By Chris Buchanan, Client Solutions Director, Dell Technologies South Africa

Generative AI (GenAI) is the next big leap for PC technology, promising to bring unseen levels of productivity and efficiency to businesses worldwide.

With AI-enabled PCs, we can expect faster decision-making, streamlined workflows and smarter data analysis. Just as the introduction of the PC 40 years ago revolutionised the way we work, GenAI will shape the future of the PC-human experience, unlocking new possibilities for growth and innovation.

As AI grows alongside technological advancements in PCs, Dell predicts that PCs will move beyond driving human productivity to driving human performance. AI promises immense productivity benefits, reduced latency and improved cost effectiveness, privacy, security and sustainability.

What most users don’t realise is that Artificial intelligence on personal computers has been around for a while – features like background blurring on conference calls, focus and light adjustment from your camera and voice to text conversion rely in some part on Artificial Intelligence. The challenge is that these features require a lot of computing power. Hence the requirement for a new processor architecture.

Dell’s new XPS portfolio is powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, these devices feature built-in AI acceleration engines with the addition of a neural processing unit (NPU). The inclusion of an NPU means the PC no longer needs to rely solely on the CPU or GPU for processing and performance. Imagine you are a creator who is always on the go and editing photos in Adobe Lightroom. The addition of the NPU automatically leverages the right compute engine for your workload - in this case letting you edit images faster than before while preserving battery life. Unsurprisingly, IDC estimates that 40% of companies anticipate a materially or moderately positive AI PC impact on their organisations.

In the medium term, next year will see new architectures featuring onboard AI processing capabilities with more memory, storage and processing power – Next-Gen CPUs, GPUs, NPUs and accelerators – to handle more complex AI workloads. Dell is actively working with partners throughout the industry to make this new architecture a reality.

Looking further ahead, Dell sees the future PC as a true digital partner. Today, most of our command-and-control interactions are driven by you typing on a keyboard; in the future users will enjoy bi-directional experiences with their PCs – imagine collaborating or co-creating with voice, visual commands, and even gestures.

As with most advances in PC technology, AI will continue to develop throughout the coming years. There will be a next generation of chips that power the technology to allow users to run more complex AI workloads and reduce the manual input. This will lead to an increased demand for PCs over the next few years as AI-enabled PCs become ingrained into all aspects of business, learning and personal use.

We are at the forefront of a truly exciting period within business transformation. With groundbreaking innovations like AI revolutionising the way companies operate, our customers are seeking out more AI-enabled solutions to modernise their businesses. We are proud to offer our customers a range of choices, services and delivery models to help them achieve their goals.

Our commercial PCs are currently the world’s most intelligent, with AI-enabled software like Dell Optimizer as well as telemetry and automation to deliver self-healing capabilities. Our new XPS portfolio, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, features a built-in AI acceleration engine that translates to faster performance while preserving the battery life of the device.

At Dell, we know that GenAI will drive industry growth and transform the PC-to-human interaction and experience, and we are focused on being the leading PC provider for the AI era, with investments centred around intelligence, security and being a trusted end-to-end advisory.