After 'Agentic OS' backlash, Microsoft says it wants developers to choose Windows

Last week, we shared a story that involved Microsoft's Windows boss, Pavan Davuluri, posting on social media that Windows is "evolving into an agentic OS, connecting devices, cloud, and AI to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere." Basically, it refers to a plan to turn every major component in Windows into an AI agent that you can interact with using speech, text, and natural language.

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As expected, this announcement didn't go down well, with the post quickly getting hundreds of negative comments from Windows users, engineers, developers, and PC enthusiasts. Although a big slice of the comments were along the lines of "no thanks" (with more colorful language), many were constructive, detailing why Windows 11's current state felt like a mess of inefficiencies, telemetry, bugs, and other issues.

It got to the point where Pavan Davuluri turned off the ability to comment on his post about Windows becoming an "agentic OS," but not before the message was received loud and clear. In response to a separate post by technology writer Gergely Orosz, who discussed how this new direction would see software engineers ditch Windows as a platform, Microsoft's Pavan Davuluri said, "We want developers to choose Windows."

"The team (and I) take in a ton of feedback," Pavan Davuluri wrote. "We balance what we see in our product feedback systems with what we hear directly. They don't always match, but both are important. I've read through the comments and see the focus on things like reliability, performance, ease of use, and more."

This directly addresses the initial feedback on his original post; however, like the rest of the response, it lacks detail or assurances on where Windows is headed.

"We know we have work to do on the experience, both on the everyday usability, from inconsistent dialogs to power user experiences," Pavan Davuluri adds. "When we meet as a team, we discuss these pain points and others in detail, because we want developers to choose Windows. We know words aren't enough, it's on us to continue improving and shipping."

And with that, based on the company's broader shift toward AI, it's still safe to assume that additional Copilot features and AI integration into Windows are on the cards. That is, in addition to improving and fixing existing "pain points."