Some elements of Microsoft’s Copilot assistant in Windows 11 have felt like a solution in search of a problem—and it hasn’t helped that Microsoft has frequently changed Copilot’s capabilities, turning it from a native Windows app into a web app and back again.
But I find myself intrigued by a new addition to Copilot Vision that Microsoft began rolling out this week to testers in its Windows Insider program. Copilot Vision launched late last year as a feature that could look at pages in the Microsoft Edge browser and answer questions based on those pages’ contents. The new Vision update extends that capability to any app window, allowing you to ask Copilot not just about the contents of a document but also about the user interface of the app itself.
Microsoft’s Copilot Vision update can see the contents of any app window you share with it.
Credit:
Microsoft
Provided the app works as intended—not a given for any software, but especially for AI features—Copilot Vision could replace “frantic Googling” as a way to learn how to use a new app or how to do something new or obscure in complex PC apps like Word, Excel, or Photoshop. I recently switched from Photoshop to Affinity Photo, for example, and I’m still finding myself tripped up by small differences in workflows and UI between the two apps. Copilot Vision could, in theory, ease that sort of transition.