Microsoft PowerToys will soon take full advantage of the same AI that powers Copilot+ PCs
Microsoft is bringing on-device AI capabilities to PowerToys through integration with Phi Silica, the same small language model (SLM) that powers Copilot+ PCs’ AI features. The Advanced Paste utility, a popular PowerToys feature, will now support Phi Silica for local AI processing instead of requiring an OpenAI API key.
Advanced Paste is a clipboard utility that formats content in various formats including plain text, markdown, and JSON. It also supports optical character recognition (OCR) to extract text from images and can transcode audio and video files. With the new Phi Silica integration now available in the latest PowerToys preview, users will be able to leverage on-device AI processing for these clipboard operations, making the tool more versatile and potentially more private by reducing reliance on cloud-based APIs.
Microsoft described Phi Silica as “small but mighty” when announcing the model in 2024. By incorporating this technology into PowerToys, Microsoft is extending the same AI capabilities that define its Copilot+ PC initiative to a broader set of developer and power-user tools. This move aligns with Microsoft’s strategy to democratize AI access across its product ecosystem while maintaining performance and privacy through on-device processing.