Microsoft Build 2026 starts today: What to expect
What's the story
Microsoft's Build conference is set to kick off in San Francisco today. The event marks a strategic shift for the tech giant as it continues its transformation into an AI-focused company. This year, the conference aims to re-establish trust in Windows and GitHub among developers. The livestream will kick off with a keynote from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at 10:00pm IST. You can watch the event live on Microsoft's YouTube channel.
Anticipated announcements
Windows 11 will be a major focus at the event
As per reports, the conference will see the unveiling of new AI models in Windows, a new reasoning model from Microsoft AI, and a Copilot "super app." More importantly, Microsoft is likely to share details about its efforts to improve the experience of Windows for developers. The company is expected to introduce a new developer-optimized experience for Windows 11 this week.
Performance upgrades
Microsoft has already started fixing Windows 11
Microsoft has previously announced its plan to fix Windows 11. The company is already showing early improvements with the help of its Windows Insider team, which is preparing to showcase more customization changes ahead of the Build keynote. Along with this, Microsoft will also share updates on how Windows is adapting to new silicon like NVIDIA's RTX Spark.
AI focus
Local AI models will also be a focus area
This year, Build will put a bigger emphasis on local models running on Windows. This will let developers use local compute instead of expensive cloud models. Microsoft is also expected to unveil its next-generation smaller AI models at the event. These include MAI-Thinking-1, the company's first reasoning model that wasn't trained by distillation from another AI model's outputs.
App developments
Copilot "super app" and GitHub's trust issues
Microsoft will also show off its Copilot "super app" at Build. The app combines Microsoft's various Copilot AI assistants into a single interface. However, it won't be available at the conference as Microsoft is still working on it. Further, given the recent departures, outages, and security incidents at GitHub, Microsoft will have to win back trust among developers during this year's event.