Microsoft announced the creation of a platform for AI agents. It’s called Project Solara, and in the 2026 build the company showed it powering two different reference devices, a smart display and a smart key badge. Like many other companies, Microsoft believes the next platform shift will be from apps to AI agents, and wants Solara to be the platform on which the next wave of AI-focused devices will run.
The Smart View Reference Design is capable of displaying information stored in Microsoft 365, such as upcoming events from Outlook or data from Excel. It also accepts voice input and is theoretically capable of performing tasks on your behalf, if the company’s concept video is to be believed. The Smart Key Badge has similar functionality but is fully mobile, with support for 5G connectivity, a touchscreen and a camera that let you capture new types of information.
Microsoft emphasized several times during its presentation that these were reference designs rather than proper products that it planned to create. These features are an example of what’s possible when you have a device explicitly designed to run AI agents rather than apps. Qualcomm and MediaTek have partnered with Microsoft for its reference designs, but the platform will work on a variety of form factors using a variety of different components. “Project Solara is purpose-built for the new era of agent-centric devices,” Microsoft says. “It establishes the hardware and software requirements that will meet business needs for manageability, security and privacy, while ensuring the delivery of critical user experiences. »
These requirements also come with great flexibility. Microsoft says Project Solara is designed without “a single dominant agent” and that users can manually decide which agent they want to use. Eventually, the company hopes to offer something like an “agent dispatcher and agent task manager” to direct and surface agents on a user’s behalf. The actual interfaces of Project Solara devices are also moldable. Microsoft says its platform uses “just-in-time UI” to redistribute interfaces around different device sizes and, in some cases, generate a new UI on the fly.
Interestingly, while much of Solara is completely customized by Microsoft, the platform is built on top of Android, Geekwire reports. Specifically, Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP), a fork of the operating system for enterprise devices. The mobile operating system allows Solara to easily run on several different types of devices, something Microsoft will put to the test when several companies, including Target, CVS Health and Best Buy, begin piloting Solara devices in the coming months.
