Microsoft offers a lot of useful AI features in Windows 11. Of course, Copilot is one of them, but you’ll find great AI features in native apps, too. I could spend all day talking about them, but these are my favorites.
Microsoft Copilot
To no one’s surprise, there’s Microsoft Copilot, the core of AI-powered experiences in the Microsoft ecosystem. It’s not just a simple chatbot; it’s like a smart assistant living in your taskbar. Click the Copilot icon on the taskbar or press Windows+C to get started.
Want to create an illustration to go with your LinkedIn post? Copilot can do it in seconds. Want to rewrite that email in a more professional tone? Copilot is for you.
But it’s not just the usual generative AI capabilities we’ve seen on the web from ChatGPT or Google Gemini. Copilot integrates with other Windows features and apps, including Microsoft Edge, and can even take control of your PC experience.
Need to focus? Ask it to “start a focus session” to turn off notifications and optimize your environment. Or if you want to quickly switch to a dark system theme, ask Copilot to “turn off dark mode.”
Copilot, as the name suggests, is like having a personal productivity ninja at your fingertips. This is exactly what Cortana wanted to be back then.
Auto Compose in Clipchamp
Forget tedious video editing! Microsoft’s video-editing app, Clipchamp, now boasts an AI-powered Auto Compose feature that is an absolute game-changer. On Clipchamp, use the Create Video with AI option in the Home tab to get things started.
This feature lets you easily create videos from your photos and 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 clips, adds transitions, and even chooses suitable background music.
I really like the fact that it’s not just a one-stop solution. I can customize the aspect ratio and video length and even ask the app to create multiple versions. This gives me creative control while saving me time.
Auto Compose makes good-looking videos accessible to everyone, regardless of your editing skills. Granted, this may not be a professional edit, but it’s great for a dynamic travel vlog or a heartwarming family montage, as my Instagram likes will testify.
OCR in Snipping Tool
One of the most underrated AI features in Windows 11 is the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature that’s incorporated into the system in such a way that extracting text from images becomes incredibly easy. The accuracy is impressive too!
Forget about third-party apps—now you can just take a screenshot with the Snipping Tool, and the built-in OCR automatically recognizes any text in the image.
To use it, press Windows + Shift + S to open the Snipping overlay and select the area you want to copy text from. Click the Snipping Tool notification. In the preview window, click the Text Actions button (located next to the Crop tool), and then click Copy All Text.
This is actually pretty useful. Need to copy a quote from an image or 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.
Image Creator in Paint
Image Creator is a useful AI feature in Microsoft Paint to boost your creativity. It can create incredible images based on your text description.
To use Image Creator, open Paint and click the Image Creator icon in the toolbar to see a side panel. In the text box, enter a description of the image you want to create. You can also choose a specific art style, such as charcoal, anime, or watercolor. Image Creator, powered by DALL-E, will create a selection of images based on your prompt.
If you often need images but don’t have advanced design skills, this is a great feature. Need a quick image for a presentation or social media post? Image Creator can help you. I often use it to create images for my blog posts.
Image Creator makes AI image generation accessible to everyone. Of course, image generation is also possible using many other generative AI services, but this seamless integration of AI into a classic program like Paint is a great example of how Windows 11 is blending AI with familiar PC experiences.
Microsoft has done a great job integrating AI features into Windows 11. I think we’ve just seen a glimpse of the evolution so far, and we’ll see the introduction of more and more AI-powered experiences to aid our everyday creative and productive tasks.