Jul 09, 2024 12:49:00

Only about 3% of PCs shipped in 2024 will meet the specifications of Microsoft's AI PC 'Copilot + PC'

Microsoft

announced a next-generation AI PC category called ' Copilot + PC ' in May 2024 and set minimum requirements for PCs that comply with this category. The AI PC market seemed to suddenly become lively as companies such as Microsoft and ASUS released Copilot + PC-compatible devices, but according to a survey by a research company, only 3% of PCs shipped in 2024 will be compatible with Copilot + PC.

AI PCs: Qualcomm (QCOM), Microsoft (MSFT) Turn to AI to Revive PC Market - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-08/qualcomm-microsoft-lean-on-ai-hype-to-spur-pc-market-revival

The minimum system requirements for Copilot+ PC announced by Microsoft are: 'An embedded processor or SoC with an NPU of 40 TOPS or more (only the Snapdragon X series at the time of writing)', '16GB DDR5/LPDDR5 RAM', and '256GB SSD/UFS or more storage device'.

Microsoft officially announces minimum system requirements for Windows AI PCs - GIGAZINE

Research firm IDC predicts that only 3% of PCs shipped in 2024 will meet the above requirements, and that it will only be in 2028 that this will reach 40% of annual shipments.

Microsoft introduced Copilot+ PC as 'a PC with an additional processor tuned to speed up AI features like personal assistants and task automation,' and touted the idea that it would provide an unprecedented PC experience.

However, perhaps because it has only just been released, many people have pointed out that the AI functions themselves are not very user-friendly.

For example, the AI features that Microsoft offers at the time of writing are limited to features such as 'a feature that makes it appear as if you are always looking at the camera even if you look away during a video conference' and 'a feature to generate images in Paint,' and there are no features that dramatically change the PC experience.

I tried using Microsoft's original AI features such as 'generating illustrations from doodles' and 'always correcting the camera's gaze' on a Copilot+ PC equipped with a Snapdragon X Elite - GIGAZINE

In addition, software companies other than Microsoft are reluctant to offer AI capabilities through Copilot+ PC. Software companies such as Adobe and Salesforce have reportedly declined requests from PC manufacturers to 'adapt their AI tools so they can be used directly on new PCs.'

Software maker SentinelOne commented, 'We are considering optimizing our products for AI PCs in future development, but it will be several years before these devices are widely available in the market,' suggesting that it is unlikely to respond soon. On the other hand, some companies, such as Blackmagic Design and Algoriddim, are optimizing their apps for AI PCs.

In addition, many problems have been reported due to Snapdragon's use of the ARM architecture. Until the recent appearance of Copilot+ PC, most PCs had CPUs that used the x86 architecture, so most existing software was optimized for x86, and some software could not be used on the ARM-based Copilot+ PC.

Although Copilot+ PC has many problems, manufacturers are looking forward to the rise of AI PCs. Dell CEO Michael Dell commented, 'Would you want to buy a PC that can't use the AI features you may want to use in the future? I don't think so,' predicting an increase in sales. Market research firm Circana said, 'The average consumer is still a little confused, but tech-savvy consumers like content creators are quickly adopting the new machines.' In terms of performance, Qualcomm says that the advantage is the long battery life.

Qualcomm said it needs to step up efforts to promote its brand and help PC makers with advertising.