Are you ready for the AI PC?

Are you ready for the AI PC? Probably smarter than us, you see.

- Raju Chellam

It can learn, create, and solve, And maybe resolve, and evolve, Sooner or later, it won't need you or me. If that limerick made you wink, this trend should make you think: There's this new kid in town, the AI PC, with specific SoC (system-on-a-chip) capabilities designed to run generative AI (GenAI) tasks locally.

From almost zero sales as at Q4 2023, nearly 50 million AI PCs will be sold by Q4 2024, and more than 167 million by Q4 2027, according to IDC (International Data Corp) estimates.

What does "locally" mean? It means running tasks on-premise on the PC, as opposed to running them on the cloud. Chip manufacturers have now introduced Al-specific silicon to their SoCs - called NPUS (neural processing units) - that can run AI and ML (Machine Learning) tasks more efficiently.

Why does this matter? Because traditionally, running workloads - especially AI tasks locally on a PC needed to be done on the CPU, the GPU, or a combination of the two. However, this might have a negative impact on the PC's performance and battery life since these chips are not optimized to run AI workloads efficiently.

NPU & TOPS

What's the need now? The hype around GenAI is high, and the PC industry is rushing to capitalize on the potential benefits of bringing AI capabilities from the cloud to the client. "Promises around enhanced user productivity via faster performance, lower inferencing costs and the benefit of on-device privacy and security have driven strong end-user interest in AI PCs," says Tom Mainelli, IDC's group vice president for consumer research. "We will see AI PC shipments begin to ramp up this year, and over the next few years we expect the tech to move from niche to majority."

IDC has identified three types of NPU-enabled AI PCs: