Running AI Locally on iPhone - No Cloud Needed

I built a small but exciting demo this week - an on-device image classifier running entirely on my iPhone with Core ML + SwiftUI.

The app lets me choose any photo, and it instantly predicts what's in it, complete with a confidence score : all without touching the cloud.

What Surprised Me

It's wild to think how much intelligence can now fit inside a mobile device. AI isn't just happening in servers anymore — it's happening right here, in our pockets.

How It Works

The architecture is surprisingly simple:

Core ML Integration

Here's the core prediction logic:

// Load the Core ML model
let model = try? MobileNetV2()

// Make prediction
if let prediction = try? model.prediction(image: pixelBuffer) {
    let label = prediction.classLabel
    let confidence = prediction.classLabelProbs[label] ?? 0

    // Display: "espresso - 92%"
    resultLabel.text = "\(label) - \(Int(confidence * 100))%"
}

That's it. No API keys, no network calls, no cloud infrastructure.

On-Device vs Cloud AI

When to Use Each

Demo in Action

Tap “Choose Photo” → select any image → instant label appears with confidence score

Why On-Device AI Feels Different

TL;DR