Marcus Ash, Microsoft's head of Windows design, revealed the details behind the creation of the native speed test tool in Win11 26H2: a long-awaited feature was initially designed and developed by a single employee in their spare time, with the help of an AI agent. Earlier, Microsoft partnered with Ookla to release an early version, which was essentially just a wrapper around a Bing webpage; only last month did a truly native tool that fits the Windows style officially launch.
Humans set the direction, AI does the legwork: a prototype in one day of spare time
According to Ash, the project started with user feedback: "I don't want to leave the OS just to test my internet speed." After the design team evaluated it, Vice President of Design Diego Bacca produced a working prototype in a single day, which was then integrated into Windows. The entire process was driven by AI agents, with just one person guiding it in their spare time—Ash stressed that this was by no means a matter of letting AI spit out code and then tossing it to users. Instead, humans set the direction while AI handled execution and iteration, ultimately delivering a complete product that conforms to Windows guidelines and visually aligns with the Shell.
Reject "AI junk" and turn concepts into value fast
Ash sees the combination of humans and WinUI 3 as one of the most promising directions: the core is to help Microsoft move concepts as quickly as possible into products that deliver value, rather than producing so-called "AI junk." This is not the first time Microsoft has shown this playbook; it has previously demonstrated multiple times how AI agents can be used in internal tool development, including prototyping, automated UI adaptation, and code review. This public disclosure sends a signal: Microsoft is seriously betting on AI-assisted development, but the bottom line is producing things that are truly useful, not cramming in features.
