I have NOT seen this appear in Task Manager until yesterday when running Outlook 2021 to check messages. I didn’t get a screenshot of it at the time, the process was using 36-40% CPU resources in that instance. Just now I got the following screenshots:
The files are located here in Windows 10: **** PLEASE NOTE THE DATES of installation**
I use MS Office 2019 C2R (out of support as of 14-Oct-2025). A search of my C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ folder for ai*.* suggests most of my AI files were originally created in both
on 31-Oct-2024 (possibly Version 2410 / Build 18129.20116) and last modified on 22-Aug-2025 (possibly Version 2507 / Build 19029.20208) before my MS Office 2019 C2R reached end of support.
However, I launched a few of my MS Office 2019 apps today (Outlook, Excel, Word) on my Win 10 machine and didn’t see an instance of the Local Artificial Intelligence Manager (aimgr.exe) running in Task Manager. According to the Perplexity answer <here> “ai.exe runs in the background to handle AI-powered features such as smart suggestions, text analysis, and other machine-learning functions inside Office desktop” (e.g., grammar, punctuation, etc.).
You might be interested in reading Drcard’s original 27-Feb-2024 Keep AI Out of Your Microsoft Office and revised 24-Apr-2024 Keep AI Out of Your Microsoft Office – Modified in the Office 2019 for PCs board of the AskWoody forum. Just note that I haven’t tried the instructions in any of Drcard’s PDF files and/or NoAI.bat batch file and have no idea if following those instructions could damage your MS Office installation.
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.6691 * Firefox v146.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.25110.6-1.1.25110.1 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.4.5.226-146.0.5441 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019 C2R Version 2508 / Build 19127.20302
I failed to also post that ANY Office title opened will trigger the AI garbage. In the article posted the instructions to remove this trash do not work as they currently stand. I will have to dig deeper into this on my own to see what is what. I have Office 2021 ( full version not 365 ) on both Windows 10 & 11 machines as do many others. Thanks for the very informational posting too. Much appreciated.
Edited: Wanted to make clear that “Connected Experiences” are NOT ENABLED on any of my machines, yet the ai.exe loads when any Outlook and Word titles are opened. I can stop the local ai process under the Word entry for example and the document reloads and in “compatibility mode” which is odd. And the AI process under Windows will automatically unload and restart no matter what actions are taken. Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher do NOT trigger the AI process.
