HP supercharges its business laptops with AI capabilities at Vegas event

The new EliteBook 1040 G11 is pitched as the world’s most advanced business laptop for collaboration. It is portable, equipped with Intel’s Core Ultra 5 or Core Ultra 7 CPUs, offering up to 21 hours of battery life for workers on the go, and available in clamshell or two-in-one designs.

AI-enabled PCs could usher in a new type of smart computers. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

The new Intel chips that power it bring Intel’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI acceleration, aiding features like Windows Studio Effects and HP’s Smart Sense efficiency automation. It also features HP’s upgraded Endpoint Security Controller chip, which is designed to future-proof the machines against quantum attacks. The EliteBook 1040 G11 (and the Elite x360 1040 G11 which is a 2-in-1 notebook) is expected to launch in April 2024.

HP’s other notebook lineup of PCs getting advanced AI capabilities includes the ProBook and ZBook. The AI-enabled ZBook lineup comes powered by either Intel CPUs or next-generation AMD Ryzen PRO processors, with graphics processing units built by Nvidia to power demanding workloads such as engineering and design.

In addition, HP launched the AI Creation Center, which is designed to be a comprehensive workstation solution for AI development. It incorporates the company’s Z by HP AI Studio software and Nvidia’s NGC libraries and enables data scientists to customize open-source and private AI models in a secure environment.

Industry insiders predict the launch of AI PCs will kick off a “supercycle” of PC upgrades, and that supercycle will likely start in the second half of the year as more AI PCs hit the market. HP is among the many PC vendors going all-in on artificial intelligence as a key differentiator to sell PCs to consumers and businesses.

“We are not making PCs just for AI. We’re making PCs for how people work,” Cho said. “This is just the first wave. We’re going to be introducing more in the future, with more local inferencing, so that you get even more performance, better costs, and enhanced privacy and security integrated into that.”

The new Copilot key sits next to the right-hand alt key on Windows keyboards. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

During the Amplify event in Las Vegas, HP’s annual partner conference, the company highlighted some of the early capabilities of AI PCs, including on-device generative AI for producing images, videos, and presentations. But HP is already teasing PCs with advanced AI capabilities, including the ability to run large language models (LLMs) locally. PCs powered by the Snapdragon X Elite, Qualcomm’s new processor focused on on-device AI applications, are expected from vendors in mid-2024.

Earlier this week, Apple refreshed its MacBook Air line with an M3 processor. It called the new MacBook Air the “world’s best consumer laptop for AI.” The company’s use of “AI” in marketing the new M3 chip-powered MacBook Air shows it is stepping up its efforts in artificial intelligence. Apple is rumoured to detail its AI strategy at the Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, in June.

Artificial intelligence has been a major theme across the biggest tech conferences in recent months, including CES and Mobile World Congress, and now HP’s Amplify 2024. With so much hype and investment going into creating Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI models, it was inevitable that every device maker, including PC vendors, would jump on the AI bandwagon. Market research firm Canalys projects that 60 per cent of PCs shipped in 2027 will be AI-capable.

(The writer is attending the Amplify 2024 in Las Vegas at the invitation of HP India)