Microsoft kicked off its annual Build conference last night with a series of major announcements focused on AI. The company introduced several new in-house AI models, a new category of AI agents that can work independently, and a new operating system designed specifically for AI-powered devices. The announcements highlight Microsoft’s growing focus on building its own AI technologies and creating tools that can help users work more efficiently. Here are the key announcements that the tech giant made at the Build conference.
At Build 2026, Microsoft unveiled seven new homegrown AI models. The company announced MAI-Thinking-1, its flagship reasoning model. According to the company, the model performs strongly in software engineering and advanced mathematics tasks. Microsoft also introduced MAI-Code-1-Flash, a coding-focused model designed for GitHub Copilot, VS Code and other Microsoft products.
New image models include MAI-Image-2.5 and its Flash version, which support both text-to-image generation and image editing. Microsoft claims that these models surpassed the Arena score of Nano Banana Pro.
The tech giant also announced MAI Transcribe-1.5, which is said to be the best transcription model in the world and supports 43 languages. Furthermore, there is an MAI-Voice-2 AI model that can generate natural-sounding speech in 15 languages and can adapt to a person’s voice using a short sample. A more affordable version called MAI-Voice-2-Flash is said to arrive later.
Also read: Sam Altman and OpenAI under legal fire, lawsuit claims ChatGPT puts children at risk
Microsoft also introduced a new category of AI assistants called Autopilots. Autopilots are designed to work continuously in the background and take actions on behalf of users.
The first product in this category is Microsoft Scout. Integrated with Microsoft 365, Scout can work across Teams, Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint. It is powered by OpenClaw open-source technology.
Also read: OpenAI wants to build personal robots for everyone, Sam Altman starts hiring spree
Another major announcement was Project Solara, a new operating system built specifically for devices powered by AI agents. According to Microsoft, Solara is “designed from the ground up for agent-first experiences and the new device form factors they enable.” Interestingly, Project Solara is based on Android.
Microsoft also announced a partnership with Mayo Clinic to develop advanced healthcare AI systems. The collaboration is said to combine Microsoft’s AI infrastructure with Mayo Clinic’s medical expertise and data. The companies plan to build tools that can assist doctors, improve diagnosis and help healthcare professionals make faster and more informed decisions.