Microsoft set to bring AI capabilities to in-box Windows 11 apps

Microsoft is reportedly gearing up to bring AI capabilities to some of its widely popular apps like MS Paint, Camera, and Photos, much to the delight of Windows 11 users.

The American tech giant has been offering new features for Windows 11 users for a while now. For instance, Microsoft is reportedly prepping to allow Windows 11 users to uninstall more built-in apps.

Now, it looks like the technology company is experimenting with multiple ways to bring AI capabilities to the Windows operating system. The company recently introduced Windows 11 Studio Effects. Also, Windows Copilot is reportedly set to arrive this fall.

Also, the company is reportedly gearing up to replace its virtual assistant Cortana app with AI in Windows 11. So, it is safe to say that Microsoft is sparing no effort to add AI to Windows 11.

New updates headed to the Photos app

According to Windows Central's Senior Editor Zac Bowden's sources, Microsoft is prepping to bring AI capabilities to a slew of in-box Windows 11 apps. Some of the upcoming functionality will require dedicated hardware like NPU (neural processing unit) or VPU (vision processing unit).

The Photos app is slated to get an AI functionality that will enable the app to identify objects or people in photos. Moreover, the Photos app will be able to cut out and paste these identified objects elsewhere.

It is worth noting that both iOS and Android have had this functionality for quite some time now. So, it doesn't come as a surprise that Microsoft wants to bring it to its Windows operating system as well.

More improvements coming to Snipping Tool, Paint app, Camera app

According to the sources, the Snipping Tool will adopt OCR (optical character recognition) technology to help Windows identify text in screenshots for faster clipboard copying. According to an HT Tech report, the Camera app could take advantage of the same technology.

As a result, users will be able to select text in a photo taken on the device. Lastly, the sources claim Microsoft has been trying to bring generative AI to the Windows 11 Paint app. Users could set out criteria and ask Paint to create a canvas based on it, just like how Bing Image Creator currently works.

Sources say the Paint AI integration will use the same Bing technology. It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft will ship these AI integrations on Windows 11. The sources say these ideas are currently in experimental stages as the company tries to figure out how it can incorporate more AI capabilities into Windows.

Furthermore, Bowden has been told that Microsoft will announce new Surface hardware and also discuss AI in Windows at an event on September 21.