In June 2025, Microsoft began rolling out AI-powered history search functionality with Edge 138. The idea was simple: allow customers to use natural language phrases and synonyms to find their desired history items rather than matching keywords exactly. Although the company had already rolled out this capability in a phased manner, it has now decided to cancel it.
In an update on its Microsoft 365 Roadmap, Microsoft has announced that it has decided not to move forward with AI-powered history search. The company has not detailed the exact reasoning behind this move, but it has apologized to customers for the inconvenience.
The move is rather interesting as it seemingly could have improved user productivity. Edge users wouldn't have to worry about typos or exact keywords, and just focus on what they were trying to locate in their browser history. Microsoft had also assured users that an on-device AI model would be leveraged for this functionality, and no data would be sent to the cloud. IT admins also had the ability to control its availability through the EdgeHistoryAISearchEnabled policy.
When the feature began rolling out last year, many of our readers called it creepy, noting that they couldn't trust Microsoft to keep their data on their device. Others also questioned its usefulness, saying that it's simply a way for Microsoft to insert more AI bloat into its products.
Although the Redmond tech giant had stated that it will be more mindful about surfacing Copilot features in Windows 11 apps, we later discussed how this is mostly a rebranding exercise rather than an actual axing of AI functionalities. Indeed, a Microsoft executive later emphasized how they want to reshape Windows for the agentic AI era. That said, it does seem like at least AI-powered Edge history search isn't a part of that vision.
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