Many attorneys and staff members work with documents filled with images: charts, infographics, scanned exhibits, architectural plans. It’s where key information often lives in a visual format.
But what happens when someone can’t see those visuals clearly, or when they’re buried in a file with no alt text or description? Suddenly, half your case’s data becomes opaque.
Microsoft is rolling out new AI‑powered tools in Windows 11 to reduce that friction. These innovations aim to make visual content more accessible and meaningful; especially in contexts where every detail matters.
Describe Image: Clarity Without Compromise
One of Microsoft’s newest features is called Describe Image. With a Copilot+ PC (i.e. hardware built for AI tasks), you can right-click or use the “Click to Do” overlay to trigger the tool and have Windows generate a detailed description of whatever image, graph, or visual you’re viewing.
What makes this particularly compelling for professional environments:
- Local processing, not cloud-based: Microsoft emphasizes that the AI models run on your device, so your image data doesn’t get sent to external servers.
- Privacy built in: Because processing stays local, the risk of leaks or unintended sharing is reduced. Obviously a critical requirement when working with privileged documents.
- Interactive & adaptive: After the initial description, you can request refinements (“Tell me more about the box in the corner”), copy the text, or offer feedback to improve your results.
- Not a replacement for alt text (yet): Microsoft warns that there may be inaccuracies or limitations (especially for charts or dense legal diagrams), so you’ll want a human review for mission‑critical content.
For your team, this means that an image-heavy brief or presentation can become text-searchable and intelligible, even for someone using assistive tech. A paralegal or a staffer won’t have to stop and ask someone else, “What does that graph show?” They can get a description immediately and keep moving.
Photos App: Smarter Organization, Less Friction
On top of describing visuals, Microsoft is enhancing how users manage images with AI-driven categorization inside the Windows 11 Photos app. This is especially useful in environments where hundreds or thousands of receipts, exhibits, documents, and screenshots accumulate
The feature, called Auto‑Categorization, automatically groups images into practical categories like:
- Receipts
- Identity documents (IDs, passports)
- Screenshots
- Handwritten or printed notes
A few important details:
- This also runs locally, on supported Copilot+ hardware.
- It respects language variance. For example, if you snap a photo of a passport in Hungarian, the AI still classifies it as an identity document even though the text is unfamiliar.
- You can manually reassign misclassified images or give feedback.
- At present, the categories are limited to the four above. It’s a focused set rather than open-ended.
For a law practice, this means when staff is searching for a particular invoice, a scanned document, or an exhibit image, they can jump to the right “folder” without wading through unrelated photos. The time savings scale with the number of visuals your team handles.
Why These Matter to Law Firms
1. Accessibility is not optional
Legal work is collaborative and inclusive. Some team members may use screen readers or have visual impairments. Tools like Describe Image ensure no one is left behind. Visuals that were once barriers become accessible text.
2. Security + productivity = peace of mind
Because both features run on device, your clients’ privileged documents aren’t sent to Microsoft’s servers. You retain control over confidentiality. At the same time, staff can move faster, not slower, when interpreting visual documents.
3. Reduced back-and-forth
Imagine an associate flipping through a motion draft and encountering a graph. Instead of emailing the drafting partner, “Can you explain that?”, they simply request a description and carry on. It accelerates review cycles.
4. Better search, lower friction
Auto‑Categorization means that over months or years, your archive of document photos and exhibits becomes easier to navigate. The less time spent hunting visuals, the more mental energy for strategy.
A Few Caveats & Best Practices
- These AI tools are still being previewed. Microsoft is rolling them out first to Windows Insiders and Copilot+ PCs.
- Always treat the AI description as a supplement. Because mistake risk exists (charts, axes, nuance), human review or alt‑text annotation remains essential, especially for legal exhibits.
- If your hardware doesn’t yet support Copilot+ or the AI NPU, you won’t see these features now. But this signals Microsoft’s direction, so planning for future hardware compatibility is wise.
- Provide feedback to the system when a description or categorization is off. That helps the AI learn and improve over time.
If your firm is considering migrating to AI‑ready workstations or planning for a Copilot+ deployment, these features give you a compelling use case: accessibility, productivity, and privacy all in one package.
I’d be pleased to walk your firm through choosing the right hardware, enabling these new features safely, and integrating them into your firm’s workflows. Just say the word.