Based on a video that leaked a few years ago, it appears that Microsoft has considered the idea of building Windows entirely around AI in the past.
Windows Central highlighted a several-minute video leaked via the BetaWiki Discord server (see below), and our sister site’s Zac Bowden pointed out that the source provides assurance that the clip is authentic. This refers to an AI-focused version of Windows built around Copilot, apparently codenamed Aion.
The concept shown is a lightweight web-based OS, meaning it is built on web apps rather than native Windows apps. In other words, the idea is that it doesn’t run standard Windows (Win32) software, but streams those apps to your desktop as needed (meaning they run from the cloud, and more specifically from Microsoft’s cloud PC product, Windows 365).
It’s similar to Microsoft’s cloud-powered ChromeOS, except it’s built around the Edge browser and Copilot.
Copilot runs the show and is the main character in the Start Menu. The idea is that the AI will provide contextual suggestions here, remembering previous interactions and trying to predict what the user needs.
In the video, Microsoft explains that Aion aims to break away from the “traditional app-centric” approach to grouping on the taskbar and instead use “spaces” that act as groups to place apps, websites, or files related to the same purpose.
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Spaces’ thematic approach seems more like the idea of Sets, which Microsoft experimented with the best parts of Windows 10 a decade ago but abandoned the concept. But this time it’s grouped content organized and curated by AI.
As you might imagine, the Aion concept hasn’t caught on very well in the computing industry. One commenter on the video simply said, “This company has completely lost the plot.”
Another person observed that it’s “like ChromeOS for people who don’t know how to use a computer at all.”
Yet another pointed out: “How did they manage to make even a simple web app seem slow and lagging? One of the strengths of ChromeOS is that it’s extremely fast, even on older and slower machines.”
In fact, some people are unimpressed by the clunkiness and slowness of the operating system shown in the video. However, to be fair to Microsoft, this is just a conceptual diagram and early working code (though I have to say the obvious lack of smoothness doesn’t look great). Borden explained that the video was recorded sometime in 2024, and that “it’s unclear whether this was just a hackathon project or something more.”
However, the ideas explored within Aion could be a hint at where Microsoft is headed with the next generation of Windows. Of course, some people may be worried about that, but it’s better to get used to these ideas.
Microsoft has promised to cut back on AI overload in Windows 11, but it’s less about some kind of wholesale philosophy change around AI and more about streamlining submenus here and there and removing Copilot functionality from certain apps. Windows 11 has an AI agent, and if Microsoft is involved, it could indeed be the next big thing for the OS (and, oddly enough, it is).
In fact, with Project Solara, Microsoft plans to bring AI agents to all kinds of devices around the world, beyond just PCs and phones. Borden theorizes that perhaps Aion evolved into Solara.
In any case, believe it or not, Aion still exists. Microsoft announced a new family of local AI models running with the same name in Build 2026. As Microsoft explains here, these are “a new generation of small language models that are smaller, faster, and more efficient than the previous Windows OS SLM.” Apparently Aion lives on in some form, even if it’s a very different idea than the concept of a full Copilot-based operating system.
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