- Clues in Windows 11 advance views suggest that AI is coming to the taskbar
- This may be in the form of an ‘agentic ai’ companion
- Exactly what its purpose would be is far from clear at this time
Microsoft could plan to add an AI element to the taskbar in Windows 11, based on clues in Preview -Builds and theorization from Rumor.
27914 LXP changes. As always, some of these are already mentioned in Beta/Dev “Taskbar -Ledes Case” in Settings Confirmation for Different Disk/Partition Tasks are now mentioned in Settings Number and Currency Formats mentioned under Region1/231 July 2025
Windows latest marked the well -known delicious Xeno, which was sent on X, that they have found a ‘taskbar company’ feature mentioned in settings (as well as some other bits and pieces, including game -related features).
There is no explicit mention of AI here, but Windows latest notes that it has previously heard Microsoft thought about adding AI actions to the taskbar and that this could be the said companion (s).
The site says that another regularly delicious of Windows -related events on X, Phantomofearth, has pointed out that referrals to companions were in a Windows Server Preview -Build last month -and that Windows 11 advancements have witnessed a mention of ‘agent companions’ to the taskbar.
Windows latest also brings our attention to a string in a recent Windows 11 preview -Build that is related to checking ‘Visibility of Agency Competers on the Topbar’.
Consider all this together, and the obvious theory – remembers that it is just speculation that must be strongly spicy at this point – is that the taskbar of the task line is bound in agent AI somehow.
This term refers to an AI agent or helper who would be fired up via the taskbar.
Analysis: Double Agent
If you want to get an idea of what may be in store for the taskbar, you should not look further than the Settings app in Windows 11, which has just been given an AI agent (only for Copilot+ PCS). This facilitates an intelligent search to find the options you need to think about in settings so you can throw a query like ‘how do I change the speed my mouse marker is moving on?’ And AI will find this option for you – and maybe even offer a recommended setting in some scenarios.
It is undoubtedly useful, but the question is: How can AI functionality like this work on the taskbar? At this point, your guess is as good as mine, but if you want the latter, it may be tied to control of messages or the calendar (from the system tray).
Alternatively, like Windows’s latest tip, it may operate some kind of recommendations that apps you might want to install, or sites you might want to visit that can be led to you via the taskbar (Microsoft already has this kind of functionality in the start menu, of course). I sincerely hope that is not the case, but this is a concept that Microsoft has been playing with a little to the taskbar in the past.
The worrying thing about me is that I am struggling to think of something that could really be useful in this theorized AI-Infunded Taskbar Scenario (whereas the agent in settings has some clear value in terms of pepping search functionality). The concern is that this would be a case of more AI just for that.
In any case, we are still in the very early stages of progress here, with only the vaguest clues in the background of Windows 11 that something can happen to AI agents in the taskbar. So it is far from clear that Microsoft has such plans – but again the addition of several AI in Windows 11 would hardly be a surprise (maybe only for Copilot+ PCS, as is the case with the setting agent).
