Windows 11 is cutting some Copilot features on the right-click menu
At the same time, a Microsoft exec said that "AI has already helped our design team accelerate significantly"
The exec added that "we’re even seeing designers contribute directly to code fixes" and this has caused quite a stir online with anti-AI pushback
Windows 11 is getting tweaked to cut back on Copilot functionality, while at the same time, a Microsoft exec has admitted that the operating system’s design team are using AI to help them – which has provoked something of a reaction, as you might expect. First up, the move to cut back on AI, which as Windows Latest reports consists of stripping out some Copilot options from Windows 11’s context menu, the one which pops up when you right-click on a file or folder. In a post on the Microsoft 365 Message Center, the company explained: "We’re retiring the OneDrive Copilot Summarize, Create FAQ, Compare Files, Ask a question, Explain image, Explain images, Compare images, Extract text actions from the File Explorer context menu." These are Copilot actions which are tied to OneDrive , then, that folks who don’t use Microsoft’s cloud storage wouldn’t have seen anyway. You can still reach these options using the ‘Ask Copilot’ icon in the right-click menu, so overall, this is a streamlining change for the better (albeit one that some users won’t even realize has happened). It’s not being implemented right away, but from mid-November, and by the end of the year, these options will have disappeared from Windows 11’s context menu. Now for the more controversial development that Windows Latest also noticed , namely a comment from a Microsoft executive on X. Diego Baca, who is VP of Design for Windows, posted in reply to a comment pushing for "Windows design unification" (better consistency) and using AI to help to that end. Baca observed : "On AI agents, 100% agree. I’m not the best person to speak to the engineering side, but AI has already helped our design team accelerate significantly. We’re even seeing designers contribute directly to code fixes that improve craft, consistency, and quality. That’s exciting progress, and we’re only getting started." The key part of this that’s getting picked up on social media is the admission that AI is being used by the Windows 11 design team to ensure tasks are completed more swiftly, and that it’s helping designers to contribute code fixes. As you might guess, there are some unhappy people out there due to this admission…