Microsoft made a big deal about the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) when it first unveiled Copilot+ PCs in 2024. The specialized piece of hardware is key to running AI tasks locally with more efficiency, and it has now spread from Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips to the latest Intel and AMD processors.
Although the rise of the NPU has largely been associated with Copilot+ AI tools in Windows 11, including Cocreator, Live Captions, Windows Studio Effects, and Recall, it's also being put to work by a growing number of third-party apps.
