Microsoft is trying to turn Windows into a “canvas for AI” with new AI agents integrated into the Windows 11 taskbar. These new taskbar capabilities are designed to make AI agents feel more like an assistant in Windows that can take control of your PC and perform tasks for you at the click of a button. This is part of a broader overhaul of Windows to transform the operating system into an “agentic OS.”
“All we want to do is make sure every user can get the superpowers of AI,” Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows Experience, said in an interview. The Verge,
Microsoft is integrating a variety of AI agents directly into the Windows 11 taskbar, including its own Microsoft 365 CoPilot and third-party options. Windows chief Pavan Davuluri says, “This integration isn’t just about adding agents; it’s about making them part of the OS experience.”
Agents will be able to do things like research data in the background while you’re working on something else, or access files and folders on your PC to automate the boring and time-consuming admin work you do at work. Once you ask an AI agent to perform some task for you, the agent will move to the taskbar and run in the background. “You can hover over the taskbar icon at any time to see what the agent is doing,” explains Virk.
The AI agent integration is part of the new Ask Copilot feature in the taskbar, which combines existing local file search with Copilot capabilities. “Not only do you get lightning-fast searches for files and settings, but you can now start conversations with Microsoft 365 CoPilot and even launch AI agents directly from the taskbar,” explains Virk.
Microsoft has also added new taskbar capabilities to these agents so you can glance at them to see the status of whatever is working in the background. A floating window will also appear to interact with agents or Microsoft 365 CoPilot instead of the full app.
If an agent needs attention or completes a task, it will notify you and update its status on the taskbar. AI agents have badges on the taskbar icon that clearly show you when an agent is making progress with a task: a yellow exclamation point when it needs help, or a green tick when it’s completed something.
If you don’t want the AI agent on the taskbar, you don’t need to enable this feature. “While these experiences are designed to be opt-in, we want customers to have complete control over when and how they engage with Copilot and these agents,” says Virk.
Developers will eventually think of a lot of use cases for these agents, and Microsoft is doing a lot of platform-level work to make them possible. AI agent capabilities are being embedded into core parts of Windows thanks to the Model Context Protocol (MCP). “Essentially they give us a standardized framework that allows these agents to find tools and find other agents through a secure managed on-device registry,” says Davuluri. “It also gives us, the Windows team, the ability to provide tools in an agentic framework to go and consume these agents.”
AI agents will also have their own workspace, separate from your Windows 11 desktop. “It’s a contained policy-controlled auditable execution environment,” says Davuluri. “It gives us a place where agents can work with software the same way people do.” The Agent Workspace is like a sandbox for AI agents, where each agent works using their own Windows account. This is all in the name of security, and probably because AI models aren’t always accurate, so you’ll want to keep that activity separate from your main Windows session.
While the agent in the taskbar is a big new AI addition to Windows 11, it’s not the only way Microsoft is turning the operating system into an “agentic OS.” As part of this work, Microsoft is also bringing Copilot in File Explorer. “What we want to do is make it even more convenient to get highly relevant and in-depth CoPilot help on Windows surfaces you already use a lot, like File Explorer,” says Virk.
CoPilot integration into File Explorer lets Windows 11 users summarize a document with a single click, answer questions about files, or draft emails based on the document’s content.
CoPilot Plus Click to Do on PC is also being improved, allowing you to convert any table you see anywhere on the web or on your PC into an Excel document. You can then freely manipulate the data and add new columns. While Click to Do Copilot Plus uses local AI models on the PC, once that data is in Excel you can modify it using cloud-powered AI models through Copilot and agent modes.
This hybrid mix of local AI (Copilot plus PC) and cloud-powered AI (Copilot) seems to be what Microsoft is pursuing with its Windows AI features. A new Write Assist feature is entering preview that lets you rewrite and write to any text box in Windows 11, and it also has offline support on CoPilot Plus PCs.
Outlook is also getting AI-generated summaries, and Word is getting automatic alt-text for images in Office documents. Microsoft is also working on a new “Fluid Dictation” feature for Windows that turns speech into text with correct grammar and punctuation.
This hybrid mix of AI is even more evident in Microsoft’s Windows 365 service. These cloud PCs – which can be accessed through Windows 11, a web browser or mobile app – include CoPilot Plus features and also have access to core cloud-powered CoPilot features.
If you’re not interested in AI additions to Windows, Microsoft also made some IT-focused additions at its Ignite conference this week. Hardware-accelerated BitLocker is coming next year, and will require next-generation Windows devices built on unannounced chips. “Hardware acceleration of Bitlock requires capability in the silicon platform,” says Davuluri. “As and when those capabilities become available, the OS will be able to unlock them for users.”
Sysmon functionality is also being integrated into Windows in early 2026. This will make security events available in the event log and make it easier for security teams to manage Windows systems. Microsoft is also launching a visual refresh of Windows Hello and a new Passkey Manager integration that works with Microsoft password managers in Edge, 1Password, and Bitwarden.