It’s not just a question of choice, either. Many enterprise customers and individual users have voiced frustration with AI rollouts being prioritized over security and performance updates, even as some remain skeptical about AI’s productivity benefits. The perception is that Microsoft is turning a must-have productivity and operating system suite into a vehicle for AI market dominance rather than letting its customer base adopt AI at its own pace.
The Windows 10 exodus
Microsoft’s infatuation with AI coincides with the strategic end of life for Windows 10. Support for the popular operating system (still used on hundreds of millions of PCs) has been discontinued, hastening a mass migration to Windows 11. And Windows 11, as most customers have discovered, is not compatible with everyone’s machine. Unlike earlier upgrades that could run on older hardware, Windows 11’s requirements, such as TPM 2.0 and recent-generation CPUs, have left a vast number of otherwise functional PCs stranded.
For many customers, the price of admission to Copilot and continued security updates isn’t just about software. The only way for them to qualify for Windows 11 is often to buy a new PC. This adds expense for consumers, businesses, and schools, sometimes with little perceived benefit beyond the Copilot-infused experience Microsoft is selling. If ever there were an example of a forced upgrade, this is it.
