Microsoft is working on integrating an intelligent search feature into Windows 11 that will allow searches to take into account the spoken language in audio or video files

Microsoft currently wants to make your audio and video files searchable via a feature Intelligent media search Smart Media Search uses AI models to index media files on your system. Based on this indexing, you can then search for a keyword, which will display media with that keyword.

The feature isn’t there automatically. Users have to enable Smart Media Scanning, and then it processes the media. So it’s not like Microsoft is going to analyze all your video and audio recordings without asking.

Beta feature

User Xeno discovered the new functionality in Windows 11 Canary Build 27695. Much information about the final implementation is currently lacking. It seems logical that Microsoft would integrate small but useful AI features into Windows. Currently, the marketing team is spreading the gospel of the AI ​​​​computer Copilot+, but there are hardly any useful AI-related features that actually run locally. Multimedia indexing and searchability would change that.

It is not clear when Intelligent Media Search will find its way to the general public. We also do not know whether the Dutch language will be recognized from day one. Above all, the existence of the feature shows that the AI ​​​​PC and the built-in NPU do indeed have a future.