Build 2026: Microsoft Brings More On-Device AI to Edge

Tied to the earlier Windows 11 developer news, Microsoft is also bringing more local AI capabilities to its Edge web browser too.

“At Build 2025, we introduced the Prompt and Writing Assistance APIs in Microsoft Edge with the Phi-4-mini language model,” Microsoft’s Sohum Chatterjee writes. “Since then, we’ve heard from web developers, incorporated your feedback, and expanded Edge’s on-device AI capabilities with new models and APIs.”

There are three on-device AI updates for Microsoft Edge:

Aion-1.0-Instruct. This local small language model (SLM) is smaller, faster, and more efficient than Phi-4-mini, and it works on many more PCs, including those with less-capable GPUs and CPUs. It’s now available in developer preview so you can test its functionality and API interoperability. It will come to Hugging Face in July, but you can check out the documentation for the Prompt API and Writing Assistance APIs and experiment with playground samples,

Language Detector and Translator APIs. Now available in Edge version 148, the Language Detector and Translator APIs for JavaScript let websites and browser extensions identify the language of text and translate between language pairs. Both are powered by on-device, task-specific AI models built into Edge, and Microsoft says that they “deliver fast, high-quality translation, support 145+ languages, and are optimized for translation workloads on the web.” There is no cost.

Speech recognition with the Web Speech API. Available in experimental form in Edge Canary and Dev, the Web Speech API helps you incorporate voice or audio input into websites and browser extensions. It runs on-device but can also be backed by cloud-based speech-to-text and text-to-speech services. You can check out the documentation, try a playground demo, and learn more on GitHub.

“We invite you to explore these capabilities, experiment with the new models, and tell us what you build,” Chatterjee adds. “Your feedback will shape the next iteration of on-device AI in Microsoft Edge, and we’re excited to partner with you as we continue expanding what’s possible for AI on the web.”