Inside Microsoft’s Project Solara: A new platform for devices that use AI agents instead of apps

[Editor’s Note: Agents of Transformation is an independent GeekWire series, underwritten by Accenture, exploring the adoption and impact of AI and agents. See coverage of our related event.]

A team inside Microsoft has been quietly building a platform for devices that use AI agents instead of apps, based on Android instead of Windows, with two hardware designs working so far, and the first set of big-name companies lined up to run pilots.

The platform, called “Project Solara,” is Microsoft’s bet that AI will open up new computing environments — using agents to avoid the bottlenecks of traditional software, and off-the-shelf components to develop new devices quickly and inexpensively.

Microsoft is competing with Google, Amazon, OpenAI and others to bring AI to devices and provide the technological backbone of a new generation of computing. Basically, the company is trying to repeat with AI what it did for human computers five decades ago, with stronger competition this time but also with a lot more technical freedom.

“Borders are breaking down,” said Stevie Bathiche, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and technology partner who leads the Applied Sciences Group. “You don’t need a traditional app model. You don’t need a traditional way to develop experiences.”

The company introduced Solara on Tuesday at its Build conference in San Francisco, describing it as a new platform from chip to cloud. GeekWire got a behind-the-scenes look at the project during a press conference last week in Redmond, including demos of the first two devices based on the platform:

• A desktop hub that sits next to a PC and responds to voice commands, prompts users to use facial recognition, and reveals the most pressing things of the day. With an attached monitor, it becomes a full Windows machine running in the cloud.
• A wearable badge that replicates the standard employee ID card. The fingerprint button wakes up the agent with a single press; one tap records and transcribes the conversation; and the built-in camera allows the agent to act on what the user sees.

Microsoft says it won’t ship the devices themselves. Instead, it envisions hardware makers and other industry partners turning reference designs into their own works, each aimed at a specific industry, company, or situation.

For example, in one demo shown by the company, a high-tech badge was applied to agents designed for healthcare use, including the ability to scan a patient’s QR code, record and document visits, log important information, and initiate a prescription.

In another use of the same badge, a built-in camera scanned a discussion board for office remodeling ideas, and made a suggestion: add some plants.

Both devices are the starting point. The biggest opportunity, the company says, is all the tasks and workflows where a PC or phone gets in the way or doesn’t work.

A display inside a Microsoft Applied Sciences lab gave an indication of where things could look, including smart glasses, rings, earbuds, scanners, and other form factors.

“This is a way to put a computer in those spaces easily and cheaply, but more importantly, it’s a way to put your agent in those spaces,” said Bathiche.

In the coming months, companies including AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi’s, and Target are expected to start pilots based on the reference designs.

The operating system is the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, or MDEP, an enterprise version of Android that Microsoft developed for devices including meeting room hardware.

The company says it chose MDEP over Windows on purpose, to run on small, low-power devices while maintaining the security management features expected by IT departments: patch updates and over-the-air, device integrity, Microsoft Defender, Intune, and Entra ID sign-in.

What is different

At first glance, conceptual tools raise a few natural questions:

1) Why not just use the phone? Bathiche said that companies have tried, especially in health care, but it has not gone well. Asking a nurse to retrieve patient data from a personal device felt inappropriate to patients and created security issues.

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He said the purpose-built device has a very small attack surface, can last a week on a single charge, and can aim its camera for face-to-face contact rather than forcing the user to lift the screen.

“Computers continue to be very special,” he said, explaining a trend that has been going on for years. “Computers keep getting closer to you.”

2) Isn’t the desk device an Amazon Echo? Here, Bathiche made a distinction: Alexa is a single agent that tries to do everything, while Solara is designed for each organization’s agents, protected and controlled by its IT department.

The real difference was evident in the demo. The desk hub pairs with the PC over Bluetooth, switching between tasks between the two, and keeping them locked in sync. An Echo Show sitting next to the same PC won’t know it’s there.

Pushing the timeline

However, the project is still very early, by Microsoft’s own admission. Bathiche said CEO Satya Nadella likes what the team is doing and suggested showing it off at Build this week, much sooner than the company usually shows its back-end work publicly.

That underscores how competitive and fast-moving the world of AI is, but it also shows the speed that new technologies are enabling. For example, Bathiche said the team got the badge working on the platform in about three days, using the same software as the desktop device on a different chipset from a different company.

However, some important details still need to be considered. Asked by GeekWire about the platform’s business model, Bathiche pointed to one clear piece: devices running on Microsoft’s Azure cloud. Besides that, he said, the economy is still developing.

Even the possible cases are in the early stages. For example, Bathiche said the health care demo was designed to demonstrate a concept, not to serve as an actual clinical tool.

Devices can run multiple agents at the same time, with the coordination layer affecting whichever agent is needed for the task. Microsoft offers its own agents, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, but the platform is designed for organizations to use other agents, too.

Qualcomm and MediaTek are the original chip partners. The badge runs on Qualcomm’s new wearable chip; the desktop hub runs on MediaTek IoT silicon. Both are off-the-shelf, not custom, which is the basis of how Microsoft plans to keep devices cheap and build quickly.

Notably, OpenAI’s reported AI-agent phone is also being developed on MediaTek and Qualcomm silicon, emphasizing the competition from this segment.

For Bathiche, Solara is a bet on what the next computer looks like. “What’s next for you?” he asked. That, he says, is where computing is finally going.