Building new opportunities for a prosperous ecosystem and win-win situation, Intel makes AI PCs more than just PCs

Automate complex tasks on your computer without programming—simply give commands in natural language; AI + local knowledge bases “enlighten” your PC, enabling it to generate reports in minutes by handling statistical data and other work; struggling to come up with video scripts? AI “responds instantly” with ideas, easily inspiring creative inspiration… These are not science fiction movies but the reality already enabled by AI PCs.

Since September 2023, when Intel first introduced the concept of AI PCs, they have gradually shifted from an “option” to a “necessity,” becoming a key pillar for individuals and businesses to improve efficiency. Meanwhile, market feedback shows a strong growth trend for AI PCs—Canalys data indicates that in 2023, AI PC penetration in China was only 8%, with projections that by 2025, the market share will rise to 34%, and by 2028, AI PCs will account for 73% of the PC market.

The rapid rise of AI PCs from an emerging category to mainstream market can be summarized in two points: First, thanks to steadily improving hardware computing power, increasingly rich software applications, and a gradually expanding ecosystem, AI PCs have evolved from “usable” to “user-friendly.”

Second, the PC market is rebounding, ushering in another golden period of development. According to Canalys, global PC shipments in 2024 will reach 262 million units, a 3.1% increase year-over-year, marking the first positive growth after two years of decline; it is expected to reach 274 million units in 2025, a 4.1% increase. The recently published “2026 Cross-Platform Ecosystem Industry White Paper” summarizes three key factors driving the market rebound: policies promoting PCs as part of digital infrastructure, PCs as new productivity tools normalizing hybrid work, and content ecosystem creation needs upgrading to become the new main theme of PC usage. It’s clear that AI PCs are highly competitive given these three user needs and scenarios.

Of course, AI PCs are not only beneficiaries of the industry’s steady recovery but also enablers. AI technology has driven structural upgrades in the PC market—reshaping product capabilities, strengthening differentiation, and accelerating high-end and intelligent development, with the market share of PCs over 6,000 yuan rising sharply. Notably, Intel has played a crucial role throughout the development of AI PCs.

With decades of experience in the PC industry, Intel has keen insights into market and user needs, enabling rapid responses. In the mobile internet era, Intel continuously enhances the efficiency of its Core processors, extending notebook battery life and unplugged performance to adapt to diverse scenarios; as hybrid work becomes the norm, Intel improves multi-task productivity in new key scenarios like video conferencing and builds remote device management capabilities for individuals and enterprises; in the era of AI acceleration at the device edge, Intel has doubled the AI computing power of its Core processors in just a few years and partnered with OEMs and ISVs to foster a rich hardware and software ecosystem, making AI PCs easier and better to use.

Compared to traditional PCs, enhancing the AI PC experience urgently requires hardware, software, and ecosystem development in tandem—this is Intel’s three-pronged approach and advantage for empowering AI PC innovation. If we visualize AI PCs in a three-dimensional coordinate system, hardware determines the ceiling; software defines depth; ecosystem determines breadth.

180 TOPS Computing Power and Trillion-Parameter Large Models

Since the first generation of Core Ultra processors, Intel has proposed the “XPU” heterogeneous computing architecture, flexibly utilizing CPU, GPU, and NPU to maximize each unit’s advantages, balancing efficiency, power consumption, and reliability. Today, Intel’s third-generation Core Ultra processors boast up to 180 TOPS of platform-level AI computing power, support up to 96GB of LPDDR5x memory, can run large models with 70 billion parameters, and handle 32K context lengths. This is not the limit. Thanks to Intel’s variable VRAM technology, the Core Ultra series can unlock up to 120GB of VRAM, enabling local operation of large models with 120 billion parameters.

With hardware product and technological innovations, Intel provides ample potential for AI PCs. Surveys show that users currently have clear demands for higher computing power and stronger AI capabilities, and hardware upgrades are driving the PC market from quantity to quality.

Developing over 500 AI features and supporting more than 900 AI models for local deployment

If hardware is the main artery connecting AI PCs to usage scenarios, then software is like the capillaries—small streets that connect the “last mile” between AI PCs and user experience. Currently, Intel has over 350 ISV partners jointly developing more than 500 AI features, supporting over 900 AI models for local deployment. In terms of deployment speed, Intel pursues “Day 0” support, enabling developers to deploy and invoke the latest large models on Intel platforms as early as possible.

At the same time, Intel provides comprehensive software tools such as OpenVINO, covering system, framework, model, and application layers, working with software partners to deliver products and solutions that truly address user pain points.

Fostering a Prosperous Ecosystem to Unlock AI PC Value

Deep integration of hardware and software accelerates the evolution of AI at the PC end, making AI an inherent capability of PCs in less than three years. Today, AI assistants and intelligent agents on AI PCs help users perform basic operations, becoming new interfaces for human-computer interaction; AI meeting assistants can record, organize, and summarize meetings, and also serve as simultaneous interpreters; AI gaming assistants can act as “gaming buddies” or “coaching aids” to enhance immersion and skills, while reducing GPU resource consumption to ensure smooth gameplay.

