AI PCs Are Taking Over – Gartner Predicts a 93% Market Share by 2028

Gartner says AI PCs are about to go from niche to standard—31 % of all PCs this year and virtually everything by 2029. At the same time, Microsoft and Cloudflare are quietly building a new web where pages answer your questions directly, potentially leaving Google’s search model in the dust. And just when Copilot promises to make Excel magic, Microsoft cautions: don’t trust its AI with anything important.

Links and resources

• AI PCs will ‘become the norm’ by 2029 as enterprise and consumer demand surges | IT Pro
• Introducing NLWeb: Bringing conversational interfaces directly to the web – Source
• Cloudflare AutoRAG · Cloudflare AutoRAG docs
• Microsoft and Cloudflare’s bold new search vision | Windows Central
• Microsoft touts new Copilot features in Excel, but says you shouldn’t use them if you want accurate results | IT Pro

Episode overview

This Week in IT covers AI PC’s market share, a new AI-powered web initiative, and Microsoft’s evolving Copilot features in Excel.

• AI PCs market growth: Gartner reports AI PCs currently make up 31% of all PC sales, with projections to double next year and dominate by 2029, driven largely by Windows 10’s upcoming end of life and enterprise adoption. Businesses prefer Intel-based AI PCs over ARM due to compatibility concerns, though ARM is expected to hold a 30% enterprise share. AI customization for personalized device performance is anticipated to grow.
• Cloudflare and Microsoft’s AI web vision: Cloudflare’s CEO criticizes current Internet models for unsustainable AI data scraping that harms publishers. In partnership with Microsoft, NLWeb and AutoRAG enable websites to offer direct natural language answers via semantic search, potentially reducing dependency on traditional search engines.
• Copilot in Excel limitations: Despite Microsoft’s promises, Copilot’s performance in Excel has been disappointing, with users finding external tools like ChatGPT more effective for data tasks. Microsoft is piloting new Copilot features for individual Excel cells to generate formulas and summarize text.