Microsoft is pushing artificial intelligence into the Windows 11 development pipeline, and this change has even rewritten the designer's role. Diego Baka, Windows Vice President of Product Design, recently revealed in a discussion on the X platform that AI tools have significantly raised the design team's efficiency, and some designers now use AI to directly participate in code changes to improve the system's refinement, consistency, and overall experience. He said bluntly, "this is just the beginning of everything."
These remarks arose when marketing chief Yousef Mehdi showcased the new version of Windows Search, and LockerGnome founder Chris Pirillo took the opportunity to urge Microsoft to use its own massive AI computing power to accelerate interface unification. Baka responded that building an operating system for over 1 billion users is inherently complex, but he fully agrees with the direction of using AI agents to coordinate development tasks. However, he did not claim that AI is comprehensively redoing Windows 11, nor did he name which tools were used, which code was changed, or what proportion of the work AI handled—the more accurate signal is that the way of working has changed: designers no longer have to sit around waiting for engineers to translate mockups into code, but can implement part of it themselves.
Old interfaces' fragmentation is a stubborn ailment; WinUI 3 and AI patch the holes on two fronts
This approach is especially well-suited to Windows. Although WinUI rounded corners, dark mode, and modernized settings pages arrived long ago, the system still harbors a large number of legacy interfaces that have been in use for years or even decades: although the Settings app is new, clicking into advanced options often jumps back to the classic Control Panel or old-style property dialogs; right-clicking "Show more options" still reveals a Windows 10-style menu; and in the advanced settings for Bluetooth mice, the antiquated Mouse Properties window is still there. These are not just aesthetic issues—the operating logic, font spacing, and response behavior each tell their own story, and the accumulation noticeably drags down the experience.
Microsoft is pushing repairs on two fronts: on one hand, migrating more interfaces to the native framework WinUI 3, replacing web-style implementations that rely on Edge WebView2; on the other, using AI to chew through those repetitive small fixes that nonetheless require understanding existing code. The new Search has been rolling out to Insider users since October 7, supporting direct-execute natural language commands like "switch to dark mode"; the new "Run" dialog, rewritten with C#+WinUI 3+NET Native AOT, saw median display time cut from 103 milliseconds to 94 milliseconds; the Photos editor was built from scratch with WinUI 3, loading about 25% faster; and legacy components like Print Management, File Properties, and AutoPlay are also lined up for renovation one by one.
For context, Nadella has said that roughly 20% to 30% of Microsoft's code is generated by AI, and Distinguished Engineer David Fowler asserted in month 9 of last year that the era of hand-written code is drawing to a close. But Baka also cautioned that code still needs to be reviewed, tested, and maintained, and an operating system involves drivers, permissions, and security—even a seemingly simple interface change could affect things elsewhere. For enterprise customers, interface changes also mean the cost of retraining.
Baca emphasized that 10 hundred million users is not a scale to show off, but rather means that every change carries responsibility. Microsoft does not intend to overhaul the entire interface in one go, but instead relies on continuous updates to slowly bridge the fragmentation. AI can help teams modify code faster, but that does not automatically mean a better product — whether Windows can truly rebuild a unified design language will ultimately be answered by the actual quality of system updates.