefully match the Microsoft 365 ones, they usually’re beginning to seem throughout Microsoft’s Energy Platform, Foundry, and different AI providers.
- Claude Opus 4.5 is now rolling out to GitHub Copilot. Microsoft has been fast to undertake Anthropic’s newest Claude AI mannequin inside GitHub Copilot this week. Early testing has proven that Opus 4.5 “surpassed inside coding benchmarks, whereas chopping token utilization in half.” Microsoft says Anthropic’s newest mannequin can also be “nice for code migration and code refactoring.”
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