The comments came from Diego Baca, Microsoft's Vice President of Product Design, during an exchange on X with Lockergnome founder Chris Pirillo, as reported by Windows Latest. Baca said AI has already helped the design team "accelerate significantly." He added: "We're even seeing designers contribute directly to code fixes that improve craft, consistency, and quality." He ended with a line that will cheer some people and worry others: "we're only getting started."
Before anyone pictures a swarm of AI agents rebuilding the shell overnight, here's what he didn't say.
What Baca actually said, and what he didn't
According to Windows Latest, the exchange started when Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's consumer marketing chief, posted a video of the new Windows Search, which he said lets you take "thousands of quick actions" from the taskbar. Pirillo quoted the post and said he hoped it would replace the "dated" Start menu. Baca replied that designing an OS for more than a billion people is hard because everyone has different preferences and workflows.
Pirillo then pressed harder. Microsoft has practically unlimited AI tokens, he argued, and running a fleet of agents should be "child's play" for its engineers. Baca agreed "100%" and gave the quote above.
Windows Latest's own reporting sets out the limits of the claim:
- No tools named. Baca didn't say which AI models or coding assistants designers use.
- No fixes listed. He didn't point to a single dialog, control or commit.
- No numbers. He gave no share of code written by AI, unlike Satya Nadella's widely quoted 20 to 30 percent figure.
- No timeline. Baca called consistency "an active workstream we're continuing to accelerate" but gave no date.
Microsoft has not published any documentation backing up the remark, so for now it's a statement from an executive on social media, as reported by Windows Latest. It is not a product announcement.
Section summary: A senior Microsoft design leader says AI is shortening the path from design to code. Microsoft hasn't said which tools, which fixes, how much code or by when.
The modernization work you can actually check
Baca's comments come while Microsoft is visibly rebuilding parts of Windows 11 in native frameworks. Microsoft does not credit AI with building any of the projects below. They are separate work, and that difference matters.
WinUI 3 Windows Search (Experimental channel)
On October 7, 2026, Microsoft began a gradual rollout of a new taskbar Windows Search built on WinUI 3 to Insiders in the Experimental channel. As 4sysops summarized, Windows Search has been rebuilt on WinUI 3 and adds inline actions so you can change system settings straight from the search box. Taskbar search now runs on WinUI 3, Microsoft's native UI stack for Windows desktop apps in the Windows App SDK. Windows Latest notes that the current Search flyout runs on Edge WebView2, which is essentially web code inside a Windows panel.
Here's what Microsoft's Windows Insider Blog says changed:
- One results list. The old design split things into a results list on the left and a fat preview pane on the right. Microsoft's own data showed that nearly every click came from the left side, so it collapsed everything into one single view.
- Inline actions. You can type "switch to dark mode," "turn on night light," "turn on Bluetooth," "dim my screen," "mute," "minimize all my windows" or "arrange windows on screen." Microsoft says Phone Link actions are coming soon. They aren't available yet.
- Better matching. Microsoft says Search now handles typos and synonyms better and will keep tuning this over the coming weeks.
- Performance. Microsoft says early testing shows "substantial" gains in speed and memory use. It published no numbers, and 4sysops noted the feature is English-only, taskbar-only for now, and backed by performance talk without published benchmarks.
How Insiders can turn it on now (per Microsoft's instructions):
- Install build 26340.9616 (Experimental, 26H2) or build 28120.3181 (Experimental, 26H1).
- Go to Settings > Windows Update and select Check for updates.
- Restart the PC. The flag won't show up until you do.
- Go to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program > Feature flags and turn on New Windows Search Experience.
- Test it from the taskbar search box. Search from the Start menu still uses the old experience for now.
If the flag doesn't appear: confirm you're on one of the two builds, check that you restarted after updating, and remember that English is the only supported language at first. Microsoft uses Controlled Feature Rollout, so having the right build doesn't guarantee the feature. Pureinfotech notes that the unofficial ViVeTool route comes with the same caveat: enabling the feature IDs does not guarantee that the interface will appear. Send feedback through Feedback Hub (Win+F) under Desktop Environment > Search.
When it ships: Windows Latest says the new Search will reach all PCs later this year. Microsoft's own wording is more cautious. Its blog lists inline previews, richer file details, rich web answers and filters as coming "later this year." Bringing the new Search to the Start menu and adapting it to different taskbar positions is planned for next year. The Microsoft Learn release notes for build 26340.9616 also carry the usual warning that Insider features may change, be removed, or never ship beyond preview. A target is not a promise.
There's more in the same build that IT admins should know about. Build 26340.9616 enables IAKerb by default on Windows clients. IAKerb extends Kerberos when the client cannot reach a domain controller directly—firewall rules are a common reason. As 4sysops advises, validate apps that depended on that fallback.
