Copilot+ PCs with AMD and Intel silicon show AI PC trends
The tech giant introduced computers with chips from Intel and AMD. The new machines come amid a refresh cycle for organizations and employees and open prospects for local AI apps.
Microsoft's inclusion of new silicon from AMD and Intel in the new Microsoft Copilot+ PC series highlights some trends in the AI PC market.
The tech giant on Sept. 3 revealed that its Copilot+ PCs now include the AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Intel Core Ultra 200V series.
The vendor also revealed that eligible AMD and Intel-powered devices will see new AI features starting in November. New features include Live Captions with translations, Cocreator in Paint and Restyle images, and Image Creator in Photos.
Some trends
Microsoft's use of AMD and Intel chips points out some trends in the AI PC market.
One trend is that both hardware vendors are on equal footing with each other in AI-enhanced PC technology, said Futurum Group analyst David Nicholson.
It feels like AMD has reached parity with Intel.
David NicholsonAnalyst, Futurum Group
Despite recent troubles and competitor Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market, Intel is one of the largest semiconductor companies worldwide. However, AMD appears to be catching up and gaining market share in the PC industry.
"It feels like AMD has reached parity with Intel," Nicholson said. "AMD with this round of AI PCs has forever closed that perception gap."
The anticipated problems that AI PCs seek to solve is another trend being pushed forth with the release of Copilot+ PCs.
With the increasing use of generative AI, more users will start to get frustrated if there are delays with AI technology in their workflows, Nicholson said.
The AI PCs could reduce that problem because they bring native AI processing to local PC devices.
"It's a bit of a novelty today," Nicholson said. "It's going to from novelty … to everyone expects this is a feature of any PC that you buy, that certain things you want to do will not require internet connectivity."
Coordinated effort and challenges
The Copilot+ PCs with AMD and Intel technology will also likely help with the refresh cycle of enterprises looking to replace PCs for their employees.
The refresh cycle is when organizations will supply their employees with new laptops. However, since organizations sent employees to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees have not updated their laptops.
"This is an important technology for organizations to take advantage of, particularly with Microsoft applications that would be using Copilot on the device with local inference for AI," said Gartner analyst Jason Wong.
Microsoft's chip play also opens opportunities for application vendors to build more connectivity to Windows Copilot using APIs for AI inferencing.
The new Copilot+ PCs also show a new united front in the PC industry, Wong said.
However, for Microsoft, a challenge will be getting developers to create a new class of applications that use Copilots that have access to local models, he said.
"It's kind of a battle for developer mindshare as well to get them to start building applications that are connected to those APIs and the models running on the local chips," he said.
Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems.
