AI gadgets weren’t on my Build bingo card, but Microsoft had other plans. During the unveiling of “Project Solara,” a new platform for AI agents launched by Microsoft during its annual developer conference, the company also unveiled two new concept devices, and one of them is here to revolutionize the form factor we’ve all been eagerly anticipating the next generation of: the humble badge.
I know, I know… thank god, right? Old badges are so flat and small and screenless, which is fine, but so outdated, which is why Microsoft’s next-gen concept badge has loads of bells and whistles like a touchscreen, a fingerprint sensor, Wi-Fi, 5G connectivity, a microphone for voice inputs and recording, and—I’m not joking—a side-facing camera.
To demonstrate this last part, a Microsoft technical fellow Steven Bathiche gave a brief demo using a prototype on stage by uttering the phrase, “Copilot, find some good shots from this, clean them up, and then send them to me for me and my team to review.”
Here’s the concept in Microsoft’s words:
“We’ve reimagined a form factor that information workers, nurses, front-line workers, and millions of others use every day: the access badge. This on-the-go, lightweight, always connected companion empowers each person to do more by having their agents always by their side.”
While the badge has AI pendant vibes, like the kinds we’ve seen from companies like Plaud and Motorola, it’s geared more toward enterprise—think healthcare and retail. Beyond that, Microsoft seems to be treating the concept as a way to help insert its AI agents into real-life situations. Workers with a high-tech badge in their hands could be “using the integrated camera, the platform allows agents, with user permission, to better understand and help take action on the environment around them,” for example.
And it’s not all badges. Microsoft envisioned a separate concept device that sits on your desk that would serve similar purposes. In this device, there’s a touchscreen, a microphone, and even “ultra-wideband presence sensors” so the device knows when you’re nearby. Given the desktop nature, Microsoft pictures this concept as a “companion” to your PC that can pair with a machine via Bluetooth and let you “hand off tasks between the devices and keep lock state consistent.”
If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because AI gadgets/wearables like smart glasses have been positioned in a similar light. Amazon, for example, has hopes of harnessing the form factor for use in its own business, helping delivery workers and people in its factories to expedite order fulfillment. The big difference here is that smart glasses already kind of exist, though, which is more than I can say for AI badges.
But hey, every new form factor starts somewhere. Maybe this is the start of the badge era…
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