Sareen now wants Outlook employees to find \u201ccourage\u201d to \u201clet go of old ways of working\u201d and \u201cstep forward when the easier path is to wait.\u201d One Outlook was a big challenge for Microsoft, and attempting to transform an email client that Microsoft\u2019s most important customers count on with unproven AI features is going to be an even bigger task. Executives at businesses around the world rely on their Outlook calendar every day, and Microsoft will have to tread carefully with AI features that could upend an important work tool.<\/p>\n
The upcoming changes to Outlook are part of ongoing reorgs across Microsoft that are almost always about AI. Microsoft\u2019s LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky, took on an expanded role<\/a> as its head of Office earlier this year in an AI shake-up. Sareen reports to Roslansky, who leads all of the Office, Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app teams.<\/p>\n The challenge for both Roslansky and Sareen is to convince Microsoft\u2019s own employees that rebuilding Outlook for AI is the right thing to do. I\u2019ve spoken to plenty of Microsoft employees who are unconvinced by Microsoft\u2019s AI efforts and the investments being made. That\u2019s not stopping Microsoft\u2019s Outlook leadership from dreaming big, though.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year, every product will claim to be AI native,\u201d Sareen writes. \u201cBut there will be teams that just slap AI on products and make buzzword complaint claims. And there will be teams that will have actually rebuilt their product and culture from the ground up to make that real. I am betting my leadership that we will be that team.\u201d<\/p>\n These are the Office icons Microsoft rejected. Microsoft is busy rolling out new curvy and colorful Office icons, and now it\u2019s also taken the time to reveal the experiments that didn\u2019t make the cut<\/a>. Some of the concepts are radically different from what Microsoft is shipping, with design explorations for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that more closely resemble the Office for Mac icons of the past. I personally love the X icon experiment for Excel, but I\u2019m still impressed with the end result of Microsoft\u2019s new Office icons.Microsoft is reportedly moving its Surface manufacturing out of China. As trade tensions grow between the US and China, Microsoft is reportedly preparing to move the manufacturing of its Surface laptops and tablets out of China<\/a>. The move would help with pricing for future Surface hardware and server products, and Microsoft is also reportedly pushing to produce more Xbox consoles outside of China.Xbox Ally and Ally X review: this is not an Xbox. Microsoft\u2019s first \u201cXbox\u201d handhelds are shipping not fully baked<\/a>. I\u2019ve been testing both devices over the past couple of weeks, and they feel like a beta for Microsoft\u2019s big ambitions to combine Xbox and Windows. Right now, the Xbox full-screen experience is a good first step, but it also feels like just the Xbox app running on Windows. As soon as you need to launch a Steam game or apply system updates, you\u2019re thrown into a world of Windows that is far from ready for a device like this. I\u2019d still like to see Microsoft bring all of the key Xbox OS features over to this handheld and really make Windows disappear as much as it can.Windows 11 can now automatically switch between light and dark modes, thanks to a PowerToy. While you\u2019ll need a Microsoft PowerToy to do it, you can now automatically switch between light and dark modes on Windows 11 based on a schedule or when the sun rises and sets. The latest Light Switch PowerToy<\/a> is very similar to the Auto Dark Mode app that\u2019s been around for years, and you can also use it to set whether the shell, apps, or both should switch automatically.Microsoft wants you to talk to your PC and let AI control it. Microsoft might not be ready to announce Windows 12 just yet, but it clearly wants to turn every Windows 11 PC into an AI PC that Copilot controls and users talk to. Last week, the company launched Copilot Vision and Copilot Voice capabilities for all Windows 11 PCs<\/a>, in an effort to convince people to talk to their PC and let AI control it. There\u2019s a flashy ad campaign to go with this latest effort, but I can\u2019t say I\u2019m convinced it\u2019ll do much to improve the usage of Copilot or get people talking. Microsoft has tried and failed to get people to talk to their PCs with Cortana, and although Copilot is a lot more capable, people still pick ChatGPT instead. OpenAI is arguably Microsoft\u2019s biggest partner and its biggest competitor for what comes next.Microsoft\u2019s emergency Windows 11 update fixes a nasty system recovery bug. Microsoft is now rolling out an out-of-band fix for Windows 11 to address a major bug the company introduced with its latest monthly Windows 11 update. The original update, released on October 14th, accidentally broke the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), leaving people unable to use a USB mouse or keyboard to recover their PCs or factory reset them. That\u2019s a pretty major issue if you can\u2019t recover your PC properly, so Microsoft rushed out a fix<\/a> in less than a week. This is the second time in a matter of months that Microsoft has had to issue an emergency patch for a buggy Windows 11 update.Anthropic connects Claude to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive. Anthropic and Microsoft are increasingly cozying up for AI models and services. Anthropic is integrating its Claude AI assistant with Microsoft 365 services<\/a> so it can surface content from Word documents, Teams messages, and Outlook emails in conversations with the chatbot. The integration comes just weeks after Microsoft leaned on Anthropic AI models to improve its own Microsoft 365 apps. Anthropic\u2019s