a new key dedicated to AI soon on PC keyboards

A new key will appear this year on PC keyboards: a key dedicated to Copilot, Microsoft’s artificial intelligence, supposed to save time and productivity.

Microsoft, the publisher of Windows, talks about “the most significant change to the PC keyboard in almost three decades” : allusion to the appearance of the Windows key which dates from 1994. It will be 30 years this year.

A new touch, therefore: a shortcut, in reality, to bring up the window of Copilot, Microsoft’s intelligent assistant, now integrated into Windows 11, to ask for help, whether it is adjusting the settings of your PC, to summarize a text for you, or to generate an image from a description in a few words.

The AI ​​can be called upon at any time, whatever you are doing, by pressing this new button with the Copilot logo. And it already has its place on new PC keyboards: to the right of the space bar, between the Alt key and the left arrow.

Hardware and software strategy

Microsoft wasted no time. Open AI’s major partner, creator of chatGPT, took less than a year to reorganize its entire strategy around artificial intelligence. Hardware strategy: Microsoft already predicts that 2024 will be the year of PCs powered by artificial intelligence. The market is at half mast: -30%, according to IDC, since 2022. It therefore really needs a boost.

Software strategy also with the integration of chatGPT with Bing, Microsoft’s Internet search engine, a competitor to Google Search; to Office 365, its office suite with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and, in passing, an increase in license prices – the equivalent of 360 euros more per year per user – integration also with Windows, the operating system at heart of PCs, with this physical consequence at the keyboard level: the appearance of this new key which will be constantly before the eyes of users.

This is the best possible promotion for Copilot and the simplest access: much more than if you had to scroll down a menu or click on an icon on the screen.

First laptop PCs with the Copilot key

It shouldn’t be long before all new PC keyboards feature this new key as Microsoft obviously wants the switch to happen very quickly. The first PC keyboards with the new key will be presented on Tuesday January 9, at CES 2024, the innovation show. They are expected to flood the market in the spring.

In Las Vegas, we should also discover the first laptops and tablets – notably the new “Surface” from Microsoft – whose keyboard includes this famous new Copilot key. Their release is scheduled from February 2024.