As the spotlight on AI-powered PCs intensifies and market competition heats up, Lenovo Executive Vice President Luca Rossi reveals the company's strategic move to offer differentiated products tailored for both Chinese and international markets. Rossi claims this will secure Lenovo a "unique position" in the burgeoning global AI PC arena.
In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Rossi, who also heads Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group (IDG), underscored China's distinct market dynamics due to its regulatory landscape. He believes this positions Lenovo, a local PC manufacturing titan, to dominate domestically and globally, thanks to proprietary AI features like Smart Connect.
The AI PC market is set for a shake-up with Microsoft's recent launch of the "Copilot+PC" platform, in partnership with six major PC brands including Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Asus, HP, and Samsung Electronics.
Rossi highlighted Lenovo's plans to introduce various AI PC models featuring their bespoke AI systems specifically for the Chinese market, addressing the unique regulatory requirements and offering tailored user experiences. Data sovereignty, he noted, is a pivotal factor in creating independent products for China.
Lenovo has already rolled out nearly ten AI PC models in China equipped with its "Xiaotian" AI technology as of April, all internally developed with proprietary software. This move aligns with Lenovo's broader strategy, as the company indicates on its website that Copilot services are available in over 160 regions, excluding China.
Lenovo projects that by 2024, AI PCs will account for 15-20% of global PC shipments, based on a broader definition that includes PCs with at least 10 TOPS Neural Processing Units (NPU). However, under Lenovo's more stringent criteria—which encompasses AI agents, personalized knowledge bases, privacy, and security features—the share of AI PCs is expected to be less than 10%.
Rossi pointed out that the higher price tag of AI PCs compared to traditional PCs, coupled with their potential to significantly boost productivity, will likely see faster adoption rates in the corporate sector before permeating the consumer market.
China remains Lenovo's largest manufacturing hub, yet the company is also expanding production lines in India, Hungary, Mexico, and the United States to mitigate potential supply chain disruptions.