These achievements are closely tied to Intel’s open ecosystem. In the PC industry, Intel’s long-standing collaborations with OEMs and ISVs have been crucial for opening up the AI PC market. Since the first Core Ultra processor, hundreds of devices equipped with Intel platforms have launched, covering laptops, desktops, and more. Meanwhile, Intel’s hardware and software support for ISVs has created rich AI functionalities and applications, enabling users to not only have “top-tier” hardware but also practical solutions, ensuring that AI PC’s computing power and capabilities translate into high productivity in work, study, entertainment, and daily life.

More importantly, Intel’s ongoing cooperation with OEMs and ISVs continues to promote a thriving AI PC market, achieving a “1+1+1>3” effect in delivering value to businesses and users.

Taking office scenarios as an example: digitalization is accelerating, demanding higher efficiency, and the increasing need for collaboration and remote work makes workflows more complex, further changing work modes. Professionals face more frequent and larger-scale communication, meetings, reports, and analysis tasks. As a result, the role of the PC as a professional productivity tool becomes even more prominent.

Canalys predicts that China’s PC market will maintain a steady 2% growth in 2025, with potential acceleration to 3% in 2026. The long-term driver for PC market growth is not only market demand but also AI innovation. Compared to traditional PCs, AI PCs are clearly the more ideal “workplace partner.”

First, AI PCs’ rich AI capabilities help office and creative users improve efficiency and assist brainstorming—AI assistants that generate meeting summaries, quickly retrieve answers from local knowledge bases, and produce content like text, images, or videos with AIGC tools, providing more inspiration in a short time. Second, through joint efforts with partners, deep integration of AI features with professional software allows complex operations to be completed with “one click.” Even as we enter the era of intelligent agents, AI PCs acting as “workplace partners” can now automate and execute a series of complex tasks on behalf of users.

Third, edge AI on AI PCs offers low latency and better data privacy through local deployment, and as data accumulates, AI becomes more personalized, serving as a “personalized assistant.” This is highly significant for companies and employees alike.

Therefore, the thriving AI PC ecosystem built by Intel and its partners can enable multi-dimensional hardware and software empowerment, solving various work challenges and helping users create more value through PCs.

These capabilities further demonstrate that hardware, software, and ecosystems are not isolated islands but interconnected and mutually reinforcing. As a result, creators, developers, gamers, and professionals can all leverage AI PCs to upgrade efficiency and optimize experiences.

This synergy of hardware, software, and ecosystems allows Intel to continuously expand the capabilities of edge AI and AI PCs, including bridging Android and Windows ecosystems—breaking down the physical and ecological barriers between PCs and mobile devices. For example, on May 23, 2023, Tencent’s App Store PC version was launched, enabled by Intel’s Bridge technology and innovations like Celadon, allowing users to run mobile apps directly on their PCs. When needing a coffee break during work, users can simply open a food delivery app on their computer without unlocking their phone.

Seizing New Opportunities from Cross-Platform Integration

Multi-device collaboration and data sharing are challenges faced by every consumer, and upstream manufacturers are actively exploring solutions. The “2026 Cross-Platform Ecosystem Industry White Paper” notes that user needs and acceptance of cross-platform experiences vary, requiring solutions that are easy to use and adaptable. For users with clear needs in work, study, or entertainment, maintaining high-quality experience and efficiency is essential. However, Apple’s closed-loop ecosystem, with its built-in technology and devices, creates barriers; domestic smartphone manufacturers’ cross-platform ecosystems still have room for improvement in meeting diverse needs and scenarios.

Unlike these, Intel’s joint cross-platform solutions with Tencent and Microsoft are open systems, targeting Android and Windows ecosystems. Intel’s collaboration with Tencent ensures broad coverage of mainstream applications and user needs on the PC side.

Second, Intel leverages technological innovation to empower from hardware to ecosystem, using Bridge technology and Celadon to help developers quickly port Android apps to x86 platforms, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Meanwhile, ecosystem cooperation continuously enhances Tencent’s PC app store capabilities, optimizing functions and user experience, providing OEMs and ISVs with more flexible partnership models, and enabling users to access the apps they need on demand.

The accelerated cross-platform integration with partners like Tencent not only addresses user experience gaps but also enriches the AI PC application matrix for more scenarios. Users can seamlessly switch between PC and mobile devices based on preferences—whether for creation, work, gaming, life, or learning—benefiting from comprehensive edge AI support.

AI PC: More Than Just a PC

Two years ago, skepticism surrounded AI PCs; today, embracing AI trends, AI PCs are unleashing high productivity in work, learning, and creation, becoming increasingly indispensable.

Through joint efforts with hardware and software partners, Intel has achieved deep integration of AI and PCs. From “AI + PC” to “PC with built-in AI,” AI PCs are redefining how users interact with their computers—understanding and generating multimodal information such as text, audio, images, and videos, elevating interaction, and learning user habits and context to improve personalization and usability.

Based on recent PC market data and future outlooks, the ecosystem built by Intel and its partners supports the exploration of new AI PC scenarios, driving a healthy cycle—Intel consolidates its leadership in the PC industry, OEMs and ISVs achieve commercial success, and users and enterprises create more value with AI PCs.

As the industry enters a new golden era of PC development, how Intel and OEMs/ISVs seize opportunities, accelerate adoption of intelligent applications, empower more users, and break device and ecosystem barriers with new experiences under cross-platform integration are highly anticipated.