Photos: a native Editor and Viewer
Microsoft's Windows Experience Blog announced on October 15 that new Photos experiences are rolling out to Insiders, with wider availability to Windows 11 users planned for later this year. The Editor was rebuilt with WinUI 3. Microsoft says it launches 25% faster than Photos version 2026.11060. The redesigned Viewer starts 15% faster on average and up to 30% faster with HEIC images. These are Microsoft's own measurements from controlled tests on x64 and ARM64 Windows 11 devices, and the company says real results vary.
The new Editor also supports HDR editing and saves HEIC and WebP files in their original format. Its tools are grouped into Crop, Enhance, Repair and Stylize. Repair includes AI-powered object removal, but that's an AI feature for users and has nothing to do with Baca's point about AI helping designers write code.
Other native rebuilds, as reported by Windows Latest
Windows Latest also lists these changes. We could not confirm them in a primary source:
- A modern Run dialog, written in C#/WinUI 3 and compiled with .NET Native AOT. Microsoft measured a median time-to-show of 94 ms, compared with 103 ms for the old version. It's an opt-in toggle under Settings > System > Advanced on Insider builds.
- A rebuilt Properties dialog, and a new Print Management app that no longer runs inside the old Microsoft Management Console. AutoPlay is reportedly next.
- March Rogers, Microsoft's Partner Director of Design, reportedly said the team is "working through our list of all older dialogs." The file copy dialog is done, and voice packages and Reset this PC are on the list.
Section summary: Microsoft really is moving visible parts of Windows to WinUI 3. But it hasn't said AI built any of them, and most of this work is still gradual Insider previews.
Pirillo's critique and Microsoft's reply
Pirillo told Baca he no longer uses Windows as his main system because he "can't stomach the inconsistencies." He traces the split back to the XP and Vista years. He called it "death by a thousand cuts" and said it's a matter of taste, not preference.
Windows Latest's writer gave two examples from a Windows 11 26H2 machine. Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mouse > Additional mouse settings still opens the old Mouse Properties dialog with no dark mode. And right-clicking a file still offers "Show more options," which opens the Windows 10-era context menu. The writer also found that File Explorer's WinUI-based Home tab loads noticeably slower than This PC, a useful reminder that going native doesn't automatically make things fast. These are one reviewer's observations, not measurements across many systems.
Baca pushed back. He said Microsoft is focusing on "specific customer cohorts" with customization and choice, and he admitted "it's a big ship." He asked Pirillo not to confuse the difficulty of the job with a lack of taste or direction. On the billion-user remark, he said it was about responsibility, not bragging: changes at that scale can be disruptive even when they're improvements.
He has a point. Windows Latest cites Raymond Chen's 2003 explanation that large companies dislike UI changes because retraining costs them millions. Anyone who has rolled out a Windows feature update to thousands of desks knows a moved button means help desk tickets. Still, compatibility explains why old code survives. It doesn't explain why the old dialogs still look out of place.
Analysis: can AI really clear the backlog?
This section is my own assessment, based on general industry experience rather than anything Microsoft has disclosed.
The idea of designers writing code is reasonable. Fixes for spacing, padding, control styles and dark mode often stall while a designer waits for an engineer's time. If AI lets a designer write the change directly, much of that wait disappears. The changes are small and visible, and they're exactly what a broader engineering roadmap tends to push aside.
There are limits, though:
- Review doesn't go away. Windows Latest quotes Microsoft Distinguished Engineer David Fowler saying "typing code is absolutely over." Someone still has to review, test and support every change across a huge range of hardware, accessibility settings, languages and enterprise policies.
- Consistency is mostly a policy problem. AI can write a fix, but deciding which old dialog gets rebuilt, and whether it's replaced or just restyled, is a planning call.
- Native doesn't always mean faster. The Run dialog's 94 ms result looks good. The File Explorer Home tab example cuts the other way.
So is this a real change in how Windows gets built, or a neat line in a social media argument? The honest answer is that we can't tell yet. What would settle it is a steady flow of fixed dialogs in the Insider release notes. You can follow those changes build by build in our Windows Insider and Windows 11 update threads.
Key takeaways
- The news: Microsoft design VP Diego Baca says AI is helping Windows designers contribute code fixes directly. It's reported by Windows Latest, with no tools, examples, numbers or timeline.
- Documented work: WinUI 3 Windows Search with inline actions is in the Experimental channel on builds 26340.9616 and 28120.3181. It's English-only, taskbar-only and rolling out gradually.
- Photos: The WinUI 3 Editor launches 25% faster and the Viewer up to 30% faster with HEIC, according to Microsoft's own tests. It's rolling out to Insiders, with wider release planned later this year.
- For admins: The same Experimental build turns IAKerb on by default, so check any apps that relied on falling back to NTLM.
- The catch: None of these features is guaranteed to ship. Microsoft doesn't credit AI with building any of them.
Baca says he wants Microsoft to "earn back your enthusiasm for Windows through what we deliver, not just what we say." Pirillo says he's "cautiously optimistic." That seems like the right stance for the rest of us too.