Microsoft Photos App Gets On-Device AI to Automatically Sort Your Digital Clutter

According to Windows Insider Preview Program, Microsoft is testing a new version of its Photos app that adds on-device AI to automatically identify and categorise photos for users, though this functionality is limited to supported Copilot+ PCs. The system relies on local AI processing rather than cloud-based models to protect privacy, requiring PCs with processors that have a Neural Processing Unit (NPU).

At present, only newer AI-enabled processors from Qualcomm, Intel and AMD can use the feature, with older chips lacking NPUs excluded. The app now runs recognition and classification tasks in the background to organise images into categories such as screenshots, receipts, documents and notes, helping users navigate and locate specific images more efficiently.

Automatic classification is currently limited to four categories: screenshots, receipts, IDs and notes, with users able to manually adjust categories and submit feedback if misclassifications occur. Insider Preview users can update via the Microsoft Store to access the new features immediately, and Microsoft plans to roll out the upgrade to the stable version of Windows 11 once testing is complete.