AI development tools for windows get a coat of fresh paint
Microsoft wants to make it easier for developers to create AI-powered apps on Windows devices.
On Monday during the Build 2025 meeting, Microsoft announced Windows AI Foundry. Windows Copilot Runtime The service company was released last May. Microsoft describes Windows AI Foundry as a “unified platform for local AI development.” This is a way to fine-tune, optimize and deploy the AI models that support Windows apps.
Microsoft is increasingly looking at AI, whether it runs locally or in the cloud or not. High cost It is associated with the development of tent pole models. In January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the tech giant had it $13 billion in annual AI revenuepartly thanks to our partnership with ChatGpt Maker Openai.
Microsoft may not be able to directly benefit from third-party AI-powered apps on Windows. Still, Microsoft aims to promote a thriving ecosystem at the expense of its rivals by making it easy to build AI software on Tech Giant’s flagship operating system. So Windows AI Foundry.
According to a press release shared with TechCrunch, Windows AI Foundry can automatically detect the hardware of your Windows machine and get the software components needed to run a specific AI model. According to Microsoft, Windows AI Foundry provides tools designed to keep these components up-to-date as new devices are released and simplify the model preparation process.
Windows AI Foundry also includes Foundry Local, and a new service that “brings the power of (AI) models (…) to client devices.” In addition to Windows, Foundry Local, which supports MACOS, comes with a set of modules that use AI models and tools directly, leveraging the ONXX Runtime, an open source project aimed at accelerating AI across the platform.
Foundry Local also comes with command line interface support, so developers can use prompts such as “Foundry Model List, Foundry Model Run” to browse, test and interact with models running on the local server.
“Foundry Local is a device hardware – CPU, GPU, and NPU – and lists compatible models for developers to try out,” Microsoft writes.