For a lot of small and medium-sized businesses, the computer systems they have relied on for years have started to change quickly, dramatically and not always to their benefit, with IT service providers working to ensure that their systems are still fit for purpose.
Part of this is the end of support for Windows 10, which has led to hundreds of millions of computers needing to quickly transition to Windows 11 to avoid potential security exploits, but another major issue is with the development focus of Windows 11 itself.
As Microsoft focuses more heavily on artificial intelligence systems such as Copilot, it has started to roll out what it described as “experimental agentic features” that allow these large language model-based AI systems to have increasing access to the inner workings of users’ computers.
This has created some controversy and a level of backlash that has bemused Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, according to an article by 80 Level, describing critics of the aggressive focus on AI as cynical.
However, to explain the concerns businesses have for these new developments, we first need to explain what Microsoft even means by an “agentic OS”.
What Is Agentic Software?
Agentic is a relatively recent term that Microsoft have used extensively, and it describes a program, application or operating system that relies heavily on software agents to complete tasks.
A simple example of this would be assigning an agent to schedule a meeting for you, instead of opening Outlook, creating a meeting, inviting everyone involved, checking to see which times are available and sending an invitation email.
Microsoft has a grand vision for the future of Windows where the entire operating system is used like this; rather than ever touching a keyboard or a mouse, you can simply tell your computer what to do during a day, which theoretically is more user-friendly, efficient and productive.
This all assumes the system works as intended, however.
Why Are IT Technicians Concerned?
Windows have been very aggressive with their AI push, and it has already proven to be a nightmare for businesses due to the “novel security risks” they present and the potential for serious errors that could cause extremely destructive behaviour from AI agents.
Microsoft, in an effort to allow AI agents to “see what you see”, are giving them increased powers to alter settings, read the contents of your screen, organise files and act on your behalf. This could be potentially catastrophic for data integrity and security.
In July, Forbes reported on a nightmare business scenario where an AI agent deleted a live company database, violating clear instructions not to do so without approval from a human, before lying that the data was unrecoverable.
A reporter for The Verge attempted to replicate the tasks easily undertaken by Copilot in a recent advertisement and found that it was cumbersome, slow and rarely accurate even when attempting the tasks it was advertised for.
Even Microsoft’s own marketing showed Copilot making mistakes, according to an article by Windows Central, as when asked to alter the text size, it chose the wrong option and then pretended that it had succeeded.
There are also concerns that cyber attacks could potentially inject prompts into an AI agent and cause it to breach security, instead of relying on social engineering or more sophisticated forms of hacking.
Beyond this, there are more mundane concerns that the push towards an “agentic” future that the present software is not capable of realising is detracting from serious user privacy issues, fixing existing security problems rather than adding new vectors for attack, and improving the user interface.
What Are Your Options As A Business?
Ideally, these features will be turned off by default, which means that you and your IT partners will need to do very little to keep your systems safe.
However, as was the case when Windows Recall was turned on by default, if these new Copilot features are turned on by default and are difficult to deactivate, it could require your technology partners to work with you to deactivate what is being marketed as a core feature.
Microsoft has been historically quite bad at this in the past, with both Windows Vista and Windows 8 being heavily criticised for forcing users to change their workflows to incorporate features that do not benefit them directly.
With sticking with Windows 10 no longer an option, an increasingly popular approach is to switch operating systems entirely to either macOS or Linux, as opposed to hoping for a significant update that reverses course.