The future of Windows is built around AI, and it will be here before you know it. Microsoft is expected to bring a lot of generative AI-powered features to improve your day-to-day experience in the next big Windows refresh. No, I am not talking about its aggressive AI-assistant push that's causing a Copilot burnout among users, but I am referring to some genuinely useful features, which I believe can truly make Windows better than how it is in its current state.

Many of these AI-powered features are expected to drop with the next big Windows 11 version 24H2 update that's coming later this year, so it's time to get acquainted with them. I doubt if all the generative AI-powered features will be useful or change the way you use the operating system in a meaningful way, but I've got a list of the ones which I believe will have the biggest impact.

5 Animated wallpapers

Finally something new for desktop customization

Microsoft is also said to be working on an AI feature for turning 2D images into 3D parallax ones for the desktop. This may not sound like a big deal to many, especially when you compare it with the features I have highlighted on this list, but I am quite pumped about this one too. There is plenty of room for improvements when it comes to customization features on the Windows operating system, and just the sheer possibility of getting a different style of wallpaper feels like a step in the right direction.

Anything that keeps me from using the Wallpaper Engine on Windows would be a welcome addition, which is why I am excited about even wallpapers with a parallax effect. Microsoft can improve this further by adding an option to generate unique wallpapers every day based on a pre-defined prompt that you can set. This doesn't seem too far-fetched, considering how AI-generated wallpapers are already a thing, and you can use Microsoft's Copilot to generate images from prompts.

4 Real-time translation

An extension of a feature that's already great

I am equally excited about the possibility of getting real-time translation with the Windows 24H2 update. It's mostly just an extension of the Live captions feature which we already have in the current build of Windows 11, but I believe a lot of users will benefit from real-time live translation. I hope it lands with this upcoming update, because being able to see translated captions in real-time for videos that are playing in a different language or even for the voice of people on a call who are speaking in a different language sounds amazing.

The live caption accessibility feature in Windows 11, in case you're wondering, can only transcribe the spoken dialog played by your computer, but it can't translate and give you captions in your desired language in real time. The live captions feature works very well, and it allows you to read text rather than listen to it. But I believe the addition of real-time live translation would make this feature even better and more useful for a lot of Windows users.

3 A native noise-suppression tool

Voice Clarity is already a thing on the Canary channel

Nvida Broadcast is one of my favorite tools that I use every day on my PC to remove all the background noise from my audio output. My only qualm is that it sits as a standalone program instead of just being a part of the Nvidia GeForce Experience suite. And that's exactly why I am excited about the noise-suppression tool that's planned for this update. In fact, Voice Clarity is already one of the many improvements that are currently being previewed on the Canary channel, and I can't wait to use it.

The Voice Clarity feature doesn't require special hardware, meaning it can work on virtually any device. It will be interesting to see how it improves over time, but I am excited to see it in action for now. It would also be nice if Microsoft found a way to include all the webcam tools that ship with Nvidia Broadcast. Stuff like background removal works very well on Nvidia Broadcast, and I don't see why it can't implement something similar for all the recordings and video streams, seeing as background blur is already available.

2 AI could fix Windows Search

Natural language queries could be big

Your mileage may vary, but my experience with Search has been nothing to write home about. In fact, I don't remember the last time I was able to use the Search to actually find a particular file or a folder that I wanted. It either takes forever to pull up the results or simply fails to fetch anything for me. I also don't like that I have to give it a specific name of the file to be able to fetch it for me. But I believe this could be fixed with simple AI integration, which could potentially be a part of advanced Copilot, a feature Microsoft is already said to be working on.

The advanced Copilot is said to be able to remember your activities on the computer and save them as a searchable memory. This sounds like something that can fix Search on Windows entirely. Being able to search for, say, the screenshot that you captured last week with a simple command like "Show me my screenshots from last week" could be huge. It sounds like the most obvious use for AI, yet the current version of Copilot — at least the one on my PC — can't do that. It simply pulls up a tutorial from the web to teach me how to find the screenshots folder on Windows.

1 Auto Super Resolution could be a game changer

Quite literally change how your videos and games play

Most AI-powered features coming to Windows — as you probably already know — are designed to make you more productive in some capacity. But this one's an exception in that regard, and that alone makes it the most exciting one on the list for me. The Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) feature is like Windows' version of DLSS, which will essentially use AI to make games run smoother on your Windows-powered machine.

We don't know much about this particular feature just yet, but it looks like it will use AI to "make supported games play more smoothly with enhanced details." PCs with the dedicated NPU silicon could benefit the most from Automatic Super Resolution, but it remains to be whether the ones without it will fully utilize it too. Either way, I am really pumped to see wider support for upscaling in games, as I love the technology behind it and have been using multiple versions of it on different hardware.

A smarter Windows for all

I can think of a dozen other ways Microsoft can use AI to improve the overall user experience on Windows instead of forcing it on us in countless ways. That being said, I am glad that it's working on some features to get started.

Even the handful of features that are expected to arrive with the Windows 24H2 update will form a great foundation for everything else that could potentially be added. We'll have a more measured take on the 24H2 update as a whole once it officially launches, so stay tuned. It's going to be an interesting update with a bunch of other improvements.