Microsoft is going all in on artificial intelligence. The company has said that a new key will launch its Copilot artificial-intelligence software on personal computers running Windows 11. This will be one of the biggest changes ever to the keyboard since the company introduced the Windows key in 1994.

The physical key will soon make its way to your keyboard and join the Windows key, besides the Control key, Alt and that Insert key. Going by the image that Microsoft has unveiled, the new Copilot key will replace the right Control key on the standard PC keyboard, where it will slot in between the Alt key and the left arrow key.

“The introduction of the Copilot key marks the first significant change to the Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades. We believe it will empower people to participate in the AI transformation more easily. The Copilot key joins the Windows key as a core part of the PC keyboard and when pressed, the new key will invoke the Copilot in Windows experience to make it seamless to engage Copilot in your day to day,” said Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice-president and consumer chief marketing officer.

There are some markets where Copilot is not available. In these areas, the Copilot key will launch Windows Search. The first keyboards with the new key will launch at CES in Las Vegas in a few days while shipping is expected to begin towards end of February. Microsoft hasn’t spoken about the OEMs that will add the Copilot key.

Rumour has it that the company will launch the new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 models in the spring. So we won’t be surprised if the Copilot key is there.
Last year, Microsoft started building Copilot into everything. “This will not only simplify people’s computing experience but also amplify it, making 2024 the year of the AI PC,” said Mehdi.

Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI has given the iconic company an opportunity to work on Windows in a new way, focussing on new AI features. Microsoft has even started the year by branding Microsoft Edge as the “AI browser”.

If you don’t intend to update your keyboard, it will continue to function like before. If your keyboard allows, you may even be able to remap your right Control key to function like the Copilot key.

Analysts at Macquarie estimated in December that Microsoft’s AI Copilot portfolio may generate $9.1 billion in incremental revenue with a 61 per cent to 91 per cent gross margin by fiscal 2026. Chipmakers like Intel, AMD and Qualcomm are all building neural processing units (NPUs) into their latest silicon.