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Microsoft offers a bunch of useful AI features in Windows 11. Of course, Copilot is one of them, but you’ll find cool AI features sprinkled into native apps too. I could go all day talking about them, but these are my favorite ones.
1Microsoft Copilot
To no one’s surprise, there’s Microsoft Copilot, the core of AI-powered experiences in the Microsoft ecosystem. This isn’t just a simple chatbot; it’s like having a smart assistant living in your taskbar. Click theCopiloticon on the taskbar or pressWindows + Cto get started.
Want to create an illustration to go along with your LinkedIn post? Copilot can do it in seconds. Want torewrite that email in a more professional tone? Copilot has you covered.
But it’s not just the usual generative AI capabilities we’ve seen from ChatGPT or Google Gemini on the Web. Copilot integrates with other Windows features and apps, including Microsoft Edge, and can even control your PC experience.
Need to focus? Ask it to “start a focus session” to silence notifications and optimize your environment. Or tell Copilot to “turn off dark mode” if you want to quickly switch to a dark system theme.
Copilot, as the name suggests, is like having a personal productivity ninja at your fingertips. It’s what Cortana wanted to be back in the day.
2Auto Compose in Clipchamp
Forget tedious video editing! Microsoft’s video-editing app, Clipchamp, now boasts an AI-powered auto compose feature that’s an absolute game-changer. OnClipchamp, use theCreate a video with AIoption in theHometab to kick things off.
This feature lets you effortlesslycreate videos from your photosand videos in seconds. I simply uploaded my media, chose a style (or let the AI decide), and voila! Clipchamp automatically selects the best moments, trims the clips, adds transitions, and even picks fitting background music.
I quite like the fact that it’s not just a one-size-fits-all solution. I can customize the aspect ratio and video length and even ask the app to generate multiple versions. This gives me creative control while still saving time.
Auto Compose makes good-looking videos accessible to everyone, regardless of your editing skills. Granted, it might not be a professional edit, but it’s pretty good for dynamic travel vlogs or a heartwarming family montage, as my Instagram likes would testify.
3OCR in Snipping Tool
One of the most underrated AI features in Windows 11 has to be the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature baked into the system in a way that makes extracting text from images incredibly easy. The accuracy is impressive too!
Forget about third-party apps—now you can justgrab a screenshot with the Snipping Tool, and the built-in OCR automatically recognizes any text in the image.
To use this, pressWindows + Shift + Sto open the snipping overlay and select the area where you want to copy the text from. Click theSnipping Toolnotification. In the preview window, click theText actionsbutton (located next to theCroptool), and then clickCopy all text.
This is quite handy, really. Need to copy a quote from an image or an online article that doesn’t allow text selection? I can just snip it and paste the text wherever I want. It even works with handwritten notes, which is incredibly useful for digitizing my messy scribbles.
4Image Creator in Paint
Image Creator is a handy AI feature in Microsoft Paint to fuel your creativity. It can generate incredible images based on your text descriptions.
Currently, Image Creator is available only in the US, France, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, and Germany. Only English is supported for text prompts at this time.
To use Image Creator, openPaintand click theImage Creatoricon in the toolbar to see the side panel. In the text box, enter a description of the image you want to create. you’re able to also choose a specific art style, like charcoal, anime, or watercolor. Image Creator, powered by DALL-E, will generate a selection of images based on your prompt.
It’s a nifty feature if you frequently need images but lack advanced design skills. Need a quick image for a presentation or a social media post? Image Creator can help. I use it often to create illustrations for my blog posts.
Image Creator makes AI image generation accessible to everyone. Of course, image generation is possible using severalother generative AI servicesas well, but this seamless integration of AI into a classic program like Paint is a pretty good showcase of how Windows 11 is blending AI with familiar PC experiences.
Microsoft has done an excellent job integrating AI features into Windows 11. I think we’ve only seen a glimpse of the evolution, and we’ll see the introduction of more and more AI-powered experiences to aid our everyday creative and productive pursuits.
