Microsoft’s aggressive integration of Copilot raises antitrust concerns as the looming end of Windows 10 support necessitates hardware upgrades, fueling customer dissatisfaction.
While the tech sector consistently champions innovation, Microsoft’s latest advancements in new technology could come at a significant cost. The company’s assertive efforts to embed its AI assistant, Copilot, across Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 have created divisions among users and attracted serious regulatory scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently investigating whether Microsoft’s tactics in the fiercely competitive AI landscape, along with its cloud and software bundling strategies, violate antitrust laws by demonstrating monopolistic behavior. The central concern revolves around the deep integration of AI features into its primary products, often without explicit or enthusiastic user consent.
Microsoft has positioned Copilot as the next big leap in productivity, promising to seamlessly enhance workflows throughout Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365). However, this forward-looking strategy carries a less publicized downside: the imposition of AI on users who may not desire it, or who harbor skepticism regarding its practicality, privacy implications, and system resource demands.
A growing number of user complaints has surfaced across technical forums and customer feedback channels. Users report that Copilot is far from an optional add-on; it’s an intrinsic component of both the operating system and the Office suite, making it challenging, if not impossible, for typical users to disable or simply ignore. This perceived compulsion is further exacerbated by reports indicating that Microsoft has been tallying AI-enabled licenses—rather than actual user engagement—in its quarterly sales figures, thereby strengthening the incentive to push Copilot onto its vast customer base.
Beyond the issue of choice, many enterprise clients and individual consumers have expressed frustration that AI rollouts are seemingly prioritized over crucial security and performance updates, even as doubts persist about AI’s actual productivity advantages. The prevailing sentiment is that Microsoft is transforming essential productivity and operating system software into a vehicle for achieving AI market dominance, rather than allowing its user base to adopt AI at their own pace.
The Windows 10 exodus
Microsoft’s intense focus on AI coincides with the planned end-of-life for Windows 10. Support for this widely used operating system—still active on hundreds of millions of computers—has ceased, prompting a swift transition to Windows 11. However, as many users have discovered, Windows 11 isn’t universally compatible with existing machines. Unlike previous upgrades that could run on older hardware, Windows 11’s specific requirements, such as TPM 2.0 and more recent CPU generations, have rendered a significant number of otherwise functional PCs obsolete. For many users, gaining access to Copilot and ongoing security updates isn’t just a software matter. The primary path to Windows 11 often involves purchasing an entirely new PC. This financial burden on consumers, businesses, and educational institutions frequently comes with little perceived benefit beyond the Copilot-enhanced experience Microsoft is promoting. This situation stands as a clear example of a forced upgrade.
A deeper concern surrounds Microsoft’s overarching strategy, which appears to extend beyond mere technological advancement to cultivating a captive upgrade market. Questions are already being raised within the industry: Are these compelled hardware upgrades genuinely about improving the user experience, or are they a calculated tactic to boost revenue through software sales, OEM partnerships, and new hardware purchases?
FTC’s expanding antitrust probe
Into this dynamic environment steps the FTC, which has significantly escalated its antitrust examination of Microsoft’s business practices in recent months. The FTC has engaged in interviews with Microsoft’s competitors, compiled evidence, and issued civil investigative demands that delve into the company’s core AI operations, software licensing agreements, cloud service integrations, and even its strategic investments in AI partners like OpenAI. The central issue, according to various sources and public disclosures, is whether Microsoft is unlawfully tying its various products and services together in ways that stifle fair competition. The agency is investigating allegations that Microsoft bundles productivity tools such as the Office 365 suite to bolster its Azure cloud business, imposes punitive exit fees on customers attempting to switch providers, and intentionally creates compatibility barriers that prevent its software—including AI-powered features—from operating seamlessly on rival cloud services.
This isn’t Microsoft’s initial encounter with antitrust regulators. However, what sets 2026 apart is the added layer of complexity introduced by AI. The FTC is particularly interested in whether Microsoft’s integration of Copilot into its foundational products constitutes a novel form of digital tying, subtly or overtly compelling customers to adopt Microsoft’s AI, thereby solidifying its market share and data dominance, and erecting new obstacles for competing AI solutions.
Consent, competition, and regulation
For Microsoft, the implications are substantial. On one hand, the company aspires to be a leader in AI by innovating new capabilities and streamlining repetitive tasks for users. On the other hand, there’s a growing perception—one not entirely unfounded—that Microsoft is leveraging its dominant position in operating systems and productivity software to push Copilot onto its user base. From an antitrust perspective, user consent is paramount. When users feel compelled to upgrade their software and hardware primarily to access features they may not value—or even actively dislike—regulators take serious notice. The FTC’s ongoing investigation indicates that the era of quietly exploiting ecosystem dominance to conquer new markets is fading, especially as businesses and public institutions grow increasingly wary of becoming collateral damage in Big Tech’s struggle for AI supremacy.
Microsoft’s defense thus far centers on the argument that integration is about product enhancement, not consolidating power. It attributes incompatibilities to technical necessities and asserts that AI-powered features demand tight integration for optimal security and performance. Nevertheless, as the investigation progresses, it’s becoming clearer that the company’s AI-first approach has exposed it to regulatory, reputational, and commercial risks that could significantly alter the course of its AI ambitions.
By positioning Copilot as an inseparable element of Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, Microsoft aimed to dictate the future direction of the market. However, consumer resistance, stringent hardware prerequisites, and intensifying government oversight suggest that the company may have overplayed its hand. Whether the FTC ultimately determines these practices constitute antitrust violations remains to be seen, but for now, Microsoft is discovering firsthand that the journey to AI leadership can be fraught with challenges, particularly when the very customers and regulators who helped forge its empire might ultimately determine its fate.
