You DO see Windows 11 as an AI PC opportunity, say Dell and Intel
- Reference: 1753421289
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/07/25/ai_propostion_windows_11_pc_vendors/
- Source link:
Whomp-whomp: AI PCs make users less productive [1]READ MORE
In a specially drafted " [2]Windows 11 & AI PC Readiness Report " [PDF], the two vendors argue that businesses should see this as not just an operating system upgrade, but a not-to-be-missed opportunity to ready themselves for the dubious benefits of AI.
"While it could be easy to think it's a simple OS update, we see it as an opportunity for businesses to reimagine how PCs and IT infrastructure can help create greater productivity, collaboration, and increased security," writes Dell UK's Client Solutions Group senior director, Louise Quennell, in a foreword to the report.
And how can they do this? By prioritizing AI-ready PCs in their refresh cycle, of course.
Intel technical sales specialist Jimmy Wai goes further, hailing the "profound significance" of this refresh cycle as "the gateway to the next generation of computing."
[3]
"We're seeing strong recognition of this shift among your fellow UK IT decision makers (ITDMs), who understand that AI-capable hardware is essential for their future operations. We can see that you view the Windows 10 End-of-Service deadline as a prime opportunity to refresh PC fleets with AI-ready machines," he says.
[4]
[5]
But market intelligence firm Context told The Register last month that [6]demand for AI PCs is "pretty slow," despite a big push from the major brands, due to a combination of reasons.
"The biggest issue is still the lack of a killer app or software that justifies the investment," said Marie-Christine Pygott, Context senior analyst for Personal Systems.
[7]
"Linked to that is the fact that the commercial segment in particular is still figuring out what AI overall can do for them, what apps are relevant, how exactly they can benefit but also what they are actually allowed to use when it comes to security, so it is still pretty early days for the whole AI topic."
It might also have something to do with the fact that PC makers expect to charge a premium price for AI-ready systems, something that Gartner analyst Ranjit Atwal said [8]may have to give if they want buyers to bite.
Dell and Intel's report contains figures from a survey of 1,000 IT decision makers conducted by Focaldata. It finds, unsurprisingly, with [9]Windows 10 support ending on October 14 , that 80 percent of UK businesses are switching to Windows 11, although there are some barriers to migration.
[10]
These include concerns over software and hardware compatibility and the potential for disruption to business processes.
In fact, some businesses see buying AI PCs as too risky at present, because there is no AI standard for software to work, as [11]Directions on Microsoft highlighted last year .
Compatibility concerns stem from [12]Microsoft's hardware requirements for Windows 11 , which mean that many Windows 10 systems that may have been deployed only a few years ago will not be capable of being upgraded to the new code.
[13]Folks aren't buying the PCs that US vendors stockpiled to dodge tariffs
[14]Windows 11 migration heats up... on desktops
[15]Please tell us Reg: Why are AI PC sales slower than expected?
[16]ASUS to chase business PC market with free AI, or no AI - because nobody knows what to do with it
It may also have something to do with uncertainty over [17]what exactly makes an AI PC ; Intel's definition is simply a system with a CPU, GPU and an NPU (neural processing unit). However, Microsoft came up with its own definition of "Copilot+ PC" to describe Windows systems with an NPU capable of 40 [18]TOPS or more, which is one measure of AI processing performance.
Dell and Intel's report says that 62 percent of respondents are more likely to choose a Copilot+ Al PC, while 21 percent would opt for a "regular" AI PC, and 12 percent are unsure.
To follow this up, 64 percent of respondents felt it was either critical or very critical for their organization to ensure that new PCs are powerful enough to run Al applications effectively – which perhaps explains why many are not rushing to buy just yet.
The report also claims that advanced security features and greater employee productivity are the top benefits of Windows 11 and its support for AI applications.
Ironically, however, a [19]study published last year by none other than Intel found that workers using PCs with built-in AI services are less productive than those using traditional hardware.
Despite that, the latest report states that Windows 11 and AI PCs can be "a differentiator in today's AI-driven world," and organizations that embrace AI "will gain a significant edge in productivity," while those that delay risk falling behind.
But as we have noted before, the chances are everyone will end up using an AI PC sooner or later, because you won't be able to buy any computer that isn't AI-enabled before long. Recent forecasts [20]estimate that these systems may account for 43 percent of PCs sold this year, and make up the bulk of the market in 2026.
