Microsoft rewrote the Copilot runtime in Rust with the help of AI agents

Microsoft has completed the migration of the Copilot runtime from C++ to the Rust language, using specialized AI agents for automation of the process. The project cost the company $120,000 and allowed for significant optimization of the performance of a critical system component.

The results of the implementation showed a 15.9-fold acceleration of the runtime and an 11-fold reduction in memory consumption. Despite the high degree of automation, engineers had to manually fix several dozen regressions that arose during the code translation process between programming languages.

The use of agents made it possible to reduce development time, which would have been required for manual rewriting of a codebase of this volume. This case demonstrates the effectiveness of applying autonomous systems for refactoring legacy code in large corporate projects.

This approach highlights the trend towards integrating AI tools into DevOps processes, where agents take on routine tasks for migrating and optimizing infrastructure software. Details of the discussion of technical aspects of the migration are available in the Hacker News community.