Over the past two years, processor manufacturers Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, as well as operating system provider Microsoft, have all poured their efforts into promoting the concept of "AI PCs," attempting to trigger a wave of upgrades. However, Dell recently admitted in a public communication that for the vast majority of consumers, AI features are not the primary motivation for purchasing a new PC, and may even have the opposite effect.
The gap between marketing enthusiasm and market indifference
According to a report by PCGAMER, Dell has realized that the industry's overwhelming "AI PC" marketing strategy is significantly out of touch with actual consumer needs.
Dell stated that while the company has not abandoned its design to incorporate NPUs into hardware or enhance on-device AI computing capabilities, after a period of market testing, it found that the strategy of using AI as a core selling point "has not effectively boosted sales." For the general public who are not tech enthusiasts, AI has not only failed to generate significant purchasing interest, but has also easily triggered doubts or concerns about privacy and unclear practicality.
Back to the fundamentals: price, performance, and battery life
So what do consumers really care about? Dell's observations indicate that when buyers choose laptops or desktops, the criteria they consider remain quite traditional and pragmatic: price, performance, battery life, and reliability.
Compared to manufacturers' heavily promoted NPU computing power or Copilot buttons and other design features, users are more concerned with whether the computer can last longer, run more smoothly, and whether it is worth the price. This also shows that currently, AI applications have not yet produced an indispensable "killer app" on the consumer side, resulting in low user willingness to upgrade hardware for AI.
Therefore, the announcement made during CES 2026XPS series laptopsThe company focused more on communicating the lightweight and durable design of this series of models. In order to emphasize the importance of the XPS brand, the new models even directly replaced the original Dell brand name with the XPS logo. The product description did not even explicitly emphasize the AI application features.
AI is still a trend, but it needs time to develop.
While acknowledging the disconnect between marketing strategies and demand, Dell emphasizes that this does not mean AI is unimportant. PC manufacturers generally believe that AI is a long-term driving force for future replacement cycles, but judging from current market feedback, it is clear that more time and software ecosystem cooperation are needed for AI to transform from a "marketing term" into a practical function that consumers can "feel" and "experience," rather than simply stacking hardware specifications to attract buyers.
Analysis of viewpoints
Dell's statement actually reveals a "secret that the PC industry has been keeping quiet about for the past two years."
Since the "AI PC" slogan was introduced in 2024, and up to 2026, although the penetration rate of NPUs in hardware has increased significantly, the experience upgrade brought by on-device AI remains quite limited for the vast majority of users engaged in word processing and web browsing. As Windows Copilot still requires an internet connection, and as the speed and quality of AI-generated images on devices still have room for improvement, consumers will naturally become more rational and compare factors such as screen quality and battery life.
However, this doesn't mean AI PCs are a false issue. Just like with 5G phones in the past, once the infrastructure (hardware) is perfected, we still need to wait for software applications to catch up. Before AI truly becomes an "unnoticeable but necessary" infrastructure like Wi-Fi, overhyping AI features can easily make consumers feel deprived, thinking, "I paid extra for features I don't need."