That doesn't stop Dell and Intel from giving it the hard sell: "The question isn't about whether your organization will make this transition but whether you'll do so as a leader," the report concludes, adding that the pair offer comprehensive support to help your biz make its transition, including expert guidance, flexible financing options and sundry other resources. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/22/ai_pcs_productivity/
[2] https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-gb/solutions/business-solutions/briefs-summaries/future-proof-your-fleet-the-windows-11-and-ai-pc-readiness-report.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aIZNMDSDfC_4SyVw9YTdXgAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIZNMDSDfC_4SyVw9YTdXgAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIZNMDSDfC_4SyVw9YTdXgAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/04/ai_pc_sales_analysis/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aIZNMDSDfC_4SyVw9YTdXgAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/22/premium_priced_ai_pcs/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/14/final_year_windows_10/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aIZNMDSDfC_4SyVw9YTdXgAAAEs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/01/incoming_wave_of_ai_pcs/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/24/microsoft_win_11_cpus/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/01/pc_united_states_shipping_figs/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/20/windows_11_migration_heats_up/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/04/ai_pc_sales_analysis/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/28/asus_business_pc_plans/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/05/ai_pc_confusion/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/Tag/TOPS
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/22/ai_pcs_productivity/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/25/analysts_ai_pcs_shipments_gartner/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "upgrading their PC fleet is a virtue"
But you know what that's about, don't you? Money.
If they hadn't let recent purchasors upgrade they'd have had the ambulance chasing lawyers gearing up for action. Nothing to do with limited generousity.
If they let everybody upgrade they wouldn't get the licence sales from new hardware.
Re: "upgrading their PC fleet is a virtue"
Downvoted for complaining about lawyers.
Re: "upgrading their PC fleet is a virtue"
Not understanding if this is serious.
My brother is a patent lawyer, and he thinks the jokes that you hear about lawyers are true, which is why he laughs at them.
Re: "upgrading their PC fleet is a virtue"
Most jokes I hear about lawyers come from lawyers; e.g.---
"The medical research community is seriously thinking of using lawyers as lab animals for research, rather than white rats, because--
1) the researchers definitely won't get emotionally attached to lawyers;
2) there are more lawyers than lab rats;
3) there are some things that a lab rat just won't do.
Re: "upgrading their PC fleet is a virtue"
Your post downvoted for not reading carefully. The complaint was about the ambulance chasing variety. Earlier in my career I spent a lot of time in the courts. As with any other profession there were good and, shall we say, not so good. I found the episodes where they shunted the jury (if there was one) out of earshot fascinating while they debated points of law. Particular respect for Dessie Boal for, amongst other things, getting FIB 1 as his number plate although it sounds like you'd disapprove of his doing that.
If this is aimed at the UK market
They should have turned down the US raah raah do this and you'll be a winner bullshit because it comes across [1]as rather gauche . We all know they're doing this to try and inflate this quarter's numbers rather than the next quarter's.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Xhj6i_v7s
Re: If this is aimed at the UK market
But have you discussed this with any of "your fellow UK IT decision makers (ITDMs)"?
ITDM!
Please, don't let there be any native-born Son of Wayland or Daughter of Boudicca who refers to themselves as an ITDM.
Re: If this is aimed at the UK market
Sons of Wayland won't be running Windows.
Unrealistic
The bump-up in price for "AI-ready" PC's is likely to put businesses off more than anything.
Most places I've worked at saw any IT provision as a necessary evil - computers get replaced if they die, and everything is run on a shoestring.
My last employer was a very conservatively run family-owned business, and resolutely assigned desktops to everyone - even the MD didn't have a laptop. Our sole IT guy worked two days a week as a contractor.
As a lowly technician starting in 2016, the desktop I got given was a 2006 era tower complete with a single-core Intel processor (can't remember if it was a Core Solo or a Celeron), that appeared to have been built out of stuff our IT contractor had lying around in the cupboard. I also remember being handed a rollerball PS2 mouse to complete the setup with! Windows XP was used on a lot of the lower end machines until about 2017, when some updates to software simply refused to run on it....so we got upgraded to W7 as hardly anything could cope with Windows 10.
Given attitudes like this aren't unusual in the slightest (although I admit that place was impressively miserly), who do Dell and Intel think they're kidding in hoping anyone will shell out the extra dosh for all the AI crap?
