Shipments of AI PCs to spike 165.5 per cent in 2025

“It’s going to be quite an interesting and competitive market out there,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner

114 million units. That’s the number of AI PCs that will be shipped in 2025, an increase of 165.5 per cent from 2024, according to analyst house Gartner.

AI PCs will then represent 43 per cent of all PC shipments by 2025, up from 17 per cent in 2024.

Gartner also predicts AI PC shipments to reach 43 million units in 2024, a 99.8 per cent increase from 2023.

Gartner classifies AI PCs as PCs with an embedded neural processing unit (NPU).

AI PCs include PCs with NPUs attached to Windows on Arm, macOS on Arm and x86 on Windows PCs.

CRN sat down with Ranjit Atwal to understand what this means for the future of IT.

Market and competition

“The debate has moved from speculating which PCs might include AI functionality, to the expectation that most PCs will eventually integrate AI NPU capabilities,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner.

“As a result, NPU will become a standard feature for PC vendors.”

When asked which vendors will be at the forefront of this rise in AI PCs shipments, Atwal mentioned various global players such as x86, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Nvidia.

“It’s going to be quite an interesting and competitive market out there.”

The fundamental principle of evolution also applies here: those who are most adaptable to change are the ones to survive.

From the industrial revolution to AI PCs, many have risen but plenty have fallen.

With this in mind, will the rise in AI PCs be the beginning of the end for certain vendors?

“China will be a very important market, as the country is a big consumer of PCs.

“Lenovo, who is a global Chinese PC manufacturer, will definitely have an advantage there, especially since the company has built its own China chatbot and small language model.

“But English-speaking providers are not to be outdone; the new language models allow technology to be more localised, as models can be trained to learn and work in specific languages,” added Atwal.

Such technology will allow more flexibility to grow for vendors worldwide.

Atwal also suggest being ready for new players entering the market, players coming “from the smartphone world, or maybe even elsewhere.”

It is safe to call this increase in AI PCs shipments a revolution, and Gartner expects it to be a global one.

“Even though PC penetration is higher in the US and Western markets – China being an exception -, countries like India have less barriers or issues with sharing data, privacy and security, and because of that are more inclined to trust the output of AI.”

Fad or future

Gartner predicts that by 2026, AI laptops will be the only choice of laptop available to large businesses.

According to Atwal, this new technology is here to stay, as he is certain that people will come to see an “alignment between their needs and what AI PCs can do.”

But for this alignment to happen, AI needs more orchestration.

“In the current AI environment, with small language models all over the place, we need something to orchestrate, maybe a proper conversation interface.

“Such orchestration would make everything quicker, better, and more readily available.

“For the device to be proactive, mimic and tell you what the best route for you is, that will take time, but that's where this is all eventually headed.”