What Is an AI PC?
AI PCs are devices with specialized hardware—a central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), and integrated neural processing unit (NPU)—specifically designed to power AI applications and enable AI use cases. This makes them run faster and more efficiently and lets you take advantage of new capabilities and features.
AI is now available to everyone—transforming how you work, play, create, and connect. But not everyone is getting the most out of AI. Older technology wasn’t built with AI in mind, which means those new AI experiences might feel laggy and underwhelming on PCs without integrated AI capabilities.
Why Consider an AI PC?
Today’s PCs and laptops have undergone significant changes over the years as technology has advanced. Bulky, stationary machines are now sleek, portable devices offering extended battery life, rich multimedia experiences, and seamless wireless networking. The introduction of AI is the latest technological evolution moving the devices we use forward.
What makes AI so effective is its ability to process massive amounts of data and complete complex tasks rapidly with little to no oversight. For example, work that might usually take hours to complete, like reading several reports and summarizing their key points, only takes AI fractions of a second.
If you don’t have a PC with AI-specialized hardware, data processing is likely to slow your PC down and consume a lot of battery power. Or your PC will have to rely on the cloud to run AI, which can also slow down PC performance. Using the cloud for AI processing also comes with data transmission costs for businesses and potential security risks, as data sent to and from the cloud is more vulnerable to cyber threats.
How Does an AI PC Work?
With an AI PC, AI can run efficiently, directly on your device. This is because AI PCs have an integrated NPU in addition to the CPU and GPU, which come standard on most PCs.
These three computing engines work together to ensure processing tasks run on the right engine at the right time:
- CPU for fast response: This reliable central processor handles general-purpose tasks or sudden voracious workloads.
- GPU for high throughput: The GPU excels at large tasks requiring parallel throughput, like rendering visuals or large AI workloads that need high performance.
- NPU for power efficiency: The integrated neural processor handles sustained, heavily used AI tasks at lower power for greater efficiency.
Additionally, by processing data with AI directly on an AI PC, you get fast performance and your content can be better protected because it doesn’t leave the device.
Benefits of an AI PC
With an AI PC, you or your business can benefit from everything AI-enhanced tools and apps offer.
Experience More
Until now, you’ve had to learn the nuances, commands, and patterns of each application you use to work, chat, study, play, and more. Now, those applications and new ones are incorporating AI to make your experience easier, more immersive, and more personalized.
Productivity
AI PCs support innovative AI apps and features that can make quick work of everyday tasks you do in your personal and professional life. For example, some apps can analyze your email and calendar to give you a daily briefing on your highest-priority action items. Microsoft Copilot+ can help you craft and respond to emails or search and summarize documents.
Common collaboration tools, like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, are using AI to improve the online meeting experience. AI automatically enhances audio quality, reduces background noise, and keeps you clearly visible even in poor lighting. Other AI-based tools can automatically generate a transcript or translation of a call.
Play
You can get more-immersive gaming experiences on AI PCs with features like AI upscaling, which brings more detail to your games by rendering frames in your display’s native resolution. The AI PC’s integrated NPU can also offload AI tasks like background removal, audio optimization, and auto-framing so you can stream and game smoothly.
To help reduce long loading times, AI can predict and preload game assets in the background. In some of the latest game releases, you might even interact with a non-player character (NPC) that can improvise dialogue using AI, creating ever more expansive worlds to explore.
Creativity
Creating content becomes faster and more enjoyable on an AI PC too. Want to remove people from the background of your vacation photos? AI-enabled photo tools can do that for you. Looking for ideas for your novel manuscript? An AI chatbot can suggest a plot twist on demand while helping you fine-tune paragraphs.
For professional creators, AI is there too. Software applications like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro offer AI-enhanced features to help you streamline steps or fine-tune your edits, saving you time and helping you take your creativity to new levels.
Expect More
New tools and experiences are only helpful and enjoyable when they’re available. That’s where AI PC specialized hardware comes in to help you enjoy unrestricted work and play.
Optimized Performance and Battery Life
The AI PC is built to help you get the most out of your device so you can create, play, collaborate, and communicate more easily and clearly for longer. The three integrated compute engines in AI PCs—the CPU, GPU, and NPU—are designed to automatically prioritize tasks and workloads and optimize power and efficiency.
Many AI PCs also come with integrated features that further maximize performance and minimize power use. Together, these technologies help minimize the strain on your AI PC’s battery life so you can stay unplugged for longer while benefiting from responsive, snappy performance and taking advantage of AI-enabled experiences.
Data Security
AI PCs are designed with cybersecurity in mind. First, with an AI PC, you’re able to run AI locally on your device, so you don’t have to send your data to and from the cloud, reducing the risk that it will be intercepted along the way.
That means the photos you edit using AI, for example, stay private on your hard drive. If you’re an AI developer, this is good news too. You can build and run many of your AI models more efficiently and securely right on your AI PC. And for businesses, running AI workloads locally reduces the risk of sensitive intellectual property being inadvertently shared with third-party large language model (LLM) applications.
AI is also being used to help extend the security capabilities of the AI PC. AI security software running on AI PCs can leverage the NPU to support threat detection or even use LLMs to explain threat scenarios to you as they happen.
AI Tools for IT
If you’re considering AI PCs for your business, your IT teams can start taking advantage of artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) to proactively identify, report, and resolve common PC issues. Some business-grade AI PCs can pass telemetry data to your IT department to enable remote management and predictive maintenance.
Device Choice
With all of these great capabilities and benefits, you may be wondering about AI PC availability and cost.
As of Q3 2024, more than 13.3 million AI PCs had been shipped,2 and industry experts predict that AI-capable PCs will become mainstream in 2025. Further, by 2027 60 percent of shipped PCs are expected to have on-device AI capabilities.3 And along with the PCs, the development and use of AI apps continues to skyrocket, with more than 300 million people using AI apps as of January 2025.4
The great news is that AI PCs are available in a range of configurations and prices from many well-known brands.5 So whether you’re looking for a lightweight laptop, high-performance workstation, or desktop for business or everyday use, there’s an AI PC for you.
The Future of the AI PC
The emergence of AI PCs and AI PC applications has transformed the perception of what you can achieve on your computer, moving beyond traditional capabilities into new realms of possibility. As AI PCs get more powerful and AI models get leaner and more efficient, the instant creativity and productivity you experience with AI PCs will expand dramatically.
By upgrading to an AI PC now, you can benefit immediately from AI-enabled software to achieve, create, and experience more. Plus, you’ll be ready to take advantage of new applications and integrations as they are rolled out.