Announced with great fanfare, the first computers with artificial intelligence (AI), launched in May, have not yet found their users. According to our information, sales to the general public are limited to just over 200 copies per week in France. “ Today, major accounts are testing these machines: it will take a little time before observing the first results », Estimates on the HP side.
The difficulty? For the moment, so-called “Copilot +” PCs, equipped with specific chips powerful enough to run artificial intelligence programs directly on the machine, are essentially high-end models, whose price exceeds 1,000 euros. An amount little justified by the functionalities currently available: beyond the Microsoft assistant, Copilot, these computers mainly have tools for image reprocessing, real-time audio transcription or background blurring in real time. video.
« This is a new technology coming to the marketdefends Andrew Buss, research director at IDC. The old products are still good, the software part of the AI is still under development: it will take time. Even the iPhone took several years to catch on! » Adoption should be gradual: according to IDC, Copilot + PCs should represent just over 10% of sales in 2025 and increase to 40% in 2028.
The market should ultimately be driven by the fall in prices of these machines, as well as by the needs of businesses. Without counting on the key advantage of Copilot + PC: their autonomy, sometimes 50% greater than that of classic PCs for equivalent uses. From there to making these computers desirable for everyone? “When we get used to these features, we will want them for our personal use too,” believes Charlotte Massicault, multimedia director at Fnac Darty. « The evolution of uses arrives before demand, agrees Julien Vinel, head of workstations at Dell Technologies. I never wanted AI in photo editing on my smartphone, but today I don’t want to go back to that. »
In the shorter term, sales should increase thanks to the arrival of computers equipped with Intel and AMD chips, expected in mid-November. While the first models, equipped with Qualcomm chips, were incompatible with the very popular game Fortnite. Above all, the scheduled end of updates for Windows 10, expected within a year, could encourage companies to renew their PC fleet. It remains to be seen whether AI-boosted computers will have become sufficiently affordable by then.
