Microsoft and Sharaf DG turned two Dubai malls into a hands-on classroom for AI, using a board-game-style activation called
Co-Blocks to demonstrate how
Microsoft Copilot+ features can be discovered through play, social sharing and everyday usefulness rather than product specs and slide decks.
Background
The Co-Blocks Innovation Showcase was staged at
City Centre Zahia and
City Centre Deira, pairing Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs with Sharaf DG’s retail footprint and a creative activation by Promocell. The exhibit split the experience into four themed zones —
Co-Create,
Live Captions,
Click-to-Do, and
Recall — each designed to demonstrate a distinct Copilot+ capability in a way that families, students and casual shoppers could immediately understand and enjoy.
This activation reflects two converging trends. First is Microsoft’s push to normalize
on-device AI with the Copilot+ PC platform — machines built around dedicated neural processing units (NPUs) that accelerate local AI features. Second is a regional marketing strategy that leverages the UAE’s mall culture as a social stage for product discovery: high footfall, cross-generational audiences, and built-in social-media momentum make malls a live laboratory for experiential tech demos.
What Copilot+ means in practice
Copilot+ is not a single app but a collection of Windows experiences enabled by hardware (NPUs) and new Windows features. The Copilot+ proposition centers on three practical promises:
- On-device AI performance enabled by NPUs rated at 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), designed to run low-latency tasks without always sending data to the cloud.
- An evolving set of AI experiences — Live Captions, Click-to-Do, Cocreator (in Paint), Recall and improved AI-powered search — that are being rolled out in waves across device families.
- Local security and privacy controls (encryption, Trusted Platform Module and virtualization enclaves) intended to keep sensitive data on the device while enabling powerful search and retrieval features.
In consumer-facing activations such as Co-Blocks, these capabilities are translated into small, repeatable tasks: children creating posters, students turning essays into titles, families testing translation by lip-syncing K-pop, and a timed “race to retrieve” recipes with Recall. The goal is immediate comprehension: an observable “wow” moment that bridges the abstract promise of AI with a clear, sharable outcome.
The Co-Blocks activation: design, flow and experience
Four zones, one simple premise
Co-Blocks used a giant game-board layout with short challenges at each stop. The structure is deliberately modular: each station demonstrates a single capability in under a minute, making participation low-friction and highly shareable.
- Co-Create: Children used Copilot+ PC tools to design eco-themed posters. This showcased generative or assistive creativity tools that help users turn brief prompts into finished visuals.
- Live Captions: Live translation of audio into captions was repurposed as a K-pop lip-sync challenge. The immediate value proposition — breaking language barriers for entertainment and discovery — comes through clearly in a noisy mall environment.
- Click-to-Do: Students watched essays or passages get distilled into catchier titles or next-step actions, demonstrating how an AI overlay can speed content editing and task creation.
- Recall: Families raced to retrieve previously shown content (for example, a quick “midnight mug cake” recipe), illustrating Recall’s promise: find things you remember seeing on your PC using natural descriptions.
Each zone was built to produce a social asset: a photoable poster, a short video of a translation trick, a before/after essay clip, or a triumphant Recall retrieval. That makes the activation inherently suited to TikTok and Instagram sharing, extending reach beyond the physical mall.
Creative execution and the role of Promocell
Promocell designed the flow and on-ground execution, focusing on play-based learning rather than formal demonstrations. Vanessa Crasta, Promocell’s General Manager, described the concept as “a celebration of how technology can be discovered — not through manuals or presentations, but through play, connection, and shared experiences.” The messaging and staging emphasized
discovery over
instruction, which aligns with how non-technical audiences prefer to encounter new tech.
Operationally, the activation leveraged simple mechanics (oversized dice, quick prompts, short timers) to maintain throughput and excitement, while trained staff guided participants and captured user-generated content that in turn fed social amplification.
Why the UAE malls are this campaign’s ideal stage
Malls in the UAE are not just retail venues; they are social hubs. The region’s high shopper density and family-centric footfall create an environment where experiential activations can scale quickly and produce measurable social buzz.
Key advantages of the mall format:
- Immediate access to mixed audiences (children, students, professionals, tourists).
- Natural context for family-friendly demonstrations — kids try, parents see practical value.
- Built-in opportunities for social content creation: walk-by audiences become repeat viewers and content creators.
- An owned retail environment (Sharaf DG) that enables product tie-ins and conversion paths: participants can immediately ask about Copilot+ PCs and view devices in situ.
For a product whose promise depends on daily use-cases — homework, recipe retrieval, content creation — the mall translates theoretical benefits into lived moments that are easy to remember and repeat.
Technology under the hood: how Copilot+ features map to the demo
NPUs and on-device AI
Copilot+ PCs ship with dedicated NPUs rated at
40+ TOPS, which are specialized processors for neural network inference. These NPUs are intended to reduce latency and reliance on cloud processing for many features. For consumers, that means:
- Faster response times for interactive features like Click-to-Do and Live Captions.
