AI Agent in Windows 11

The Windows 11 2025 AI experience is not a single agent: the agent in Windows Settings runs locally, while features such as Copilot Actions and agent connectors can interact with apps, files, websites, and online services.

Agent in Windows Settings: local

If “AI Assistance” means the agent that appears when you type a natural-language question into the Settings search box, its model—Settings Mu—runs locally on the device. It analyzes the query and matches it to settings already available on the PC. It only recommends changes unless you explicitly ask it to make one, and supported changes can be undone.^1^

This feature requires:

• Windows 11 version 24H2 with KB5062660 or later
• A Copilot+ PC
• A supported language and region

For this specific Settings agent, your query is processed on the PC rather than by an AI agent outside your network.

Copilot Actions: separate and potentially network-facing

Copilot Actions is a different, experimental agent. It can interact with applications and files by clicking, typing, and scrolling. Tasks such as scheduling meetings, sending email, booking services, or using an agent connector can involve websites, online services, and network communication.^2^

Its Windows agent workspace provides isolation, but “isolated” does not mean “offline”:

• It operates under a separate agent account.
• Access is limited to authorized files, folders, applications, and connectors.
• You can monitor and take over its activity.
• Additional approval can be requested for sensitive actions.
• The experimental feature is off by default.^3^

To check that it remains disabled:

1. Open Settings.
2. Select System → AI components → Agent tools.
3. Confirm Experimental agentic features is Off.

If that page is absent, the preview feature may not be installed or available on that PC. Copilot Actions is a preview experience associated with Windows Insiders and Copilot Labs, rather than an unavoidable background agent enabled merely by installing Windows 11 25H2.^2^

Practical privacy conclusion

• Settings search agent: on-device processing.
• Copilot Actions: locally contained execution, but tasks may communicate with external services.
• Agent connectors: bridges to apps or system tools; network behavior depends on the connected app or service.
• Other Copilot applications: do not assume they are local merely because they run on Windows.

Therefore, installing the 2025 Update does not mean one unrestricted external AI agent automatically gains access to the PC or local network. However, it also does not make every Windows AI feature offline-only. Keep experimental agentic features disabled if the requirement is strictly local processing, and review the permissions of each Copilot application or connector before enabling it.

References

1. Configure the agent in Windows Settings | Microsoft Learn
2. Experimental Agentic Features | Microsoft Support
3. Securing AI agents on Windows