Microsoft's "Paint" app will also include a "Copilot" button, and Windows Insider beta testers will get a sneak preview

Windows Insider users will soon see the Copilot icon in another new app: draw. Thanks to the newly rolled out update, Insider test users in the Canary and Dev channels will see this new button that brings AI tools together in one location.

When you click the Copilot button in the taskbar, a drop-down menu is displayed that includes AI-generating features such as Cocreator, Image Creator, and Generative Erase. Recently Microsoft has been working on adding Copilot icons "everywhere" - from your keyboard to the Windows taskbar - and "Paint" has been a big part of that effort. "Paint is just the latest addition.

Microsoft has been adding AI image generation tools to the Paint app for the past year or so, introducing DALL-E-based Cocreator at the end of 2023 and adding a generative fill option last fall. They're all in one place now, so if you want to create some AI-generated clip art, you'll just have to look for the Copilot logo. To be honest, the Copilot shortcut probably makes more sense in Paint than it does in Bing.

With this update, Windows 11 Insider users are also getting the AI search update that was previewed earlier this month. Now, Improved Search will allow you to find photos in the cloud using natural language; previously, AI search was limited to local files. When you search, you'll see cloud files displayed alongside local images.

Despite Copilot's promising popularity, Microsoft faces some challenges. The first is user privacy, especially in the cloud search function, how to ensure the security of user data will be key. The second is the practicality of AI tools, how to make Copilot really solve the user's pain points, rather than reduced to a "gimmick", will determine its long-term development.

In addition, with the rapid development of AI technology, competitors such as Google and Apple are also actively laying out their own AI ecosystem. Whether Microsoft can stay ahead in this field will depend on its technological innovation and continuous optimization of user experience.

This update is currently being pushed to Windows 11 Insider users in the Dev and Beta channels