- Potential offline or limited-connectivity functionality for certain features (though some experiences still require cloud services for image generation or more complex models).
- Improved battery efficiency for AI workloads compared with running everything on CPU/GPU.
Recall: snapshots, timeline and storage
Recall is the most controversial feature because it records frequent, encrypted “snapshots” of screen content to enable later search. Important technical and policy details demonstrated in the activation and confirmed in vendor documentation:
- Local storage: Recall stores snapshots on the device, encrypted using Windows device encryption or BitLocker and protected by the device’s security stack.
- Access controls: Recall is gated behind Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (biometric or PIN) to ensure a proof-of-presence requirement before access.
- Retention and storage: Devices typically require a minimum of 256 GB of storage with a recommended free space threshold for Recall to operate; default allocations and retention windows are adjustable.
- Encrypted vector DB and secure enclave: Snapshot metadata and vector indexes are encrypted; keys are protected by the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and used inside a Virtualization-based Security (VBS) enclave, which is designed to make extraction by malware substantially harder.
These safeguards are real technical mitigations, but they do not fully eliminate the debate around the feature — which will be analyzed in the privacy section below.
Live Captions and translation
Live Captions provides real-time captioning and translation of audio into subtitles. In practice, this can:
- Translate media or conversations into on-screen text, making content accessible across languages.
- Support dozens of source languages translating into English and a smaller subset into simplified Chinese.
- Be used in video content, meetings, or consumer scenarios like the lip-sync challenges run at Co-Blocks.
The mall activation deliberately used a playful translation use-case (K-pop lip-syncing) to show how Live Captions reduces friction in cross-lingual media consumption.
Click-to-Do and Cocreator
- Click-to-Do (preview) is an overlay that recognizes text and images and suggests context-aware actions (summarize, edit, extract, search). It’s a productivity multiplier for tasks such as cleaning up student essays or extracting to-do items from notes.
- Cocreator in Paint demonstrates how text prompts can be turned into images, a consumer-friendly entry point to generative creativity.
Both features aim to convert mundane tasks into faster, more playful experiences — exactly the kind of tailorable demonstrations the Co-Blocks activation emphasized.
Privacy, security and the Recall debate
The core concerns
Recall’s value stems from its ability to surface
what you saw on your device. That design, however, raises legitimate privacy questions:
- Who can see the snapshots if a device is lost, shared, or hacked?
- Are sensitive windows (banking, medical records) inadvertently captured?
- Does default behavior respect user expectations, especially for children or shared family devices?
Microsoft’s mitigations and remaining gaps
Microsoft has layered technical protections — encryption, TPM, VBS enclave and Windows Hello gating — and provided user controls such as exclusion lists and adjustable retention. Those measures materially reduce many risks, especially around remote exfiltration.
However, the following gaps or user-experience risks remain relevant:
- Complexity of controls: Average users may not easily understand retention quotas, exclusion settings or how Recall interacts with other backup or cloud services.
- Shared-device scenarios: Family devices and education settings need clear policies; by default, the presence of Recall on a shared laptop can create confusion without administrative guardrails.
- Regulatory and enterprise governance: Organizations and schools require granular policy controls; while enterprise management features exist, small retailers and households may not have the administrative tools or knowledge to configure them safely.
Practical guidance for consumers encountering Recall in a demo
- Treat the mall demo as a functional preview: it showcases capability but not necessarily the default privacy posture on your personal device.
- Ask staff how to exclude apps, pause snapshotting, or fully turn off Recall on installation.
- Prefer devices with clear hardware security features (TPM, BitLocker) and ensure Windows updates are applied before enabling sensitive features.
Activations like Co-Blocks are valuable precisely because they expose these features to lay audiences; they also serve as an opportune time for vendors to surface clear, plain-language privacy information at the point of engagement.
Marketing and business analysis: why this activation matters
For Microsoft
- The activation helps move Copilot+ from technical buzzword to relatable use-case. Demonstrations that focus on content kids create, captions for entertainment, and quicker homework workflows target the everyday scenarios that influence purchase decisions.
- Doing this in partnership with a prominent regional retailer accelerates conversion: participants can ask where to buy, see devices physically, and be directed to in-store promotions or follow-up offers.
For Sharaf DG
- The activation drives footfall into stores and increases dwell time, a key retail metric.
- Sharaf DG’s hosting of device demos in high-traffic locations positions it as more than a point-of-sale — it becomes an educational touchpoint for customers considering PC upgrades.
- The activation boosts Sharaf DG’s brand equity among younger shoppers and parents seeking practical tech for school or family use.
For Promocell and experiential agencies
- Co-Blocks is a repeatable template: modular game boards, short tasks, social-first outcomes. It demonstrates how creative agencies can operationalize complex product narratives into approachable experiences.
- The format is scalable across seasons (back-to-school, holidays) and adaptable to other product families beyond PCs.
