Analysis: 5 Takeaways On The State Of AI PCs And Why Big Channel Vendors Are Excited

More than 50 AI-enabled laptops are available in the market now, many more are coming in the next several months, and yet the industry’s loudest boosters are still on the hunt for the many “killer apps” that could make these devices indispensable.

Welcome to the dawn of the age of the AI PC, which some of the biggest IT vendors in the channel believe will reinvigorate the industry and set off a new wave of refresh opportunities for partners.

[Related: Intel: AI PCs Will Appeal To Businesses But Don’t Expect ‘Hockey-Stick’ Growth]

It was only this year that these companies started to talk about the idea of the AI PC, which, at this point, mainly consists of laptops with processors that contain a neural processing unit, or NPU for short, in addition to a CPU and GPU to handle a variety of AI workloads.

While chip companies had been planning to integrate NPUs into processors for years, it was the hype around generative AI, kicked off by the launch of ChatGPT last year, that expanded the industry’s imagination and prompted vendors to perceive an AI future not just powered by the cloud.

While the success of the AI PC ultimately hinges on scores of killer apps to attract and win over users, chip companies like Intel and AMD are powering AI-enabled personal computers well before many compelling use cases have become fully established. But to these companies, they are doing so for good reasons.

As part of CRN’s AI PC Week, here are five big takeaways on the current state of AI PCs and why major tech vendors believe the category is the next big thing, even if the category is still in the early innings.