AI PC sales are on the rise — but they won’t come cheap

14 August 2024, 23:52 published

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AI-capable devices made up 14% of the PCs shipped globally in the second quarter of 2024, analysis from Canalys has revealed.

The firm’s figures claim 8.8 million AI PC units – those containing a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) – were distributed over the three months, showing considerable growth from previous figures.

Lenovo was reported to have seen a 228% rise in its AI-capable PCs shipments, making up 6% of its total Windows-powered sales during the quarter, with rivals HP and Dell seeing AI PC sales reach 8% and 7% of total shipments respecitvely, showing the growing importance of such new devices going forward.

What do AI PCs offer?

AI PCs feature a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) within the System on Chip (SoC) designed to handle specialized AI applications, experiences and the technology that runs computational power, whether language models, focused tasks, security or privacy.

Microsoft has described its new ‘advanced Copilot’ AI assistance experience that promises to enable users to search documents, web pages, conversations, and images. AI PCs are also set to enable greater personalization and offer low latency by using local hardware for tasks, reducing the amount of sensitive data sent to cloud storage.

This specialized hardware has led to the price point of AI PCs being slightly higher than typical devices, which may put off some organizations or individuals from upgrading just yet.

However Canalys found AI-capable Windows PC shipments in the $800 and above range were up 126% in Q2 2024, contributing to a 9% total rise across this price point.

“A key benefit from AI-capable PCs that has materialized for PC OEMs is the growth boost within their premium offerings,” noted Ishan Dutt, Principal Analyst at Canalys.

“As the range of features from first- and third-party applications that leverage the NPU increase and the benefits to performance and efficiency become clearer, the value proposition for AI-capable PCs shall remain strong.”

As AI progresses and more advanced models are released, Canalys analysts believe the AI-capable PC market could ship around 44 million units in 2024 and 103 million in 2025.