Microsoft gives clues on how to further integrate artificial intelligence features into the Windows 11 operating system. The software giant started testing the “new experience” that Copilot will offer on Windows this week. The experience includes an animated Copilot button on the taskbar that pops up when you copy text or images.
According to Microsoft’s statement, “The Copilot icon will change its appearance and move to show that Copilot can help.” When you hover the mouse cursor over the Copilot icon, it will provide a menu of actions you can take, such as summarizing or annotating the copied text.
It is stated that this experience works well in the latest Windows 11 Canary builds and summarizes everything you copy. The icon also animates when you copy images, but this feature is not yet testable. Also soon, you’ll be able to simply drag and drop an image onto the Copilot taskbar icon. Copilot will then be able to tell you what is in the image. In the future, it can also help you edit images.
Artificial intelligence integration is coming to Copilot and Notepad applications
Alongside the Copilot changes, Microsoft confirmed that the Notepad app will also soon receive Copilot AI integration. By selecting the text and right-clicking, you will be able to select the “Annotate with Copilot” option. It will be able to decode text, code snippets or log files.
In recent months, Microsoft has started adding more and more AI features to Windows 11, including the main Copilot. This is all part of Microsoft’s efforts to position Copilot as the big AI brand and prepare for a major feature update for Windows. Microsoft aims to make 2024 “the year of artificial intelligence PCs” and has already started adding a special Copilot key to keyboards.
Intel, Qualcomm and others have talked about a Windows “refresh” focused on artificial intelligence for 2024, but Microsoft has yet to officially confirm its plans. “What’s unique about Copilot within Windows is that it can be aware of the context you’re in,” said Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi. said. “It can understand pages, so it can do richer things.”
We’re seeing Microsoft start to become more context-aware of Copilot in its latest Windows 11 test builds, and the company is also poised to take advantage of NPU hardware that recently started shipping in Windows laptops.
Windows 12 was rumored to be Microsoft’s big AI push, but it now looks like that push will be part of a Windows 11 update coming in the second half of the year. Microsoft refers to this update as “24H2”. Major feature updates, which are usually released in the second half of each year, carry the “H2” tag. We’ll be hearing a lot more about Microsoft’s AI plans for Windows in the coming months, as the company continues to test how it’s redesigning Windows for the “year of the AI PC.”