Work from anywhere with on-device AI
Now that you understand the hardware foundations and how Copilot+ PCs compare to standard Windows 11 Pro devices, let's look at how these capabilities translate to real-world business scenarios.
The features covered in the previous section aren't technical specifications—they address specific challenges that employees and IT teams face every day. This section walks through practical examples of how Copilot+ PCs support common business needs.
Work from anywhere with on-device AI
Employees who work across offices, client sites, or remotely need devices that keep up without being tethered to a charger or dependent on fast internet connections.
Scenario: A sales consultant prepares for a client meeting during a cross-country flight. They need to review a slide deck, summarize a long email thread, and rehearse their talking points—all without Wi-Fi.
How Copilot+ PCs help:
- The NPU handles AI tasks like text summarization and content suggestions directly on the device—no internet connection required for on-device AI features.
- Extended battery life (up to 22 hours of streaming video) means to work through a full travel day without searching for an outlet.
- Fluid Dictation lets the consultant draft follow-up notes using voice input, with real-time corrections—useful in a cab or airport lounge.
Note
On-device AI features run locally on the NPU and don't require a cloud connection. Cloud-based features like Microsoft 365 Copilot require an internet connection and an eligible Microsoft 365 license.
Communicate across languages in real time
Teams that work across regions or with international clients often face language barriers during meetings and video calls.
Scenario: A project manager in the United States joins a video call with partners in Tokyo and São Paulo. Not everyone on the call speaks the same language fluently.
How Copilot+ PCs help:
- Live Caption with translation provides real-time captions translated from 40+ languages to English and from 25+ languages to Chinese (Simplified)—processed on-device by the NPU.
- Windows Studio Effects uses the NPU to enhance video call quality with portrait blur, eye contact correction, voice focus, and autoframing—so the project manager looks and sounds professional regardless of their environment.
Because Live Captions and Windows Studio Effects run on the NPU, AI processing is handled separately from the CPU. This means video call quality stays smooth even when running other applications at the same time.
Find files and information using natural language
Knowledge workers spend significant time searching for files, emails, and information scattered across local storage and cloud services.
Scenario: A marketing manager needs to find a brand guidelines document they saw last week, but can't remember the file name or where it was saved.
How Copilot+ PCs help:
- Improved Windows search with federation understands descriptive queries—the manager can search for "brand guidelines with the blue logo" instead of needing an exact file name.
- Search results unify local files and cloud content in a single experience, so there's no need to check multiple locations separately.
- Click to Do can analyze content on screen and suggest relevant next steps—such as opening a discovered file in another app or copying text and visuals for reuse.
Configure devices without IT support
End users don't always know where to find specific settings, and IT teams can't be available for every configuration request.
Scenario: An employee receives a new external monitor and a Bluetooth keyboard but isn't sure how to configure the display arrangement or pair the accessories.
How Copilot+ PCs help:
- Agent in Settings lets the user describe what they want in natural language—for example, "set up my second monitor on the left side"—and the agent suggests and applies the configuration changes.
- This reduces support tickets for routine configuration tasks, freeing up IT staff for higher-priority work.
Secure sensitive data from day one
Organizations handling sensitive data need assurance that devices are secure from the moment they're unboxed—without relying on IT to manually configure protections.
Scenario: A healthcare organization deploys 200 new Copilot+ PCs to clinical staff who handles patient records. The IT team needs hardware-level security enabled from day one without configuring each device individually.
How Copilot+ PCs help:
- Microsoft Pluton is built in and enabled by default, providing hardware-rooted protection for credentials and encryption keys.
- Secured-core PC protection is also enabled by default, helping defend against firmware-level attacks.
- Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security provides passwordless authentication out of the box.
Tip
Unlike standard Windows 11 Pro devices where some of these security features require IT configuration, Copilot+ PCs ship with Pluton, Secured-core, and Enhanced Sign-in Security enabled by default. This means a stronger security baseline with less deployment effort.
Build custom AI solutions on-device
Some organizations need AI capabilities tailored to their specific workflows—not just the built-in features that ship with Windows.
Scenario: A logistics company wants to build an internal application that uses AI to optimize delivery routes based on real-time traffic and weather data, running locally on employee devices for faster response times.
How Copilot+ PCs help:
- Windows AI Foundry provides a development framework for building AI-powered applications that run locally on Windows, taking advantage of the NPU for on-device inference.
- Organizations can integrate open-source models and custom models with the NPU to create solutions tailored to their business needs.
- On-device processing keeps sensitive operational data local, reducing latency, and supporting data residency requirements.
Note
Windows AI Foundry is aimed at developers and IT teams build custom solutions. For more information, see Introduction to Microsoft Foundry on Windows.