models are also powering a new Office Agent that is able to produce Word and PowerPoint documents.Even Xbox developer kits are getting a big price hike. After raising prices on Xbox consoles and subscriptions, Microsoft is now hiking the price of its Xbox Development Kit (XDK). The current Xbox dev kit is moving from $1,500 to $2,000<\/a>, a 33 percent jump in price. That\u2019s a percentage that closely matches the Trump administration\u2019s 30 percent tariff on imports from China. Microsoft blames \u201cmacroeconomic developments\u201d for the dev kit price changes, but it\u2019s hard to just blame the Trump tariffs when prices for Microsoft\u2019s Xbox dev kits are going up worldwide. While independent developers that want to self-publish their games can apply for ID@Xbox and get free dev kits, the price hikes for everyone else come just as Microsoft is readying its next-gen Xbox hardware.Hallmark\u2019s glowing Xbox 360 ornament plays the Halo theme. It\u2019s nearly Halloween, which means it\u2019s also nearly Christmas time. Hallmark is marking the occasion with a new Xbox 360 Keepsake ornament<\/a> that incorporates elements of the Halo theme. I\u2019ve ordered one for my tree, but I\u2019m disappointed that there isn\u2019t a secret Easter egg where it does a red ring of death.Tune in for some Halo news today. Speaking of Halo, it\u2019s the Halo World Championship this weekend, and Halo Studios has been teasing an announcement of its latest Halo project later today. There are plenty of journalists and content creators in Seattle at Halo Studios, so expect some big news during the 1PM PT \/ 4PM ET section<\/a> of the stream. It\u2019s also been more than a year since I exclusively revealed some form of Halo CE remaster was on the way<\/a> for PS5 and Xbox. Time flies.Did Microsoft just tease that the next Xbox is a PC and console? We already know that the next-gen Xbox console isn\u2019t locked to a single store, will use an AMD chip inside, and will maintain compatibility with an existing library of Xbox games. Now, Microsoft appears to be teasing that the next-gen Xbox will be some type of hybrid console and PC. Xbox president Sarah Bond dropped some vague hints<\/a> about Microsoft\u2019s next-gen Xbox console this week, telling Mashable that it\u2019s \u201cgoing to be a very premium, very high-end curated experience.\u201d It\u2019s also linked to Microsoft\u2019s Windows and Xbox work, as \u201cyou\u2019re starting to see some of the thinking we have in this handheld,\u201d according to Bond. I\u2019m more convinced than ever that Windows will form the foundation for the next-gen Xbox devices, but Microsoft will have to do a much better job than the Xbox Ally handhelds if it wants to convince Xbox owners to upgrade.Microsoft\u2019s lofty goals for Xbox profit are behind the price hikes and studio shutdowns. The news that Microsoft\u2019s Activision Blizzard acquisition has put huge pressure on Xbox to deliver improved profit margins won\u2019t come as a surprise for regular Notepad readers. I wrote earlier this month<\/a> that Microsoft is trying to find more ways to make money with Xbox, and it\u2019s hiking prices all over the place as a result. Now, Bloomberg reports that Microsoft CFO Amy Hood set across-the-board targets of 30 percent profit margins<\/a> in fall 2023. It\u2019s a staggering target that I didn\u2019t think was real when I first heard about it last year. While Microsoft wastes money trying to convince consumers to switch from ChatGPT to Copilot, the Xbox margins are putting real pressure on one of Microsoft\u2019s last successful consumer products.Meet Mico, Microsoft\u2019s AI version of Clippy. After testing a bouncing blob for its Copilot Voice mode in recent months, Microsoft is now rolling this character out as Mico today. It\u2019s a virtual character, much like Clippy<\/a>, that responds with real-time expressions when you talk to it. It\u2019s part of Microsoft\u2019s broader effort to get people talking to their PCs, tablets, and phones, and all designed to give Copilot an identity. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll be seeing plenty of Mico in ads for Copilot soon.Copilot is getting more personality with a \u2018real talk\u2019 mode and group chats. Mico isn\u2019t the only new addition to Copilot this week. Microsoft is also giving the AI assistant more personality<\/a> with a \u201creal talk\u201d mode, group chats, and better memory support. Copilot Groups is designed for groups of friends, classmates, and even teammates to use Copilot in a single session. \u201cReal talk\u201d reminds me of the early days of the sassy Sydney responses from the Bing chatbot that became Copilot, and the memory features now let you see what Copilot learns about you.OpenAI and Microsoft enter the AI browser wars. In the same week OpenAI launched its new ChatGPT Atlas browser, Microsoft officially launched its Copilot Mode in Edge<\/a>. Both of these browsers are based on Chromium, and they\u2019re both trying to do similar agentic things to get people hooked on relying on AI answers instead of navigating to Google or using Gemini. This feels like a real battleground over the future of the web, but I think both Microsoft and OpenAI have a long way to go to convince consumers to ditch Chrome.<\/p>\n The Microsoft news train hasn\u2019t stopped over the past week, but I\u2019m about to take some time off. Notepad will return in three weeks\u2019 time, just before Microsoft\u2019s big Ignite conference.<\/p>\n I\u2019m always keen to hear from readers, so please drop a comment here, or you can reach me at notepad@theverge.com<\/a> if you want to discuss anything else. If you\u2019ve heard about any of Microsoft\u2019s secret projects, you can reach me via email at notepad@theverge.com<\/a> or speak to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, where I\u2019m tomwarren.01<\/a>. 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