A new Microsoft marketing campaign pitches 2026 as "the moment for AI PCs" and prominently features Recall as a key selling point. This comes just 18 days after Windows Central reported that Microsoft internally considers Recall a failure and is exploring reworking or renaming the feature.
Campaign message: "Recall: Search your digital memory by describing how you remember something"
Context: Internal failure assessment reported February 2 by Windows Central
Also notable: Recall has been absent from Windows release notes recently; Click to Do receives updates, but Recall itself is rarely mentioned
Enterprise angle: The marketing focuses entirely on consumer use cases with no mention of Purview integration
The contradiction is striking. Internally, sources describe Recall as having failed, with the possibility of dropping the name entirely. Externally, the marketing machine continues to position it as a flagship Copilot+ PC feature. Windows Latest notes that Microsoft has been quietly adding features to Click to Do (Recall's companion feature) while avoiding direct references to Recall in release notes. The campaign suggests that Recall's marketing and product teams may not be aligned, or that Microsoft has decided to maintain the public narrative while reworking the feature behind the scenes. Either way, European organisations should treat Recall's current status and roadmap as uncertain.
Sources: Windows Latest · Windows Central