- Pavan Davuluri, head of Windows at Microsoft, says Windows 11 is “evolving into an agent operating system”
- There has been quite a negative reaction to this on social media.
- Many people are fed up with many things, but the relentless push for AI and buzzwords, and the lack of attention to the fundamentals of Windows 11, are clear sources of frustration.
A senior Microsoft executive who runs Windows has said that the future of the desktop platform is to “evolve into an agent operating system” and advance AI, and this has sparked a wave of negative reactions on several social forums.
Windows Central highlighted a post about X by Pavan Davuluri, vice president of Windows and Devices at Microsoft.
Windows is evolving into an agent operating system that connects devices, the cloud, and artificial intelligence to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere. Join us at #MSIgnite to see how cutting-edge businesses are transforming with Windows and what's next for the platform. We can't wait to show it to you!…November 10, 2025
The key part says: “Windows is evolving into an agent operating system, connecting devices, cloud and artificial intelligence to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere.”
This follows several similar comments that have leaked into several recent Microsoft blog posts, or executive soundbites, since the software giant revealed its grand vision for 'making every Windows 11 PC an AI-enabled PC in the future. That means moving forward with Copilot, new AI and voice input features (and Mico, a new face for AI on Windows, or, to look at it another way, a new version of Clippy or Cortana).
That Windows 11 will become 'AI-native' is another variation of the beat in a relentless drumbeat of buzzwords that seem to be coming out of Microsoft executives lately, but it's a tune that many Windows users don't want to dance to at all costs. I'm certainly not relying on the comments on that post on X.
Here's a sample of one of the many scathing comments about
And when Microsoft is thanked in the responses to this thread, it seems like it's coming from people who are simply parroting soundbites around the company, like “integrating AI, cloud, and devices sounds like a productivity gamechanger,” or thanking the software giant for Windows 11, which now gives them the final push to switch to Linux, making them much happier.
The criticism leveled at Microsoft is as bad on Reddit as you can imagine. That includes general concerns about AI bloat, as well as the possibility that AI agents in Windows 11 are additional attack surfaces that malicious actors could exploit to compromise the user in some way. (Microsoft addressed security concerns in its previous revelations about the big move towards 'all PCs with AI' to be fair, but still, that's not likely to calm the nerves of those counting the number of bugs that have cropped up in Windows 11.)
Ignore the little guys at your own risk, Microsoft
So, first things first, it's worth making clear that Davuluri's comment on
As it certainly hasn't escaped your attention, the AI revolution has been Microsoft's biggest source of hype ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene and Satya Nadella's team broke down to get into the action. Microsoft has a deep interest in AI, of course, and the AI revolution was initially talked about in terms of Copilot+ PCs with exclusive AI-powered features, but now it's much broader strokes of “agentic” AI, the latest buzzword that everyone is already getting tired of.
What is an AI agent? At least for consumers, it should be an AI robot that helps you do things on Windows based on natural language (and voice) queries, but of course the fear is that it will become a robot that also tries to sell you things on Windows, i.e. things from Microsoft (or things that other companies pay Microsoft to sell).
And that fear isn't unfounded, as Microsoft has been gradually moving forward with increasingly annoying sales efforts on Windows 11 as time has gone on (and it was no longer easy to avoid this kind of nonsense on Windows 10, before the new operating system came out).
As this new flurry of comments on social media indicates, people are getting tired of Microsoft's various promotions and barely veiled (or not even veiled, “please buy Declared“) ads inside Windows 11: an operating system they have already paid. (All of this would be different if Windows were free, but it's not, it's included in the cost of your pre-built PC or laptop, or in the standalone license.)
On top of that, people are frustrated that Microsoft is moving forward with AI and not fixing the basic problems that are wrong with Windows 11. They don't want an AI agent that can turn them into a website on the operating system (although it's a cool idea, admittedly). what they In fact What we want is a right-click context menu, or a search function, that isn't mysteriously slow, or basic functionality like the ability to move the taskbar away from the bottom of the screen (as you can do in Windows 10).
However, Microsoft is not listening. In the early days of Windows 11, there was a sort of promise to take feedback into account and work with it to improve the operating system, but this philosophy seems to have disappeared (or even Windows). Now it looks like you're getting AI whether you like it or not (and shareholders certainly will, which is an irritant for the more cynical here).
Of course, there is not necessarily anything wrong with AI, if it is implemented in an intelligent and focused way. But if Microsoft can't get simple things like a context menu to work smoothly in Windows 11, and continues to fix bugs in a seemingly unforgiving manner with the operating system, it's no wonder there isn't much confidence in AI getting it right.
Microsoft needs to start making Windows 11 about the little guys again (the core consumers who use the operating system) and not what the company needs in terms of promoting services, making more money, or impressing shareholders. Especially since right now it seems like the little guys are leaning toward a tipping point of frustration with Microsoft's vision for the future of Windows and lack of attention to the fundamentals of the operating system.
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