Lenovo is doubling down on its AI PC strategy and extending its leadership in the personal computing space. Lenovo’s AI for All strategy stretches from pocket to cloud, encompassing not just hardware but software and services as well. Simultaneously, Lenovo’s focus on security and sustainability also rounds up its compute strategy, giving it an added competitive advantage. Amid the rapid proliferation of AI and GenAI in PCs, Lenovo is prioritizing user experience and data security to build its mindshare across enterprises and consumers. At the recently concluded Lenovo APAC Analyst Summit in Shanghai, Neil Shah, VP of Research at Counterpoint Research, took a seat with Tom Butler, Executive Director at Lenovo and head of the worldwide commercial notebooks business, to discuss the company’s AI PC vision, strategy, partnerships and execution.

The Interview

Key Takeaways from the Discussion

Growing Demand for AI in Enterprise: There is a growing pressure on enterprises to integrate AI, but with sharp emphasis on data security. Lenovo’s AI implementation focuses on security, personalization and efficiency. Shift to NPU: The new breed of Copilot+ AI PCs come with a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU), which enhances AI capabilities and ensures long battery life. Software Optimizations: Software for traditional PCs only needed CPU and GPU optimization, but on the latest AI PCs, software also needs to be optimized for NPU to fully leverage AI capabilities. Butler also mentioned that Lenovo is working with enterprise developers to optimize software for specific workloads not only at a global level but also for local regional champions. ESG Initiatives: Lenovo is fully committed towards ESG and uses recycled and sustainable materials along with plastic-free packaging. Lenovo laptops are designed to be more accessible, repairable and easily removable components. To ensure better touch and typing experience, Lenovo has also partnered with school of blind to help design better keyboards for their PCs. Differentiation: In terms of differentiation, Lenovo’s biggest strength lies in its comprehensive product range, in-house manufacturing, AI operations capabilities, partnerships and software consultancy services.

Analyst Takeaways:

• Lenovo has been the leader in the global PC market since Q3 2018, and currently holds a 23.6% share. As the AI PC era dawns, Lenovo looks to maintain its leadership position with a holistic strategy to offer intelligent solutions rather than just hardware.
• Lenovo defines AI PC as a device capable of heterogeneous computing leveraging CPU, GPU and NPU supporting an open system of AI applications in a private and secure manner. The device should also feature an Intelligent Agent powered by a personalized LLM, leveraging a personal knowledge base and interacting naturally with the user.
• Lenovo’s AI PC strategy starts at the silicon level with key partnerships with AMD, Intel and now Qualcomm. These companies combine their in-house AI R&D expertise with Microsoft to provide enhanced AI (& GenAI) capabilities on the PC along with ISVs and application developers for AI optimized software to build newer intelligent experiences.
• At the Summit, Lenovo showcased the extensive work done by its R&D team led by Jianping Fan who also heads the AI Lab at Lenovo Research. The R&D spans from traditional AI (deep learning) to Gen AI (foundational models) to Lenovo Brain (AI platform for pre-training, fine-tuning, acceleration and deployment) across devices from pocket to PC to cloud.
• For AI PCs specifically, it starts from building AI experiences to sense, be aware and acknowledge the user’s presence, data and habits to securely train Lenovo’s on device foundational model and power the Lenovo on-device AI Personal Assistant in a very privacy-centric manner. This is one of the best examples of ‘Personal AI.’
• Additionally, Lenovo’s Solution & Services Group (SSG) adds another layer of capabilities to build, fine tune and deploy ‘Enterprise AI’ foundation models enabling AI solutions across devices, verticals and enterprise applications.
• Further, supporting and working with open models and AI solutions usually driving ‘Public AI’ experiences rounds up Lenovo’s trifecta of hybrid AI strategy from Personal, Enterprise to Public AI.
• Watch this space to know how competition such as Apple, HP and Dell respond to and stack up against Lenovo’s very unique strategy, approach and positioning to drive AI vertically and horizontally.