Re: Unrealistic
I was stunned to learn that the so-called "AI" laptops are nearly CAN$1000 more than their non-AI predecessors. All so you can be spied on 24/7 by Microsoft and US law enforcement through "Recall."
Nor is the "AI" aspect of these machines worth crap , because they've a fraction of the horsepower and memory available that my RTX4070Ti does, and I still can't run LLMs more than 9GB in size. Which means they're so compressed they hallucinate like they've snorted cocaine, sucked on a tab of LSD, and done a dose of Ketamine, all within the space of five minutes...
Re: Unrealistic
"they're so compressed they hallucinate like they've snorted cocaine, sucked on a tab of LSD, and done a dose of Ketamine, all within the space of five minutes..." Yeah, but you've gotta compare that with Elon.
Dear Louise Quennell
"see it as an opportunity for businesses to reimagine how PCs and IT infrastructure can help create greater productivity, collaboration, and increased security,"
No i fucking don't.
Now please just follow the signs to the B-Ark departure gate.
Re: Dear Louise Quennell
Coming from the same jokers as these who plan to rape your IP and can't patch their own fscking products?
https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/23/microsoft_copilot_vision/
https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/24/microsoft_sharepoint_ransomware/
A trivial example, I appreciate but, nevertheless an example of how AI can streamline ones life.
eBay now offers to AI generated listing descriptions.
They are so consistently useless crap that I now simply disregard any item with an AI generated description and move on to the next.
The list of likely candidates shrinks.
A useful.time saver
Are these AI generated listings replacing the ones that copy'n'paste the description - and the photos - from Amazon, promising you their "new in unopened box" items?
Only now the image for the "Dressing gown, Women, Medium Fit" is an anime waifu.
Lack of a killer app
Killer app?
Are there any even vaguely useful apps that require an AI PC?
Seriously.
Searching throws up a few toys. So far, not even anything that looks like it'll help anybody who is already doing anything locally with ML, as they (still) need the beefy GPU (they already have) to make any real dent in execution times.
Re: Lack of a killer app
AI does have a few good artistic uses (for examples see the videos produced by Music-and-Songs on YouTube) but so far I have yet to see any serious use for AI as the results are far too likely to be incorrect. Until AI can produce results that are more accurate than the average YouTube video there is very little justification for the huge hype and expenditure.
Re: Lack of a killer app
I prefer [1]Almost Vinyl ...
[1] https://www.youtube.com/@AlmostVinyl
Re: Lack of a killer app
The USP for LLMs is they know enough shell to rm -rf your box cheaper than hiring someone to do it.
Re: Lack of a killer app
Sellers tend to say: "This AI PC is perfect for ChatGPT".
It's a scam.
Re: Lack of a killer app
"Are there any even vaguely useful apps that require an AI PC?" Well, you know, make NSFW pictures of your office mates?
Re: Lack of a killer app
It could be the killer app in itself. Killing the PC market.
"a survey of 1,000 IT decision makers"
Surveys say that 82% of people in surveys will give random answeres just to get whoever's doing the survey out of the way.
Surveys also say that 100% or marketroids will believe the result if it says what they want to hear..
1000 IT decision makers in the Travel and Tourism SME sector with at most 2 staff. Including the receptionist.
A very valid quote from Vic Reeves (a popular comedian from the 90s m'lord): “96.2% of all statistics are made up”
I actually don't do surveys. It's quicker than giving random answers.
But I understand that really evil people (which I'd like to be, but I'm too lazy) will indeed give intentionally wrong answers to utterly fuck the system.
"But I understand that really evil people (which I'd like to be, but I'm too lazy) will indeed give intentionally wrong answers to utterly fuck the system."
Ah, ah, ahhh, AH-CHOOO! Someone must be talking about me.
'We're seeing strong recognition of this shift among your fellow UK IT decision makers (ITDMs)'
So well a) that's a lie, isn't it, but b) who on God's green has ever talked about 'ITDMs'? Making up acronyms is not going to make you sound more convincing.
Decision Makers: The Ones who Authorize Payments
I do agree that "ITDM" is not A Thing. Internspeak?
In legalese, you use acronyms or abbreviations (Abbrevs) like this if you are planning to use This Important Legal Term over and over and over ...
I have never heard of DM's, except for the derivative from PM's, but "decision maker" written out is pure Salesese in the United States.
You may have a database full of company contacts, but, if they are Decision Makers, you are golden.
