Microsoft Project Solara is an operating system for AI agent tools

Microsoft just announcedSolara project,” a new operating system designed for tools that manage AI agents, is coming at Build 2026. The company describes it as “a new platform built from the ground up to provide agent-based experiences.” It’s built on Android, not Windows.

Microsoft showed off two Project Solara concepts at Build today: the Office concept and the Badge concept. The office concept is an Amazon Echo Show-like device that unlocks using facial recognition and provides access to artificial intelligence agents.

The concept of a badge is the type of badge you can wear, the type of badge you would typically use to access a business building. It has a camera and a fingerprint scanner, which can wake up the AI ​​agent with a single tap. Microsoft demonstrated the ability to instantly tap, record, and transcribe a conversation. The agent can also use the camera to see what the user can see.

Microsoft doesn’t plan to ship these two devices, but they will serve as reference designs that it hopes other hardware makers will build into real products. according to GeekWire. Project Solara is designed for client-first devices, and the platform is “extremely flexible,” according to Microsoft colleague Steven Batish. Companies like AccuWeather, Best Buy, CVS Healthcare and Target are planning to start piloting the devices.

Microsoft chose a version of Android, the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform, instead of Windows “to run on smaller, lower-power devices while maintaining the management and security features that IT departments have come to expect.” GeekWire Reports.

Work on this initiative is early. But Microsoft wants to participate in artificial intelligence devices, as this category is expected to increase in popularity in the coming months and years. Traditional competitors like Google and Meta are working on their own AI tools, and OpenAI is building the hardware in partnership with Jony Ive.