The PC market got a shakeup last month when Microsoft threw its weight behind Qualcomm and its new Arm-based CPUs to sell the idea of the artificial intelligence (AI) PC to consumers. Microsoft's own Surface devices, as well as an array of laptops from the major PC OEMs, are powered by the new chips.
At the moment, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors are the only PC CPUs available with enough AI horsepower to meet Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirement. Systems must have a neural processing unit, or NPU, capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second, as well as 16 gigabytes of RAM.
Copilot+ PCs gain support for a handful of AI-powered features, including a text-to-image tool in Paint, filters for webcams, and live captions with translations. Recall, a feature that takes screenshots of activity to allow users to find anything they've seen on their PC, was delayed due to privacy and security concerns.
Not quite a coup for Qualcomm
While Microsoft offering exclusive AI-powered Windows features on laptops with Qualcomm chips may seem like bad news for CPU market leader Intel (INTC +2.05%), it's unlikely to matter much in the long run. Reviews for the AI features in Windows that are currently available have been abysmal.
Tom's Hardware ran through the available features and concluded that "they aren't that impressive and you can get them elsewhere." The Cocreator tool for Paint doesn't work very well and still requires an internet connection despite using the on-board NPU, the webcam features like background blurring are already common features in videoconferencing apps, and the live captions feature won't be useful for most users.
Recall has the potential to be useful, but it's not ready yet, and the clock is ticking on Qualcomm's Copilot+ exclusivity. AMD is launching its Ryzen AI chips later this month, which will have ample AI processing power, and Intel will roll out its Lunar Lake chips later this year.
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Key Data Points
The AI PC is a marketing gimmick for now
While laptops powered by Qualcomm's chips have some appealing qualities, including solid performance and long battery lives, the AI features built into Windows appear to be mostly gimmicks right now. This will likely change as on-device AI processors become more capable, but that process will play out over years.
Intel missing out on having Copilot+ PCs available probably won't matter much. The company's Meteor Lake chips, which launched late last year, feature an NPU that isn't powerful enough to meet Microsoft's requirements. Lunar Lake will surpass those requirements, and it will likely launch well before the AI features built into Windows become a real selling point.
AI will eventually change how people use PCs, unlocking new levels of productivity and enabling new experiences. But that day has not yet arrived. By the time it does, both Intel and AMD will have powerful AI-enabled CPUs on the market.
While Intel will have to contend with a more competitive PC CPU market in the coming years, Microsoft's AI snub won't give Qualcomm an advantage over the market leader.
