Enterprises picked up new PCs earlier in anticipation of price increases and are now pulling back, said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. That’s partially because PC makers are passing higher memory and component costs on to customers, Gold said.
Many new PCs have AI hardware accelerators and qualify as AI PCs. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at an event last week said AI PCs accounted for 40% of PC shipments. HP said on its earnings call that AI PCs made up 46% of its PC shipments in the fiscal quarter that ended July 31.
The big question is whether AI PCs have any utility. HP is rolling out its own on-device AI software, called HP IQ, on its PCs to enhance the user experience. HP PCs also have an AI-based security tool from Wolf Security that protects against BIOS-level intrusion, said Ketan Patel, the company’s president of personal systems, on the August earnings call.