A few years back, the event known as Mobile World Congress, now simply MWC, was a must-attend for us, especially during the heyday of Windows Phone. Fast forward to today, and MWC has transformed into a more diverse showcase that not only invites top PC manufacturers to flaunt their latest enterprise and commercial innovations but also offers a glimpse into select consumer gadgets.
In the heart of the bustling exhibition, you’ll find Intel’s colossal booth—my main magnet to the show—introducing its new range of AI-driven PCs. These machines, backed by Lunar Lake mobile processors which I got a sneak peek of in Taiwan last year, and their successors, the Arrow Lake chips, are really steering the future of computing.
### Intel’s Vision for Making AI Pervasive
Intel’s AI PC display is incredibly captivating, particularly with featured products like the highly-regarded ASUS Zenbook DUO. It’s impressive to witness the strides Intel has made with its mobile chips. The second series of the Core Ultra truly feels like a leap, with efficiency and battery life soaring past what we saw with the Meteor Lake generation.
After an enlightening tour of Intel’s Xeon 6 platform, which is geared towards data centers, I had the chance to chat with Craig Raymond, Intel’s AI PC demo expert. We delved into the general consumer appeal of AI in computing, exploring potential applications that might capture the interest of everyday users. Raymond shares my passion for AI, and he showcased several innovative uses of agentic AI, further piquing my interest in Intel’s work on OpenVINO—an essential toolkit enriched with plugins and access to large language models, running right on your local machine.
Our discussions led us to acknowledge a key insight: the significance of local inferencing. This technology, driven by advanced neural processing units similar to those Intel designs, represents a game-changing leap that could demystify AI for the average consumer.
### The Widespread Confusion about AI PCs
As I scoured the MWC looking to uncover what could be the defining “killer AI app,” I realized much of my mission involved demystifying technical jargon for regular folks, like my own parents. They, like many, are not entirely averse to technology, yet often find themselves puzzled by the seemingly ceaseless acronyms and tech terms.
Take, for instance, the term “TOPS”—short for tera operations per second. While Microsoft has set a 40 TOPS benchmark for Copilot+ PCs, expecting average users to grasp this concept fully is unrealistic, even as they come across Copilot ads routinely.
Moreover, within my extended family, the term “AI” is often linked to generative tasks, such as DALL-E creating images or alarming deepfake videos. It’s a buzzword that doesn’t yet resonate as vital technology enhancing their next laptop—largely because they haven’t personally experienced its benefits, unlike myself, who constantly witnesses how Intel is advancing AI computing every day.
### The Subtle Surge of AI-Powered PCs
AI PCs may well be heralding what my editor termed a ‘Great Reset’ in the Windows PC arena. However, this intriguing subcategory will inevitably blend seamlessly into everything else. It’s not that AI is losing impact—on the contrary, it’s revolutionising personal computing at an unprecedented level.
As processors with CPU, integrated GPUs, and NPUs (neural processing units) become mainstream, we might no longer emphasize the AI element in PCs. Eventually, the technology will just be expected as standard, reshaping the very definition of a PC.
Intel’s futuristic vision echoes this—AI capabilities embedded in CPUs have been quietly enhancing computing for years. Now, with low power-consuming NPUs, AI tasks can run efficiently in the background, promising seamless improvements in battery life and lower operating temperatures.
### Embracing the Era of AI PCs
Despite my quest for a single app to propel AI PCs to the forefront, it seems the real game-changer is allowing users to tap into powerful AI capabilities locally without sending personal data to the cloud. This could be revolutionary, encapsulating countless apps under varied interfaces.
Functionality is already expanding. Companion apps, such as myHP and Lenovo’s Vantage, are integrating AI to provide features like intelligent document analysis, giving users insights right from their devices. As Cory McElroy from HP projected, the era where you can’t imagine using a non-AI PC is approaching.
The real innovation, however, may not stem entirely from the manufacturers. Titans like Dell, ASUS, and Microsoft might prioritize optimizing AI for commercial to consumer transition, potentially writing the ‘killer app’ themselves.
In essence, the heavy lifting of integrating AI into everyday computing is already underway. It’s only a matter of time before my explanation of “what’s an NPU really doing?” becomes second nature to the average user. Developers are gradually shifting background activities to these efficient chips, quietly boosting performance. This evolution, while largely unnoticed for now, is the precursor to broader, deeply transformational changes in the long run.
For the moment, we’re learning that instead of searching for a singular ‘killer app,’ AI’s true strength lies in its transformative potential. In the end, AI is poised not to stand out as a distinct feature, but rather to become an integral facet of our computing experience, subtly improving our devices until AI is just an invisible part of the fabric of our technology-driven lives.
