Chris Buchanan, Client Solutions Director, Dell Technologies South Africa.

While the PC has always helped us connect and collaborate, in 2020, at the height of work-from-home and virtual learning, we saw just how critical the PC is to all aspects of our lives. It was at that time we laid out our vision for the future, outlined where our investments were going and predicted how the PC-human experience would evolve.

We’re now at another pivotal moment. This time, it’s with Generative AI (GenAI). But what does this mean for the future of the PC?

Chances are you’ve been using some type of AI already. We saw the opportunity for PCs to help drive human productivity and became an early AI adopter, making our PCs more intelligent and user-aware.

For example, Dell Optimizer software uses AI to automatically configure itself to make you more productive by doing things such as running apps faster, preserving battery life and blocking out unwanted background noise on conference calls. This is why we can proudly say we have the world’s most intelligent commercial PCs.

As the power of the PC increases, so does its ability to have a hand in developing GenAI. GenAI will influence how we live and work. While there’s still a lot to imagine, AI-enabled PCs are increasingly becoming part of this discussion. With the recent announcement of Microsoft Copilot, we saw how GenAI will unlock new levels of productivity. PCs will collect, collate and create information faster than ever before.

We’re working closely with Microsoft as it rolls out new Copilot. But we won’t stop there. You’ll see us focused on being the leading PC provider for the AI era, with additional emphasis and investments centred around intelligence, security and being a trusted end-to-end AI advisor.

THE LONG-TERM POSSIBILITIES

As we ask our devices to do more, it will require PCs that use language modelling, language processing and machine learning capabilities to improve the user experience. Running these AI applications locally on PCs brings a lot of efficiencies like cost effectiveness, improved privacy and security, reduced latency and sustainability benefits. It will also require a new architecture that doesn’t rely on the CPU or GPU for processing. We’re working with partners throughout the industry to make this new architecture a reality in 2024.

PCs will move beyond driving human productivity to driving human performance. This will require you to reimagine how you work with the familiar laptop and desktop of today.

For example, instead of mostly command-and-control interactions driven by you typing on a keyboard, there will be additional non-text-based ways to prompt technology to have a bi-directional experience between humans and PCs. Imagine a future where you can collaborate or co-create with voice, visual commands and gestures. Envision your PC interpreting your mood, facial expression, tone of voice or even a change in the way you type for a much richer experience. Your PC experience will transition from searching to prompting, from reading to understanding, from editing to directing.

It’s exciting to think about what’s to come, not just for devices, but the entire PC ecosystem. We take our cues from human experiences to drive human progress and our broad portfolio of products, solutions and services will play a critical role in powering this future.

AN INFLECTION POINT

I’ve been in the tech industry for many years. It’s always been fast-paced and exciting, but the opportunity we have ahead is unlike anything we’ve seen since PCs were introduced 40 years ago. We’d be lying if we said we have all the answers – we don’t. The collateral benefits alone are immense. But I can tell you humans will remain at the core of progress. Between new software developments, new architectures on the horizon, new services capabilities and our ongoing explorations that centre around human connection and experience, we’re at an inflection point. We’ve been handed an opportunity to revolutionise the PC experience. We’re here for it. You may ask how this will impact the end-user, and is it possible to futureproof your purchase? The answer is yes – as generative AI becomes mainstream, it will become more decentralised, which means it will run on your personal devices. This brings in two considerations: security and performance. Security is critical as a lot of the local AI projects you run will interrogate and extrapolate sensitive data, so the output will be just as sensitive. Basic threat protection with next generation anti-virus software (Carbon Black and Crowdstrike) is a good start, but it would be wise to invest in some additional security measures. From a performance perspective, the majority of AI is run with GPU processors, which are not included in your standard PC and laptop purchase, so it’s worth looking at adding these to your next purchase.