Microsoft used Build 2026 to preview Project Solara, an early platform for enterprise devices built around AI agents instead of conventional apps.
The concept is not a finished Microsoft gadget or a product ready for procurement. It is a look at how AI agents could move into managed workplace devices with identity controls, cameras, microphones, cloud services, and enterprise security requirements built in from the start.
What Project Solara is
Microsoft describes Project Solara as a “chip-to-cloud” platform for agent-first experiences. Rather than focusing on traditional applications, Solara is designed for devices that enable users to interact with AI agents across workplace workflows, data, and services.
Solara is built on Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, or MDEP, an Android Open Source Project-based platform for device makers and software developers. That makes Solara different from Windows-based AI experiences, even as Microsoft continues to add more agent capabilities to Windows and developer tools across Build 2026.
Microsoft says Solara is being designed for a multiple-agent world, including Microsoft agents as well as agents that organizations build or source themselves. The company also frames Solara as a lightweight device interface into longer-running intelligence and action, with Azure expected to support cloud-scale agent experiences.
The company showed two concept reference designs at Build: a desk device and a wearable badge. The desk concept includes face authentication, mic mute controls, USB-C ports, and optional Windows 365 client support, while the badge concept puts Microsoft’s agent-device strategy closer to recent debates over AI wearables in the workplace, with a touchscreen, fingerprint sensor, privacy switch, side-facing camera, and 5G connectivity.
Those concepts are not expected to ship as Microsoft products; they are intended to guide partners building hardware around the Solara platform, according to The Verge.
What Solara means for enterprise IT
For enterprise technology teams, Solara points to a future where AI agents are not limited to laptops, browsers, or chat windows. The same shift is already showing up in RTX Spark PCs for AI agents, while Solara extends the idea toward dedicated workplace devices used in healthcare, retail, field operations, hospitality, logistics, or other frontline environments.
That shift would raise familiar IT questions in a new form. A Solara-style device may need access to workplace data, user identity, microphones, cameras, recordings, transcripts, and cloud-based agent services. As with Microsoft’s recent Copilot Health privacy questions, device management, authentication, data retention, consent, and compliance would be central to any future deployment.
The reference designs include enterprise controls such as Intune management, Entra ID sign-in, Windows Hello for Business, privacy controls, and approved chipsets. Those details matter because agent hardware would likely be evaluated not only as a productivity tool, but also as a managed endpoint.
Healthcare is one use case Microsoft is exploring. Its Solara post says Dragon Copilot is one area where Microsoft is exploring agent-first workflows for clinicians, including support for documentation, contextual information, and follow-up tasks during care.
The first silicon partners for Solara concept designs are Qualcomm and MediaTek. Microsoft says private pilots are planned in the coming months with AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Health, Levi’s, Target, and others.
For now, Solara remains an early platform preview. Microsoft has not announced general availability, pricing, commercial hardware, or regional deployment timelines, so the near-term takeaway is caution: track the device strategy, but do not treat Solara as procurement-ready.
Also read: Microsoft’s new Windows AI features show how agent controls are moving deeper into PCs.
