Microsoft just announced “Project Solara,” a new OS designed for gadgets that run AI agents, at Build 2026. The company is calling it “a new platform built from the ground up to power agent-driven experiences.” It’s built on Android, not Windows.Microsoft demonstrated two concept Project Solara devices at Build today: Desk concept and badge concept. The desk concept is an Amazon Echo Show-like device that unlocks with facial recognition and provides access to AI agents.The badge concept is a wearable, the type of badge you’d typically use to access a work building. It has a camera and a fingerprint scanner, which can wake an AI agent with a single press. Microsoft demonstrated the ability to tap and record a conversation and instantly transcribe it. The camera can also be used by the agent to see what a user can see.Microsoft isn’t planning to ship these two devices, but they’ll be reference designs that it hopes other hardware makers will build into real products, according to GeekWire. Project Solara is designed for agent-first devices, and the platform is “highly flexible,” according to Microsoft fellow Steven Bathiche. Companies like AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Healthcare, and Target are planning to kick off pilots of the hardware.Microsoft picked a version of Android, the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, instead of Windows to “run on smaller, lower-power devices while keeping the management and security features IT departments expect,” GeekWire reports.The work on this initiative is early. But Microsoft wants to get involved in AI hardware as the category is expected to heat up in the coming months and years. Traditional rivals like Google and Meta are working on their own AI gadgets, and OpenAI is building devices in partnership with Jony Ive.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jay PetersTom Warren
