Microsoft set to unveil its vision for AI PCs at Build developer conference

Microsoft‘s
Build
developer
conference
kicks
off
on
Tuesday,
giving
the
company
the
opportunity
to
showcase
its
latest
artificial
intelligence
projects,
following
high-profile
events
this
month
hosted
by
OpenAI
and


Google.

One
area
where
Microsoft
has
a
distinct
advantage
over
others
in
the
AI
race
is
in
its
ownership
of
Windows,
which
gives
the
company
a
massive
PC
userbase.

Microsoft
CEO

Satya
Nadella

said
in
January
that
2024
will
mark
the
year
when
AI
will
become
the
“first-class
part
of
every
PC.”

The
company
already
offers
its
Copilot
chatbot
assistant
in
the
Bing
search
engine
and,
for
a
fee,
in
Office
productivity
software.
Now,
PC
users
will
get
to
hear
more
about
how
AI
will
be
embedded
in
Windows
and
what
they
can
do
with
it
on
new
AI
PCs.

Build
comes
days
after

Google
I/O,
where
the
search
giant
unveiled
its

most
powerful
AI
model
yet
and
showed
how
its
Gemini
AI
will
work
on
computers
and
phones.
Prior
to
Google’s
event,
OpenAI
announced
its

new
GPT-4o
model.
Microsoft
is
OpenAI’s
lead
investor,
and
its
Copilot
technology
is
based
on
OpenAI’s
models..

For
Microsoft,
the
challenge
is
twofold:
keeping
a
prominent
position
in
AI
and
bolstering
PC
sales,
which
have
been
in
the
doldrums
for
the
past
two
years
following
an
upgrade
cycle
during
the
pandemic.

In
a
recent
note
on


Dell
to
investors,
Morgan
Stanley
analyst
Erik
Woodring
wrote
that
he
remains
“bullish
on
the
PC
market
recovery”
due
to
commentary
from
customers
and
recent
“upward
revisions
to
notebook”
original
design
manufacturer
(ODM)
builds.

Technology
industry
researcher
Gartner
estimated
that
PC
shipments
increased
0.9%
in
the
quarter
after
a
multi-year
slump.
Demand
for
PCs
was
“slightly
better
than
expected,”
Microsoft
CFO
Amy
Hood
said
on
the
company’s

quarterly
earnings
call
last
month.

New
AI
tools
from
Microsoft
could
offer
another
reason
for
enterprise
and
consumer
customers
to
upgrade
their
aging
computers,
whether
they’re
made
by


HP,
Dell
or
Lenovo.

“While
Copilot
for
Windows
does
not
directly
drive
monetization
it
should,
we
believe,
drive
up
usage
of
Windows,
stickiness
of
Windows,
customers
to
higher
priced
more
powerful
PCs
(and
therefore
more
revenue
to
Microsoft
per
device),
and
likely
search
revenue,”
Bernstein
analysts
wrote
in
a
note
to
investors
on
April
26,
the
day
after
Microsoft
reported
earnings.

While
Microsoft
will
provide
the
software
to
handle
some
of
the
AI
tasks
sent
to
the
internet,
its
computers
will
be
powered
by
chips
from


AMD,


Intel
and


Qualcomm
for
offline
AI
jobs.
That
could
include,
for
example,
using
your
voice
to
ask
Copilot
to
summarize
a
transcription
without
a
connection.

The
key
hardware
addition
to
an
AI
PC
is
what’s
called
a
neural
processing
unit.
NPUs
go
beyond
the
capabilities
of
traditional
central
processing
units
(CPUs)
and
are
designed
to
specifically
handle
artificial
intelligence
tasks.
Traditionally,
they’ve
been
used
by
companies
like


Apple
to
improve
photos
and
videos
or
for
speech
recognition.

Microsoft
hasn’t
said
what
AI
PCs
will
be
capable
of
yet
without
an
internet
connection.
But
Google’s
PIxel
8
Pro
phone,
which
doesn’t
have
a
full
computer
processor,
can
summarize
and
transcribe
recordings,
recommend
text
message
responses
and
more
using
its
Gemini
Nano
AI.

Computers
with
Intel’s
latest
Lunar
Lake
chips
with
a
dedicated
NPU
are
expected
to
arrive
in
late
2024.
Qualcomm’s
Snapdragon
X
Elite
chip
with
an
NPU
will
be
available
in
the
middle
of
this
year,
while
AMD’s
latest
Ryzen
Pro
is
expected
sometime
during
the
quarter.

Intel

says
the
chips
allow
for
things
like
“real-time
language
translation,
automation
inferencing,
and
enhanced
gaming
environments.”

Apple
has
been
using
NPUs
for
years
and
recently
highlighted
them
in
its
new

M4
chip
for
the
iPad
Pro.
The
M4
chip
is
expected
to
launch
in
the
next
round
of
Macs
sometime
this
year.

Qualcomm,
unlike


Intel
and


AMD,
offers
chips
powered
by


Arm-based
architecture.
One
of
Microsoft’s
sessions
will
talk
about
“the
Next
Generation
of
Windows
on
Arm,”
which
will
likely
cover
how
Windows
runs
on
Qualcomm
chips
and
how
that’s
different
from
Intel
and
AMD
versions
of
Windows.

Intel
still
controls
78%
of
the
PC
chip
market,
followed
by
AMD
at
13%,
according
to
recent

data
from
Canalys.

In
the
past,
Qualcomm
has
promoted
Snapdragon
Arm-based
computers
by
touting
their
longer
battery
life,
thinner
designs
and
other
benefits
like
cellular
connections.
But
earlier
versions
of
Qualcomm’s
chips
were
limited
in
what
they
offered
consumers.
In
2018,
for
example,
the
company’s
Snapdragon
835
chip

couldn’t
run
most
Windows
applications. 

Microsoft
has
since
improved
Windows
to
handle
traditional
apps
on
Arm,
but
questions
remain.
The
company
even
has
an

FAQ
page
dedicated
to
computers
running
on
ARM
hardware. 

Microsoft
will
also
be
hosting
sessions
like
“AI
Everywhere”
covering
how
to
“accelerate
generative
AI
models”
on
devices
that
run
in
the
cloud. 

An
“Azure
AI
Studio”
session
will
look
at
how
developers
can
create
their
own
Copilot
chatbots,
which
may
be
similar
to
what
Google
and
OpenAI
are
doing
with
Gemini
and
ChatGPT.
Imagine,
for
example,
a
company
creating
a
chatbot
that
can
help
employees
select
health
benefits.

WATCH:

Investing
in
the
future
of
AI