AMD and Intel are finally getting the Copilot+ treatment

By Jacob Roach Published September 3, 2024

Microsoft confirmed at IFA 2024 that its slate of Copilot+ features are coming to AMD and Intel laptops later this year. In a blog post, Microsoft revealed that AMD and Intel PCs that meet the minimum Copilot+ requirements will receive the AI features in November through free Windows 11 updates.

The inclusion of AMD and Intel has been up in the air since Microsoft released Copilot+ laptops exclusively with Qualcomm CPUs earlier this year. Although AMD and Intel held strong that the AI features would be available on Ryzen AI 300 and Lunar Lake CPUs, respectively, neither company would provide a definitive time frame.

Microsoft’s announcement comes just moments after Intel fully detailed its Lunar Lake laptop CPUs, which will go on sale later in September. AMD has already released its Ryzen AI 300 chips in laptops like the Asus Zenbook S 16 OLED. Both ranges meet Microsoft’s minimum requirements for Copilot+, which calls for a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with at least 45 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS) of power.

All laptops that meet the requirements will get a handful of features come November. Those include Live Captions with translation, image generation in Microsoft Paint, and AI adjustments in the Photos app. Laptops will also have access to Windows Studio Effects in video calls, which are available on current and last-gen laptops already.

One feature that might not arrive is Recall. This controversial feature was pulled from Copilot+. It tracks everything you do on your PC to provide context-aware responses, and so far, no one has been able to use Recall outside of press. Microsoft has confirmed that Recall will launch in October for Windows Insiders, possibly setting the stage for a wider rollout in November when AMD and Intel laptops get Copilot+ certification.

Both AMD and Intel are ready for Copilot+ with their latest CPUs, and they claim a performance advantage over Qualcomm when it comes to AI tasks. Intel says that its Lunar Lake NPU is capable of 50 TOPS, while AMD says its Ryzen AI 300 CPUs have the fastest NPU on the market. We’ll see how the ranges can handle Copilot+ tasks when the feature set becomes available later this year.