AI is part of the future. Fine. Nobody serious disputes that.
What’s disputed is Microsoft forcing AI into Windows 11 then acting surprised when people start gagging. This is Windows 8 energy. Big confidence, thin empathy, and a boardroom that thinks “users” are a statistical rounding error.
Microsoft is doing it because the CEO has a hard-on for AI, the exec layer is eager to please, and the market currently rewards anyone who says “Copilot” with enough conviction. Normal customers did not ask for this.
Corporate culture is a giant echo chamber with catering.
Most meetings are not truth seeking missions. They’re obedience rituals. Nobody gets promoted for being right, they get promoted for being agreeable, for sounding aligned, for making the room feel safe, for not forcing the boss to experience a single unpleasant emotion.
I learned this the fun way at a major airline. A colleague and I ran an experiment because we suspected what everyone suspects but rarely admits. Corporate language spreads like a virus, not because it’s accurate, because it signals membership.
So we started slipping one word into our updates whenever we talked about forecasts. Not because it mattered. Not because it improved anything. Just to see if it would spread.
The word was forensic.
“We’re forensic on the projection.”
“We’re forensically confident.”
“We’ve taken a forensic view.”
Within less than a week, forensic started popping up everywhere. In meetings that had nothing to do with forecasting. In operational updates. In commercial calls. In random status sessions where the only thing being forecast was the time until lunch.
People who couldn’t define the word were wearing it like a designer jacket. It wasn’t thinking. It was mimicry.
That’s what happens when the boardroom is populated by corporate bobbleheads, heads nodding on springs, desperate to please the CEO like a young labrador bringing the ball back. No friction. No adult in the room asking “what problem are we solving, what happens when it fails, and who pays for the failure”.
Now swap forensic for “AI first”, “agents”, “Copilot everywhere”, “platform shift”. Vocabulary arrives first. Thinking arrives later. Sometimes it never arrives at all.
This is not end user demand, it’s executive panic dressed as strategy
People use AI tools. They like them as tools. Deloitte’s 2025 survey says 53% of surveyed consumers are experimenting with or using gen AI regularly, up from 38% in 2024.
That does not mean people want AI embedded into their operating system by default, squatting in the background like a new landlord.
Microsoft has mistaken “people use ChatGPT and Gemini sometimes” for “people want Windows to become an AI product first and a reliable computer second”. That’s wide of the mark. It’s also the kind of mistake you make when you’re acutely aware you are not leading the LLM game and you want to be seen at the tip of whatever comes next.
So Microsoft goes for the platform layer. The place you cannot escape.
On new Windows 11 PCs, Microsoft’s own support pages say the Copilot app should already be installed by default.
That is not “demand”. That’s distribution.
The market is huffing its own exhaust
This is the part nobody says out loud.
A lot of AI pushing is not about user joy. It’s about staying in the hype lane because the market punishes anyone who looks hesitant. When the story is “AI changes everything”, every executive wants to be filmed holding the steering wheel.
The result is predictable. AI gets shoved into places it doesn’t belong, then the company waits to see how hard the backlash hits.
You can see the same disease spreading outside PCs too. LG smart TV owners recently found a Copilot shortcut pinned onto the home screen via an update, with users reporting they could not remove it, triggering backlash. LG has since said it will allow deletion of the icon.
Nobody bought a TV and thought “please add a Microsoft assistant I didn’t ask for”. That’s the point. This is the industry testing how far it can push.
One genuine win for AI
AI is genuinely useful when it stays in its lane.
A lot of people use it to write, summarise, research, troubleshoot, and cut down boring admin. Deloitte reports that 42% of regular gen AI users say it has a very positive effect on their lives.
That’s the healthy version. You opt in, you get value, you move on.
The unhealthy version is “AI everywhere”, driven by an echo chamber, shipped by default, and justified with vague promises about the future.
But you’ve got options. None of them are perfect. Pick your pain deliberately.
1) If it’s opt in, treat it like a feature, not a destiny
If you can select it, fine. If you can deselect it, even better. Demand default off, clear settings, easy removal. Microsoft says Recall requires opt in per user, and can be removed via Windows features.
2) If you want the cleanest exit, go Apple, used if needed
You do not need a shiny status symbol. You need a machine that isn’t being turned into a compulsory AI demo. A used MacBook or a Mac mini is often the cheapest way to stop being Microsoft’s experiment.
This is also, hilariously, the biggest gift Tim Cook could ask for. He can stand there doing nothing in particular while Microsoft shows us all how fast it can parkour into a wall.
3) Linux is real, and it will charge you in hours
If you’re happy burning time getting apps and workflows behaving, Linux can be brilliant. If you are not that person, stay clear as your monitor might end up meeting your knuckles.
4) Staying on older Windows is a gamble
Stick with Windows 10 if you want. Just don’t pretend it’s risk free. Running older software longer than intended can end in you getting hit by the first exploit that finds your IP address.
The point
Microsoft is force feeding AI into Windows because it believes “AI first” is the golden ticket and because everyone around the CEO is incentivised to nod like a dashboard ornament.
The market will eventually correct the fantasy. Users will correct the arrogance sooner.
If Microsoft wants AI everywhere, it can earn it. Default off. Real choice. Real removal. No tricks.
Until then, watching this unfold is like watching someone paid millions to juggle decide to try it with chainsaws. You don’t stop them. You just step back and let gravity do the teaching.
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