Microsoft’s Copilot Actions is what occurs when Microsoft begins rethinking the way forward for Windows and the way AI is built-in into the working system. Imagine agentic AI being turned free inside your PC and performing duties with out your supervision. It’s a giant swing that’s conceptually virtually as unsettling as Windows Recall.
What occurs while you ask AI to start out mining and collating and adjusting your information, giving AI brokers primarily the identical consumer accounts you would possibly give to members of your loved ones? Microsoft is supplying you with instruments to observe this voluntary service, however… whew. It’s a monumental shift.
The imaginative and prescient of Copilot Actions
In a briefing with reporters, Microsoft executives appeared that with Windows 10 relegated to the back burner, it’s time for Windows 11—and no matter comes after it—to go full velocity forward. Copilot Actions is Microsoft’s present reply, and it’s considered one of Microsoft’s largest AI options of 2025. The demo consisted of “uploading” a number of information to Copilot Actions, then telling it (by way of a Copilot immediate) to regulate their orientations and get rid of any duplicates.
“We really feel that the vision that we have is, let’s rewrite the entire operating system around AI and build essentially what becomes truly the AI PC,” Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice chairman and Microsoft’s chief shopper officer, instructed reporters in a briefing. “Now people have talked about an AI PC, but it hasn’t really come to life yet. There’s been many reasons that hasn’t happened.”
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One motive? Performance. Just two years in the past, Microsoft began talking about the AI PC when it comes to a brand new addition to chip structure (called the NPU). Today, AI is essentially break up between the cloud (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and so on.) and native PCs, the place chipmakers like AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm have struggled to discover a killer app use case. The NPUs, Copilot+ PCs, and 40+ TOPS requirement has break up the PC market, although Copilot+ PC sales have been a tiny fraction of the general market.
Microsoft’s Mehdi feels like he’s keen to toss all of that apart. “One of the big things that I think really came to us is, while Copilot+ PCs really are the tip of the spear and are gaining fast traction, the big thing was, let’s bring that AI capability to all Windows 11 PCs and make it really simple for anyone to try it.”
What does Copilot Actions do?
In 2023, Microsoft promised that Copilot would be able to actually adjust your PC. In actuality, that turned out to be nothing greater than lukewarm capabilities to regulate darkish mode and different choices. In May 2025, Microsoft confirmed off AI agents that would be able to make deeper changes. This month, Windows Insiders have been capable of try out Direct Settings Access, the place Microsoft will information you to the precise Settings menu in response to a question (however received’t make adjustments itself).
In distinction, Copilot Actions are being pitched (not less than within the instance Microsoft confirmed reporters) as “Take Action” or the flexibility to “hand off unnecessary tasks.” If you open the Copilot app as we speak, you’ll see a drop-down menu (initially on “Quick response”) with an inventory of choices like “Think Deeper.” Copilot Actions seems on the backside.
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Copilot Actions can have entry to sure elements of your PC—a restricted set of your native identified folders, comparable to Documents, Downloads, Desktop, or Pictures—and different assets which might be accessible to all accounts.
Microsoft envisions you “uploading” or not less than marking information that you really want Copilot to behave upon. As said above, Microsoft’s instance confirmed off a variety of photographs that have been uploaded, reoriented, and deduplicated. It’s actually exhausting to say what “actions” you’ll be capable to take with out truly testing it personally, nonetheless.
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Microsoft says Copilot Actions will probably be off by default and describes the function as a voluntary course of the place you’ll be able to supervise each step of the best way. Microsoft isn’t simply proscribing Copilot Actions to Windows Insiders, but additionally walling it off additional by requiring Insiders to take part in Copilot Labs, too. It definitely received’t hit the common PC for months. As it’s, Microsoft says it can must be toggled on by way of Settings > System > AI elements > Agent instruments > Experimental agentic options.
How secure is Copilot Actions?
Microsoft’s Copilot Actions builds on what Microsoft now calls Copilot Actions on the Web, a part of its anniversary celebration this past spring. There, Microsoft confirmed off AI brokers that would browse and store the online in your behalf, pausing earlier than they made any remaining purchases. Copilot Actions is extra aggressive… form of.
In considerably the identical approach {that a} “Deep Research” question utilizing AI formulates a plan after which asks you for approval, Copilot Actions breaks down the duty: opening the app, getting into textual content, clicking on parts. But it doesn’t wait, both. It simply kicks off the request and it’s as much as you to press the black sq. icon to cease the method (as wanted) because it steps by way of the varied duties. Importantly, you’ll be able to “take control” and primarily pause Copilot Actions to then take over.
If one thing goes unsuitable and your information are corrupted or deleted? Well, who is aware of. Microsoft’s method to securing this course of will doubtless be picked aside by safety consultants as nicely.
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In a blog post, Microsoft goes into a few of the particulars.
First, Microsoft will probably be creating agent accounts inside Windows, distinct from consumer accounts in your PC. “This facilitates agent-specific policy application that can be different from the rules applied to other accounts like those for human users,” Microsoft stated.
Second, these brokers will begin with restricted permissions with entry granted to assets you explicitly enable permission to, and a “well-defined boundary” for the agent’s actions. The entry will be revoked. Each agent can even should be digitally signed, Microsoft stated, to stop them from changing into malware.
Third, the entire brokers will work inside a devoted “workspace,” with runtime isolation and granular permissions that seem to request consumer intervention in the event that they haven’t already been granted. “This provides the agent with capabilities like its own desktop while limiting the visibility and access the agent has to the user’s desktop activity,” Microsoft says. “The agent workspace is built on recognized security boundaries that Microsoft will defend in accordance with our longstanding security servicing criteria.” It’s not clear how this agentic workspace differs from the “sandbox” that Microsoft offers as a part of Windows Sandbox, a virtualized OS that’s a key feature of Windows 11 Pro.
Navjot Virk, the company vice chairman of Windows Experiences, acknowledged that Copilot Actions might make errors. “We’re absolutely committed to learning from how people use it, and we want to continue to improve the experience, to make it more capable and streamlined over time, and that is why real-world testing of this experience is so critical,” she stated.
Microsoft hasn’t stated when Copilot Actions will probably be launched to the general public, however we’d anticipate it to be comparatively quickly. It’s sure to be controversial.