Microsoft announces Build 2023 will run from May 23 to May 25 digitally and in person from Seattle, with updates on Windows 11, Bing, AI, and more expected
Emma Roth / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
Build's format has been in flux since the pandemic: the online-only 2021 edition kept the conference fully digital, and 2023 marks the return to a hybrid Seattle-plus-digital setup. The venue itself is continuity — Microsoft has anchored Build in Seattle at least since the 2017 edition.
What changes is the agenda. Where the 2018 preview centered on Windows ML, Mixed Reality, and Azure, the 2023 announcement puts Windows 11, Bing, and AI at the top — a framing that held in later years, with Build 2024 promising 'AI, Copilots, and more' ([[a:849417]]) and Build 2025 built around AI, Copilot, and Surface ([[a:882122]]).
First-order effects
- Developers can now plan for a hybrid Build: attend in Seattle from May 23–25 or stream it, with Microsoft signaling Bing and AI sessions as headline content rather than side topics.
Second-order effects
- Putting Bing alongside Windows 11 in the announcement sets up Build as the venue where Microsoft's search-and-AI push gets developer-facing detail, pressuring the rest of its May conference season lineup to match that emphasis.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — Seattle hybrid format plus an AI-first agenda, as repeated in the 2024 and 2025 announcements — Build settles into its post-pandemic role as Microsoft's annual AI platform showcase rather than a Windows-version event.
The trend: Microsoft's developer conference is consolidating around a fixed Seattle hybrid format with AI and Copilot as its recurring centerpiece.