Re: Decision Makers: The Ones who Authorize Payments
You may have a database full of company contacts, but, if they are Decision Makers, you are golden a pest to every one of them.
I have an "A.I. PC" on order! I *DO* see it as an opportunity.
I actually *DO* have an A.I. PC on order. It's a Tuxedo Computers laptop that I shall need as I embark on a prolonged chapter of intermittent international travelling since I don't particularly wish to lug my water-cooled development desktop around the world with me. It shall be A.I. capable and also contain the necessary TPM 2 and other bits to enable the running of Windows 11.
I do see it as a great opportunity to avoid running either A.I. workloads or Windows 11 on it at all costs. I actually relish the prospect.
Of course, I selected the new hardware because of its Vulkan 1.4 support which I need because I'm developing software the uses Vulkan 1.3 ~ 1.4 features and extensions. I'm sure I'll run KataGo on it at some point, too, since I'm a Go player, and that's OpenCL so I wouldn't be surprised if the "A.I. features" of the GPU do get employed at least for something at some point in their lifetime – at least, I know that the fp16 support will very likely be used.
And fp16 support is literally the only thing that this "new opportunity" has that I could even enumerate as a feature that isn't supported on that aforementioned water-cooled development desktop (i7 7700, GTX 1080) which I assembled in 2017~18 and haven't upgraded(*) even once, which does not have any kind of TPM, which does not have "AI cores", which runs KataGo and other OpenCL workloads "just fine" because even fp16 features are not at all a hard requirement, and – CRITICALLY – which also never ran Windows 11, nor shall it! (It could, with hacks, but I am not inclined to bother to hack it even for shits-and-giggles and I've even run Windows ME for laughs, in my time, so there you go!)
The new laptop is all-AMD so it should support Linux much better than the desktop. I've conquered nVIDIA's shitty drivers on the latter so that's also quite OK (as long as I enforce the use of xwayland for all the things that freak out when the status-quo is nVIDIA+Wayland – while nVIDIA's drivers have improved over recent years, there are still a lot of things that just don't work with them under Wayland.)
If it was not for the need to take my dev. environment with me on an aeroplane, I honestly wouldn't have upgraded or even seen a need to in the near future.
But, still: I am going to absolutely love toting a Windows-11- and fully-AI-capable relative super-notebook around, running Gentoo (or Arch if I lose my nerve before Autumn and conclude that trying to hack on Gentoo over third-world Internet is not likely to be "fun" of the pleasantly-forgettable kind and opt for a safer, binary distro, instead.)
(*): I moved houses without draining the reservoir, once, and the pump died – presumably because the ~800m altitude difference was significant enough to force it to ingest water from the filled and sealed system – so that's been switched out. That is literally the only maintenance I've ever had to do on it beyond topping up the coolant.
ITDM has to be marketing punching up people with titles like "assistant to the manager" or managers without a mandate.
ITDM
You are in a twisty maze of servers, all alike.
Roll 3d6 to decide how many to reboot.
I see the results of Copilot many days: When I get five page essays from the HR department, instead of being ignored or receiving a useless non-reply to a question. I bet they are loving their increased "productivity".
From another publication:
"On Tuesday, Jenn Saavedra, Dell's chief HR officer, announced that the employee net promoter score, or eNPS — an industry-standard measure of employee satisfaction — had fallen to 32, according to a transcript of an internal video update obtained by
And they're thinking AI and RTO are going to save this ship. We don't need no stinking employees, we have automation.
Best of luck, all.
You are better off going back to paper.
'AI' systems will leach your data for LLM crunching, breaking every data privacy rule in the book. The 'AI' they offer is not 'I', doesn't work well enough to be allowed anywhere near enterprise systems and is little more than a scam. Recall is a recipe for disaster. And the cloud has now been weaponised for geopolitics. W11 requirements are an e-waste holocaust and will burn a hole in your budget at a time when governments are killing global growth. How many red flags do you need?
Do your stuff on your current kit with standalone software (not SaaS/Cloud) on an intranet using local storage and never connect it to the public internet. Where needed, connect cheap Linux systems to the internet and air gap them from your intranet with carbon based lifeforms.
Post-'AI', an internet connection is too great a security/privacy risk for your internal network.
Re: You are better off going back to paper.
Your real name is Commander Adama, and I claim my £5.
"upgrading their PC fleet is a virtue"
Heh, sorry, but Redmond has decided that its precious Win11 will not run on older hardware, so upgrading is not always an available choice.