2025 Is the Year of AI PCs; Are Businesses Onboard?

Gartner Forecasts Global Shipments of AI PCs to Increase by 165.5% in 2025 Yamini Kalra • October 15, 2024

From the 1960s when mainframes became the foundation of enterprise computing to IBM's first personal computer in 1981 and the dot-com boom in the 90s, enterprise computing has seen a remarkable evolution through the years. In 2025, AI-powered PCs are set to be the next big thing, with Gartner forecasting global shipments to increase by 165.5% over 2024. Forrester calling 2025 the "year of the AI PCs."

AI PCs are expected to make up 43% of all PC shipments by 2025, a jump from 17% in 2024. The demand for AI-powered laptops is forecast to outpace that for desktops, with AI laptops projected to comprise 51% of all laptop shipments by 2025. And by 2026, AI laptops will be the "only choice of laptop available to large businesses," up from less than 5% in 2023.

Another significant trend is the shift in computing architectures. While x86-based Windows PCs have dominated the enterprise landscape, Gartner predicts a growing share of the AI PC market will be captured by Arm-based architectures. This is especially true for consumer laptops, where Arm-based AI machines are expected to take a larger share of the market by 2025. For companies, this means evaluating their hardware purchasing strategies, as more business applications become optimized for AI capabilities.

Why AI PCs Matter for Businesses

With the rise of real-time computing needs and the proliferation of IoT devices, businesses are realizing the need to move AI closer to where the data is - at the edge.

This is where AI PCs come into play. Unlike their traditional counterparts, AI PCs are integrated with neural processing units, NPUs, that enable them to handle AI workloads locally, reducing latency and providing a more secure computing environment.

"The anticipated surge in AI PCs is largely due to the supply-side push, as NPUs will be included in more CPU vendor road maps," said Ranjit Atwal, senior research director analyst at Gartner.

NPUs help enterprises move from reactive to proactive IT strategies. Companies can use AI PCs to predict IT infrastructure failures before they happen, minimizing downtime and saving millions in operational costs. NPU-integrated PCs also enable enterprises to process AI-related tasks, such as machine learning, natural language processing and real-time analytics, directly on the device without relying on cloud-based services.

And with generative AI becoming part of enterprise technology stacks, companies investing in AI PCs are essentially future-proofing their operations, preparing for a time when gen AI capabilities become a standard part of business tools.

Everyone Wants a Piece of the AI Pie

With AI infiltrating a technology staple - the humble personal computers - manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon to market their own as a frontrunner.

"The debate has moved from speculating which PCs might include AI functionality to the expectation that most PCs will eventually integrate AI NPU capabilities," Atwal said.

Major tech companies including AMD, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Intel and Nvidia announced their latest AI PCs at the Consumer Technology Association's CES 2024.

Microsoft has introduced its Copilot+ PCs in the market, calling it the "beginning of a new AI era." These next-gen AI PCs have "lightning-fast speeds and AI-accelerated power" and NPUs with 45 TOPS, 16GB memory and a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard to launch its AI assistant in Windows.

Apple, on the other hand, introduced the M4 chip in its new iPad Pro. Billed as an "outrageously powerful chip for AI" by CEO Tim Cook, the M4 chip has a neural engine capable of up to 38 TOPS, which, it claims, is "faster than the neural processing unit of any AI PC today."

Dell's Latitude 9000 series laptops come equipped with built-in AI features designed for enterprise use, featuring Dell Optimizer, which uses AI to adapt system settings based on user behavior. HP's ZBook Power G11 is built for content creators and AI developers. Lenovo's ThinkCentre Neo Ultra and ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 feature AI-enhancing Intel Core Ultra chips with eye-tracking and communication bars.

AI PC chips, such as Intel's Core Ultra and Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors, offer significant performance boosts, making them ideal for applications requiring immediate data processing, such as videoconferencing with AI enhancements (e.g., live background blur), voice recognition and AI-driven collaboration tools. They also have in-built security features such as face recognition and image processing.

Is It Worth the (Many) Extra Bucks?

"I'd say it's rather costly," Elizabeth Hackenson, CIO of Schneider Electric, told the Wall Street Journal.

Enterprise adoption is driven by use cases. With its current capabilities and high costs, businesses will need to derive value and justify the investments in AI PCs. Many enterprise applications do not yet support or are not optimized for AI PCs, meaning businesses cannot fully leverage the AI performance they're paying for.

"The capabilities are minimal at the moment, and businesses will only achieve an ROI over the lifetime of the PC," Atwal said.

Typical enterprise applications such as word processing, data entry and other standard office tasks do not see dramatic improvements in productivity or efficiency from AI PCs, which will largely benefit creative industries, such as media and design, or data-intensive industries such as healthcare and financial services.

While "the user experience improvements of the AI PC are important," said the Forrester report, "what the industry is forgetting is that user experience improvements almost never change IT purchasing behavior. Cost, security, privacy and the upcoming Windows 10 [end of life] will be primary drivers of AI PC adoption, with the added bonus of a much-improved user experience."

Despite an optimistic outlook, businesses venture cautiously. "Even with a full lineup of Windows-based AI PCs for both Arm and x86 in the third quarter of 2024, AI PCs did not boost the demand for PCs since buyers have yet to see their clear benefits or business value," said Mikako Kitagawa, director analyst at Gartner.

But Atwal predicts the high cost to decrease "partly due to vendors' inability to articulate the advantages of AI PCs and also as AI PCs move into the mid-range."

And where enterprises are already investing heavily in AI-driven software and cloud infrastructure, the value proposition for AI PCs will improve as more applications become optimized for on-device AI. Ultimately, it will be about staying relevant. For enterprises, it's not a matter of if, but when they embrace the new AI hardware.