Your first post-pandemic laptop will be an AI PC

Dell, on Tuesday, announced the Dell XPS 13 and Dell Inspiron 14 Plus. With these devices, Dell joins other Windows-based laptop makers such as Microsoft, HP, and Samsung among others to put Artificial Intelligence in laptops. 

These new computers, called AI PCs (or in the case of Dell, Copilot+ PCs) use Artificial Intelligence to make it easier to carry out everyday tasks and automate others such as photo editing and language translation. 

However, even though AI PCs have been the buzzword in the industry today, what does an AI PC do is a bit of a mystery to the average Joe. 

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“For starters, an AI PC will be much faster than your regular PC,” says Atul Mehta, Sr Director and General Manager, India Consumer Channel at Dell. “And it will have a much longer battery life. The Dell XPS 13, for instance, can last up to 27 hours. 

But even Mehta admits that these are just elementary advantages of an AI PC. The extent of what an AI PC can do is limited by its programming, hardware capabilities, and the data on which it has been trained. Everyone agrees that the full potential of an AI-powered PC is still far from being realised. 

Potential of AI PCs

Even in its early stages today, AI PCs can do some pretty cool stuff. “Like language translation,” Mehta says, “I was in conversation with a person on an AI PC. He was speaking in Spanish; I was responding in Hindi, but we could understand each other because of the live captioning. Today, an AI PC can convert 44 languages to English as we speak. The use cases for a feature like this in a country like India are many.” 

For Mehta the timing is right for an AI PC for many reasons. But none come close to the fact that people, who bought a new laptop during the pandemic to cope with WFH or simply thanks to allowances from their respective employers, are due for an upgrade.  

“The PC refresh market is a very big one. And if you’re in the market for one right now, chances are you could do well buying an AI PC instead of a traditional notebook,” he says. 

Mehta is right. The latest models of all major laptop manufacturers are AI PCs. The general consensus is that sooner rather than later all PCs will be AI PCs. Choosing a traditional laptop today would be akin to opting for a feature phone when you can afford to buy a smartphone. 

The AI PCs are also a blessing for gamers, both amateur and professionals. An NPU under the hood means these computers can intelligently allocate resources across components, giving you more performance, or battery life based on your needs, which could mean smoother gameplay.

For creators, aspects like image generation and editing becomes a lot easier, as AI workloads are now shifted to the NPU, allowing the PC’s CPU to function uncompromised.  

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“So, whether you’re a gamer, a creator, or just a plain multitasker, AI PCs are the way forward, for you,” Mehta says. 

It helps, of course, that these powerhouses from Dell are also fairly thin. That, with 27-hour battery makes a 13-inch AI PC even more portable, because you can easily ditch the charger for a day-long outing. 

Dell is justified to be excited about its newest offering. And the fact that AI PCs are still in its infancy makes it all the more exciting.