According to market research institutions IDC The latest report released estimates AI PC Shipments will approach 50 million units in 2024.By 2027, it will grow to 167 million unitsIDC predicts that AI PCs will account for 20% of global PCs by 2027. The total shipment volume is about 60%.
Tom Mainelli, Vice President of IDC's Devices and Consumer Research Group, said:
As we head into 2024, the hype around AI has reached a fever pitch, and the PC industry is moving quickly to take advantage of the expected benefits of extending AI capabilities from the cloud to the client.
The promise of increased user productivity through faster performance, lower inference costs, and on-device privacy and security advantages is driving strong interest in AI-enabled PCs among IT decision makers.
Faster performance, lower inference costs, and on-device privacy and security advantages—the promise of increased user productivity—are driving strong interest in AI-enabled PCs among IT decision makers.
In 2024, we’ll see shipments of AI-enabled PCs begin to climb, and over the next few years we expect the technology to move from niche to mainstream.
IDC defines AI PCs into three categories:
Hardware Supported AI PC:
PCs include NPUs, but they have a performance of less than 40 TOPS and typically allow specific AI functions in applications to run locally. Currently, Qualcomm, Apple, AMD and Intel are all launching such chips.
Next-Gen AI PC:
Includes an NPU with 40-60 TOPS performance and an AI-first operating system (OS) that enables persistent and pervasive AI capabilities in the OS and applications.
Qualcomm, AMD, and Intel have all announced future chips of this type, with deliveries expected to begin in 2024.
Microsoft is expected to roll out a major update to Windows 11 (and updated system specs) to take advantage of these high TOPS NPUs.
Advanced AI PC:
Refers to PCs with NPU performance greater than 60 TOPS. Although no chip vendors have announced such products yet, IDC expects them to appear in the next few years. This IDC forecast does not include advanced AI PCs, but they will be included in future updates.
While shipments of hardware-enabled AI PCs will grow rapidly over the next two years, IDC expects next-generation AI PCs to dominate the market by 2027. IDC believes that by 2027, shipments of next-generation AI PCs will be twice as large as hardware-enabled AI PCs.
The agency said that the purchasers of these AI PCs are mainly commercial buyers, but in the future it will promote the arrival of the era of personal AI PCs, with many potential improvements in gaming and digital content creation.