OneDrive evolves: AI, speed boosts, and colorful folders debut

One of the key new features announced by Microsoft is the addition of AI features related to Copilot in OneDrive. These features will allow users to create a "personal assistant" that helps manage the editing and sharing of files in the cloud storage. With these changes, OneDrive is also expected to enhance collaboration on files within small teams. Visually, colorful folders and other updates are expected to assist with this, and these folders will be integrated into the File Explorer in Windows, making it more convenient to find the right directories.

OneDrive is also anticipated to gain significant "under the hood" improvements, enhancing its speed. Microsoft claims higher online and offline performance, with improved data synchronization to follow later. Meanwhile, Copilot is expected to assist in an analytical context as well. The assistant will help summarize document content, compare files, and answer user queries regarding specific documents. This aims to improve efficiency, especially with large collections of files within a given storage.

The announced changes also affect the mobile version of OneDrive on smartphones. Microsoft mentions improvements to the search function, which will help users find images depicting specific objects entered in the query. Sharing files with others is also expected to be easier, even in cases where the other parties are not using OneDrive and may not have a Microsoft account, which is typically necessary to log into the service.

This is not the end of the new features for OneDrive, as Microsoft also announced the ability to import photos from other cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox and new plans for OneDrive with virtual drives of 5 and 10 TB. More changes are on the way, with a gradual rollout planned for this year and next year, initially for business customers in some cases.