Instead, the adoption of AI PCs will likely take off next year, he said, especially with Qualcomm announcing new AI chips targeted at cheaper $600 PCs.
Although the AI software ecosystem hasn’t advanced as quickly as the hardware, AI will be increasingly important, with many apps utilizing the AI hardware or on-board NPUs, if available, said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “AI PCs will be relevant, just not yet,” he said.
Microsoft has branded AI PCs as Copilot+ PCs in a bid to showcase the company’s genAI-based Copilot tools (and encourage the purchase of Windows 11 hardware). Chipmakers are in the mix as well: Intel, Qualcomm and AMD all offer chips with AI processors for Copilot PCs.
