- Dell hosted a Q&A as a part of its pre-briefing for CES 2026
- An exec mentioned of the agency’s laptops that “from a shopper perspective … they are not shopping for based mostly on AI”
- This admission comes simply as one other Home windows 11 AI fail goes viral, which is unlucky timing for Microsoft
Dell is telling it straight so far as the up to date world of PCs goes, with the pc maker bluntly explaining that customers aren’t shopping for laptops based mostly on AI skills.
PC Gamer stories (as flagged by The Verge) that Dell’s execs have been refreshingly frank on the subject of AI and the PC in a Q&A session that was a part of the corporate’s pre-briefing for CES 2026 this week.
First up, Dell’s COO, Jeff Clarke, noticed that there was an “expectation of AI driving finish person demand” but additionally an “un-met promise of AI”, hinting at a few of the disappointment – or confusion – round AI PCs for the typical shopper.
Then Dell’s head of product, Kevin Terwilliger, went additional and famous of the corporate’s contemporary product launches (which included the new XPS 14 and 16 laptops): “One factor you will discover is the message we delivered round our merchandise was not AI-first. So, a little bit of a shift from a yr in the past the place we have been all in regards to the AI PC.”
Terwilliger continued: “We’re very targeted on delivering upon the AI capabilities of a tool – the truth is every part that we’re saying has an NPU in it – however what we have discovered over the course of this yr, particularly from a shopper perspective, is they are not shopping for based mostly on AI. The truth is I feel AI most likely confuses them greater than it helps them perceive a selected end result.”
Evaluation: it is likely to be ‘make or break’ for AI in Home windows 11 this yr
Briefly, Dell is taking its foot off the pedal with regards to pushing AI in its advertising, just because it does not imagine that customers are that – and that it’d even be a degree of confusion for some.
Whilst you may argue that the latter viewpoint is considerably patronizing, I feel it is a honest sufficient commentary total. I imagine some shoppers actually do not care about AI, and don’t see the good thing about the varied skills for Copilot+ PCs – these unique Home windows 11 AI options – or how they could use them.
And in fact, there is not that a lot to get enthusiastic about with these AI options up to now, anyway – not past image-editing tips (and let’s face it, many people do not do something a lot with their images) and extra search powers (a few of which individuals could also be very suspicious of on the privateness entrance, notably the important thing AI piece of the puzzle right here, which is Recall).
Many individuals most likely do not use AI past queries posed to ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini or no matter their favourite taste of AI portal occurs to be, utilizing them as a form of beefed-up Google search (different engines can be found, etcetera).
Moreover, with all the warmth that Microsoft is taking on making an attempt to crowbar extra AI into Home windows 11 – regardless of constant cries from detractors who’d relatively the software program big fixes what’s flawed with its desktop OS, relatively than placing in new options that ‘nobody requested for’ at a charge of knots – the repute of AI options is being tarnished significantly when it comes to questioning Microsoft’s motives right here.
Is all this for present, driving the AI hype prepare and pushing as onerous as attainable with such options in Home windows 11 in a bid to additional impress shareholders and drive market capitalization?
Onlookers to the sorts of on-line bunfights which were occurring between anti-AI rebels and Microsoft’s execs are little doubt absorbing messaging which, for instance, is not leaving these AI options in the perfect gentle.
Particularly not whenever you get movies just like the one beneath on X, lately posted by Ryan Fleury (hat tip to Futurism for recognizing this), which highlights an embarrassing fail by the AI agent in Home windows 11’s Settings app.
That clip has presently amassed nicely over 4 million views (on the time of writing), and as you’ll be able to see, it exhibits the AI freezing up and failing to supply any reply to a fundamental question. Not simply any fundamental question, thoughts, however the very one which Home windows 11 instructed the person ought to strive so as to exhibit the capabilities of the agent – so, you’d anticipate that it’d work nicely provided that reality.
Okay, so this can be a one-off instance, however we have seen others. I am unable to assist however recall (pun totally supposed) the video from Microsoft’s advertising division the place the Copilot AI assistant makes relatively a large number of making an attempt to assist a person change the textual content measurement in Home windows 11. (That clip was finally pulled, and I am undecided the way it was printed within the first place). These are eye-opening circumstances of AD – synthetic dumbness – a time period I coined two minutes in the past (one which, unsurprisingly, already exists, so Google – or ought to I say Gemini which gives the ‘AI overview’ – tells me).
With sentiment souring round AI in Home windows 11 to a better extent of late, is it any marvel that Dell needs to distance itself from the idea of AI PCs? At the very least for now, particularly as we’re shifting into a tricky gross sales surroundings for laptops and desktops (with the spiking prices of RAM, storage, and in addition GPUs in some circumstances).
And sure, Dell could remind us that regardless of its feedback right here, it is nonetheless pushing with AI in a manner, as “every part that we’re saying has an NPU in it” – nevertheless it’s not like there is a selection in that regard, is there? Away from funds laptops, all cutting-edge PC chips which might be going to energy fashionable laptops now have beefy NPUs, whether or not they’re AMD, Intel or Qualcomm.
In equity, the agentic AI performance that Microsoft is now implementing with Home windows 11 could be the piece of the puzzle that lastly strikes the needle with AI and grabs the eye of shoppers extra extensively – however that is still to be seen. As do the potential safety pitfalls or different nastiness that AI brokers would possibly herald tow.
And with one of many main issues with AI being a scarcity of belief in these options, whether or not from a safety or privateness perspective – or simply ‘hallucinations’ (AI getting stuff plain flawed) – AI brokers may presumably be the ‘breaking’, relatively than the ‘making’, of Copilot and all its related trappings in Home windows 11.
2026 will likely be a really telling yr for AI, I feel, however for now, Dell will get credit score for being frank in regards to the present state of play with the AI options in Home windows 11 PCs. Though arguably, that is the one wise path to take with advertising PCs proper now, given the circumstances as mentioned above.
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