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After Windows Phone, Microsoft is eager to get ahead of the next paradigm shift in computing, and it's betting big on an agentic hardware and software future.
At Build 2026, Microsoft unveiled its vision for the future of computing in the era of AI: A platform that exists liminally between devices and the cloud, capable of agentic capabilities and being always available to assist you in the flow of work.
This vision is codenamed Project Solara, but it’s more than just a vision. Microsoft is already working towards this future, building out a new, lightweight and secure OS on top of AOSP, not Windows, that it calls the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP.)
It’s an OS that’s designed to be invisible, hosting an Agent Shell that can dynamically load and tailor multiple cloud-based agents. It’s not a platform that runs traditional apps, but rather AI that can interface with services and tasks on your behalf via an adaptive access layer that the user interacts with.
There are two concept devices for Project Solara currently, but the possibilities are endless.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
"To enable this new era, we are introducing a chip-to-cloud platform, codenamed Project Solara, designed from the ground up for agent-first experiences and the new device form factors they enable," says Microsoft technical fellow Steven Bathiche. "Project Solara is specifically designed for the new era of agent-first devices. It establishes hardware and software requirements that will meet enterprise needs for manageability, security, and privacy, while ensuring critical user experiences are delivered."
Microsoft is diving head first into this growing new market as it's one of the few areas that don't require an expansive app catalog to be successful. The downfall of Windows Phone was the lack of apps, but that shouldn't be a problem for an agentic platform like MDEP, utilizing a just-in-time UI framework.
"These new devices are not meant to run traditional apps. They are designed for agents. That shift gives us more flexibility in the user interface, because the experience can adapt to the device, the screen size, the content, and even the mode of interaction—whether visual, voice, touch, or multimodal. "
(Image credit: Microsoft)
The devices in question are conceptual at this point, but the prototype hardware that Microsoft has designed is already in use by hundreds of employees at the company. There's a "Badge Concept Device" and "Desk Concept Device", with the Badge Concept resembling that of a small phone with a touschreen that fits in your pocket, and the Desk Concept being similar to an 8-inch Alexa speaker.
"We are using these concept designs to inform how these form factors and platform can be built. They will become reference designs for the ecosystem to build turnkey solutions. Inside Microsoft, hundreds of employees are already using these concept devices to improve their workday." Qualcomm and MediaTek are building silicon that will power these agentic devices.
So far, it's unclear how Microsoft intends for these agentic devices to fit into our digital lives. Will they replace PCs and smartphones, or will they exist alongside them? Will people want to carry both a smartphone and agentic computer with them every day? These are the questions that still need to be answered.
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Posted Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 2:29 pm AEST (my time).
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