AI-Powered Computers Will Dominate Laptop Options for Businesses

Gartner analysts are optimistic about the future of AI-enabled computers, with a new report predicting that 43% of all PC shipments will be AI-enabled by 2025, compared to 17% by 2024.

This trend is compatible with both Microsoft And Apple’s plans to integrate Generative AI devices more regularly. While many Apple Intelligence features are not yet fully available, the necessary hardware is already available on the devices. Microsoft’s Copilot, meanwhile, is more accessible.

Are Artificial Intelligence Computers the future of computing or will they be a temporary trend?

AI PC shipments expected to increase by 165%

Gartner predicts that AI PC shipments will increase by 165.5% from 2024 to 114 million units in 2025. Moreover, by 2026, AI PCs will be the only option for large businesses when purchasing new laptops.

The report defines AI PCs as computers equipped with a neural processing unit (NNU), such as the x86 in Windows on Arm, macOS on Arm, and Windows PCs. Microsoft’s Surface Edition 7 and later, as well as laptops with Apple’s M3 and M4 chips, have NPUs.

SEE: Competition for and among AI chips continues to be fierce, with cloud providers looking to leverage AI chips. reduce addiction on dominant suppliers.

“As the PC market moves from non-AI to AI PCs, x-86 dominance, particularly in the consumer AI laptop market, will diminish over time as Arm-based AI laptops will take more share than Windows x86 AI and non-AI laptops,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior analyst at Gartner. in a press release“But by 2025, Windows x86-based AI laptops will lead the business segment.”

Other key findings from the report include:

• By 2025, AI-enabled laptop shipments will account for 51% of total laptop shipments.
• NPU-powered laptops were expected to account for only 5% of laptops available to large enterprises in 2023.

“The discussion has shifted from speculation about which PCs might include AI functionality to the expectation that most PCs will eventually integrate AI NPU capabilities,” Atwal added. “Ultimately, NPU will become a standard feature for PC vendors.”

Disadvantages of the proliferation of generative AI in computers

Consumers are increasingly aware that the products they buy need to be future-proof, Atwal told TechRepublic in an email.

“However, the return on investment for AI is still being determined, and without clear ‘killer apps,’ many people are wary of paying high prices for AI capabilities on their laptops in the near term,” he added.

Generative AI has many benefits, including the ability to create new content and even write code, but there is ongoing debate about whether the output meets professional quality standards. Further reports indicated that: AI could produce faulty code, create security issues, or cause developers to check their work less thoroughly. attracts investment moneyprove ROI is difficult. And 30% of AI projects may be abandoned After the proof-of-concept phase.

Atwal also noted that studies have revealed the environmental footprint of this technology and therefore the “environmental footprint of AI” could be alarming. negatively impact the environment.

“While manufacturing new NPU technology may increase the initial environmental impact, it could potentially offset some of the AI ​​processing done in the cloud by processing data locally on the device,” he said. “This reduces the need for energy-consuming data transmission to the cloud in certain use cases.”

But Atwal remains hopeful about a future driven by AI advancements.

“The reactive nature of today’s AI is shifting from the reactive nature of generative AI (GenAI and AI Agents),” he wrote.