Windows 11’s Upcoming AI Explorer Feature Gets Detailed in New Report

Microsoft announced during its FY24 Q3 earnings yesterday that Copilot on Windows was now available on nearly 225 million Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs. That represents an impressive 200% growth quarter over quarter, even though when you consider the 1.4 billion active devices running Windows on the market, Copilot is currently available on approximately 16% of them.

On Windows 11 and Windows 10, Copilot is a cloud-based feature that works as an Edge tab. While this is the first expression of generative AI being “natively” integrated in Windows, the next version of Windows 11 (24H2) is expected to introduce a new AI Explorer feature that will reportedly only work on new “AI PCs” with a neural processing unit (NPUs).

Some hidden code in the Windows 11 24H2 preview build 26100 suggests that “AI Explorer” could be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm’s new ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite CPU. However, maybe Microsoft will want to avoid creating some fragmentation within this brand new “AI PC” category.

Anyway, Microsoft is expected to detail this new AI Explorer feature during its upcoming Surface and AI event on May 20. But Windows Central’s Zac Bowden has described it in slightly more detail today.

First of all, AI Explorer, unlike the cloud-based Copilot on Windows, is reportedly designed to run locally, hence the NPU requirement. The feature will apparently be capable of running in the background at all times and keep track of everything users do on their “AI PCs.”

“According to my sources, AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer. It will document and triage everything it sees, no matter what apps or interfaces you’re looking at, and turn them into memories that you can recall at a later point,” Bowden explained.

The following mock-up created by Windows Central shows AI Explorer being available as search bar appearing at the top of the screen. Here, users will be able to search for anything they’ve done on their PCs using natural language. That may include showing previously visited websites on a specific day, chat conversations with friends and colleagues, local files, and more.

“Sources familiar with AI Explorer describe it as a truly useful AI experience that works for you in the background to enhance your workflow while using a Windows PC,” Bowden wrote. The report also details that AI Explorer will be able to analyze and interact with everything that’s currently on-screen. For example, users could ask AI Explorer to compare two opened documents, draft a reply to an email, edit an image, and more.

Obviously, having a built-in feature that records everything you do on your PC (even though everything happens locally) can sound a bit scary… but Bowden reports that AI Explorer will offer granular controls allowing users to prevent certain apps from being recorded. Moreover, users who want to turn off the feature completely should be able to do so.

Microsoft is reportedly working on other new AI features that may also be released with Windows 11 version 24H2 later this year. Bowden mentioned more advanced Windows Studio effects for video conferencing apps, live translation capabilities for Live Captions, image generation in Paint, and more.

Even though we don’t have all the details yet, do you see AI Explorer as a potential killer feature that may push Windows users to upgrade to a new “AI PC”? Sound off in the comments below.