Microsoft announces a new era of AI-controlled devices

Microsoft, the company known for its operating system and apps, has hinted at a new wave of gadgets that will use AI agents instead of traditional apps designed to handle specific tasks in healthcare and retail.

At Microsoft’s annual software developers conference in San Francisco, Microsoft executives unveiled Project Solara, a family of prototypes that includes devices the size of a smart speaker or key card brand and based on chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek.

The devices have screens and microphones, but instead of running an operating system and apps like a…