Recall Is the Killer Feature in Microsoft Copilot+

Microsoft Build this year was all about Copilot, which will span Microsoft’s offerings. While any current computer can run Copilot, only special AI PCs run Copilot+. Copilot+ gets you to a whole different level of AI experiences that require the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor because it has the performance and battery efficiency needed to run the AI in the background without killing battery life. It is interesting to note that NVIDIA, the current tech leader in AI, was also highlighted as a critical part of having a wonderful experience in the Cloud.

But while having AI write and create images and documents for you is incredibly useful and will have a massive impact on productivity, Recall is the feature that caught my eye because it addresses a problem we all have in terms of locating files in the ever-growing mass of stuff we have seen and created.

Copilot+

Copilot+ comes on Snapdragon X Elite AI PC laptops (it won’t currently run on any other processor yet) and gives you full access to the power of the underlying AI. It requires at least 40 TOPS of performance which is why the Snapdragon X Elite is required. Currently, no other PC part is capable of this level of performance. It has allowed Qualcomm to jump from obscurity in the PC space to becoming a market leader.

The reason you need this performance coupled with strong battery life is that AI needs to be active all the time in order to do its job, which is learning from you and being immediately able to assist you in tasks and activities like answering a question, solving a problem, or potentially, acting autonomously like a true assistant. (I still think Microsoft screwed up a bit here by not pivoting hard on Cortana as the front end for Copilot, particularly given the recent OpenAI dust-up with Scarlett Johansson).

Copilot and Copilot+ (There are Also Copilot Pro, and Copilot for Microsoft 365 which come with an extra charge) represent what is likely the biggest change to PCs since their creation. Change has been the historic relationship between users and their PCs. Users have moved from learning how to work with PCs, to PCs (post Copilot) learning how to collaborate with users.

Recall

Recall automatically indexes everything you create and saves it either in the cloud or on your PC and it does so with incredible detail. The demonstration was a collaborative group has created a lot of presentations over the years and you need to find one, but all you remember is there was an unusual comment on one of the slides that was in a particular color.

It is interesting to note that at Google I/O, Google demonstrated a similar feature (similar in that it helps you find things but in the real world) that could be used to find your keys or anything else you have left around the house that doesn’t have a tracker attached to it. I think I’m going to need both of these things.

Imagine being in a meeting and needing a piece of reference material to back up your argument that you know you have seen but cannot remember who sent it to you, what the name of the file is, or even what the overall topic might have been. This is not hard for me to imagine because, sadly, this happens to me a lot. And it is incredibly embarrassing to have people waiting and getting annoyed while you struggle and often fail to find the file. People think you made it up, you are an idiot, or you have aged out of your job. And then, much like thinking of a snappy comment way too late to use it, you add insult to injury when you accidentally run into the file after the damage has been done.

With Copilot+, you just need to ask the tool to find it. Depending on how unique an item you are recalling is, you may get one or a bunch of similar files, some of which may provide an even stronger reference than the one you remember.

Many at the event questioned both security and privacy for this feature, but you can mess with the setting to exclude things if you want. The feature runs locally on your PC, so the data it captures stays with you, and you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. You can read more on the security features here and they do seem to address the security and privacy concerns well.

Wrapping Up

While I would argue that older folks like me need this the most, I have run into the problem of locating files my entire career, so I think Recall will be incredibly useful for everyone. It is just one of the new features connected to Copilot+. It represents not only one of the most powerful personal uses of AI today but a window into the future of how AI can be used to make human employees better compete with digital employees like Devin.

We need more tools like this to help us remain relevant and useful in the post AI world, because AI puts us all at increasing risk of becoming obsolete.