I noticed in the Microsoft Store in Windows 11 that there’s now an “AI Hub” area. I am quite interested in AI software so I looked, but there wasn’t much there. What’s that all about, Dave?
While Microsoft as a company has adopted Generative AI systems with remarkable enthusiasm, the rest of the Windows app developer community seems to be moving a bit more slowly. There are third-party apps from other than the big six in the Generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) space, but very little that seems to be worth exploring. The big six? I’d list those as OpenAI, Claude, Perplexity, Stable Diffusion, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. (Yes, some of them power other tools, but each offers a different user experience).
Still, the fact that Microsoft has just added an “AI Hub” area to the Microsoft Store that’s on every Windows user’s desktop (and Taskbar) is a great sign of the company’s support for third-party developers. Hopefully, it will inspire more developers to say “that’s small, I can get lots of visibility with very little marketing” and build cool and interesting new applications. Eventually, someone will resurrect Clippy too, but so far, that hasn’t happened. 🙂
Shortcuts: AI Hub in Microsoft Store | Copilot on the Desktop | Copilot within Edge
With that in mind, let’s explore the AI Hub and then look at the two primary ways you can sidestep it and just use Microsoft Copilot instead if you really want to try out a sophisticated AI tool.
AI HUB IN THE MICROSOFT STORE
Start by upgrading your Windows and ensuring you also have the latest version of the Microsoft Store. That’s most easily done by going into the Microsoft Store app, clicking on “Library”, then “Update All”. I have a more detailed tutorial here: Upgrade All Your Windows Apps with Microsoft Store.
Ready? Launch the Store and you should see a new icon on the left side:
You can see it on the left, just below “Entertainment”. You might click through all of these categories because Microsoft has been slowly but surely expanding what’s included in the Microsoft Store universe!
Proceed by clicking on “AI Hub“.
There’s the usual gallery of large images at the top that you can watch cycle, but as you explore, you’ll notice that, as I said earlier, none of the big players are represented here. Scroll down a bit to get to what will likely become a set of categories, but now is a mix of individual apps and categories of AI software:
Taskade is an individual app, as is PlayHT, but “Chatbot AI Apps” is a category. I’ll click on that to see what chatbot programs are in the list:
Most of these are going to be tapping into ChatGPT (an OpenAI program) or similar, and “Bree AI” even has a logo inspired by the OpenAI logo. Are they good and worth trying? Well, they are all free, so there’s that!
Scroll down further on the home “AI Hub” screen, however, and you’ll notice the “New & Trending AI Apps” section:
Look at it more closely, however, and you’ll realize that it’s basically any app that says it uses AI, including Spotify and Canva. Are they AI apps, per se? According to Microsoft, yes.
You can also search for “ChatGPT” in the Microsoft Store for a different view of what’s available:
Quite a lot more matches than what’s highlighted in the “AI Hub”, so this might remain a better way to navigate the catalog, but I expect that the AI Hub is going to grow and expand at a good clip now that developers can see it’s been launched. That’s good for those of us who want to explore more AI programs and utilities!
MEANWHILE, MICROSOFT COPILOT AWAITS
Don’t want to get a third-party application on your PC? No worries, you already have Microsoft Copilot on your Windows 11 system all ready to go. One place you can find it is on the Taskbar; it’s probably a button on the very right edge. Click on it and a helpful sidebar appears, all ready to go:
Very helpful. But what I prefer is the version of Microsoft Copilot built into the Microsoft Edge browser!
MICROSOFT COPILOT IN THE EDGE BROWSER
Fire up Edge and you’ll notice a stylized circle icon on the top right corner. A click and it opens up a sidebar within Edge, squeezing whatever Web page you’re viewing to the other portion of the window:
The above is a bit confusing, but on the left is MSN.com, while on the right is Microsoft Copilot, ready to go. Notice you can choose between “More Creative”, “More Balanced”, or “More Precise”. Pick your favorite based on what you want to get from your interaction with the AI system!
Microsoft Copilot’s gotten a lot smarter since it showed up too. For example, now you can ask questions like “what’s the top news story for today”, as I do below (with a typo!). Notice also that I have clicked-and-dragged the chat sidebar to be much wider so I can better see what’s going on:
What many people don’t realize is that you can also create images in Microsoft Copilot too! For example…
create a picture of a bright red Ferrari drifting around a corner in an otherwise quiet suburban neighborhood, photorealistic dramatic
After maybe 15-20 seconds, it shows four thumbnails for variations on the requested image:
Click on one of the created images and it opens a new tab, much bigger:
Love it? Click on “Download” and it’s on your computer. All without leaving your favorite browser!
So that’s the current state of the art with AI apps and Microsoft Copilot. Tomorrow? It’ll be newer and better. Keep an eye on this area, there’s so much that’s evolving in this space!
Pro tip: I’ve been writing about Microsoft Windows for many years and Microsoft Edge since it replaced Internet Explorer. Please check out my extensive Windows help area and my AI & ChatGPT Help area for more useful tutorials while you’re visiting the site!