Measurable signals and campaign KPIs
Reported outcomes were largely qualitative — queues, social posts, reels and family engagement. For rigor, future activations should bake in measurable KPIs:
- In-store conversion rate (participant → device inquiry → purchase).
- Social amplification metrics (unique creators, hashtag reach, average view counts).
- Dwell time per station and repeat participation rate.
- Post-activation device trials or sign-ups for demos.
These metrics convert feel-good anecdotes (crowd favourite, hundreds of posts) into hard business outcomes that justify repeat investment.
Consumer advice: buying and using Copilot+ PCs after a demo
If the Co-Blocks activation convinced a shopper to consider a Copilot+ PC, practical purchase guidance helps translate excitement into a responsible decision.
Key checklist items:
- Hardware: Look for PCs advertising Copilot+ compatibility and a clear NPU spec (40+ TOPS where listed). Ensure the device has sufficient base storage — vendors often recommend 256 GB or more for Recall functionality.
- Security: Verify the device supports Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security, has TPM and supports BitLocker or Windows device encryption.
- OS and update policy: Copilot+ features are delivered through Windows updates; confirm the device ships with an up-to-date Windows 11 build and that the manufacturer supports timely firmware and driver updates.
- Feature requirements: Some Copilot+ experiences still require a Microsoft account or an Internet connection (for image generation and some cloud-delivered tools). Check whether the capabilities of interest are available offline or require cloud services.
- Privacy controls: Before enabling Recall or related snapshot features, configure exclusions for sensitive apps and verify retention quotas.
This practical approach helps families and students get value from Copilot+ features without exposing themselves to surprises.
Lessons for future brand activations
The Co-Blocks model provides a template for immersive tech marketing. Key takeaways for any brand planning similar activations:
- Focus on a few high-impact features and package each as a single, repeatable micro-experience.
- Design for social sharing: choose tasks that produce short, camera-friendly outcomes.
- Make privacy transparent: include plain-language signage explaining what is recorded, how long it’s stored and how to opt out.
- Train staff to explain technical trade-offs without jargon; empower them to assist with on-the-spot settings adjustments.
- Use data to justify the experience: capture conversion metrics, social amplification, and qualitative feedback to iterate creative elements.
Following these principles ensures an activation that is fun, informative and measurably tied to business goals.
Strengths and risks — a balanced assessment
Notable strengths
- Human-first translation of technology: The activation frames AI as a tool for everyday acts (homework, entertainment, cooking), which helps demystify advanced features for non-technical audiences.
- High-shareability: Each station produces short-form content suited to TikTok and Instagram, extending reach organically.
- Retail-to-experience pipeline: By staging the showcase in Sharaf DG locations, the campaign shortens the path from discovery to purchase.
- Technical plausibility: Copilot+ features demonstrably leverage on-device NPUs and layered encryption, which are meaningful technical differentiators compared with older devices.
Potential risks and limitations
- Privacy perception versus technical reality: Even with strong encryption and gating, Recall remains a hot-button capability because it captures the screen. Public demos reduce fear through exposure, but broad adoption requires clearer, simpler user controls and education.
- Over-promising feature availability: Some Copilot+ experiences roll out in waves and can be device- or region-limited. Consumers might expect every UI trick on every PC immediately, which is not the case.
- Measurement shortfalls: Reporting “hundreds of posts” or “crowd favourite” is useful for PR, but without conversion metrics the long-term ROI is unclear.
- Usability for diverse audiences: While gamified demos work well for short interactions, serious purchasers often want deeper hands-on time to assess keyboard quality, thermal behavior and real-world battery life — elements not well served by minute-long game stops.
Final analysis and outlook
Co-Blocks is a textbook example of how experiential marketing can accelerate technology comprehension and consideration. By translating
Copilot+ features into playful micro-experiences, the activation made advanced AI features tangible and socially resonant for families and students — exactly the demographics likely to influence household PC upgrades.
On the technology side, Copilot+ represents a meaningful step toward mainstreaming on-device AI. NPUs, encrypted local indexing and gated access mechanisms give users powerful tools while aiming to contain privacy risk. However, the success of those protections depends on clear communication and accessible controls; features that store snapshots will succeed only when users understand and trust the defaults and governance options.
For retailers and brands, the Co-Blocks formula scales: identify simple, high-value use cases, package them for rapid participation and design for social shareability. For consumers, the takeaway is pragmatic: demos are a great way to feel the promise of AI, but buying decisions should be guided by hardware specs, storage capacity, security support and an understanding of which features require cloud services or account sign-ins.
If the goal is to make AI familiar rather than fearful, activations like Co-Blocks are a sound play. They convert buzzwords into minor triumphs — a translated lyric, a neat poster, a recovered recipe — and those tiny victories are what ultimately tip household tech decisions.
Source: Campaign Middle East
Sharaf DG showcases Microsoft Copilot+ with mall activation - Campaign Middle East