As Intel, Qualcomm and AMD roll out processors for artificial intelligence (AI) PCs one after another, the AI PC penetration rate is also rising across the overall PC market. As AI performance has become decisive in winning or losing in the smartphone and broader mobile device market, analysis indicates that AI is emerging as a key factor in the PC market as well.
In particular, Intel's Core Ultra 200V Series (code name: Luna Lake) central processing unit (CPU) lineup, armed with AI functions and the industry's top-tier power efficiency last year, became a critical turning point. It is evaluated as the first CPU product to dispel the market's doubts about the usefulness of AI PCs. From the development stage, Intel strengthened the ecosystem through collaboration with Microsoft (MS) and software companies around the world, and its AI PC CPUs account for about 40% of Intel CPU-equipped laptops sold in the second quarter, underscoring the rapid growth.
According to Intel on the 15th, a market survey of more than 5,000 business executives and decision-makers across 23 countries found that 46% of business decision-makers cited built-in AI functions as the most important consideration when upgrading PCs. The majority of respondents said AI PCs will boost work productivity (90%), and 87% are considering adopting AI PCs in the next upgrade cycle, with 46% already in progress.
In particular, as Intel's Luna Lake proved the usefulness of AI PCs in the laptop segment, the market expanded. Since 2023, AI PCs have sprung up in droves but were criticized for not delivering sufficient AI performance for the price. In May last year, MS announced the "Copilot+ PC" standard tailored to AI services through the Windows OS, and Luna Lake met the requirements with up to 120 TOPS (120 trillion operations per second) of AI performance, living up to its name as a CPU for AI PCs.
AI is driving fundamental changes not only for general consumers but also across corporate operations, organizational management and overall productivity. Earlier, Roh Tae-Moon, head of the DX Division at Samsung Electronics (president), also emphasized improving work efficiency through AI as one of Samsung Electronics' key goals going forward at an IFA 2025 briefing held in Berlin, Germany, on 4th. Roh said, "We will apply AI to 90% of all tasks by 2030 to achieve a fundamental transformation of the company."
Samsung Electronics is not the only one seeking to apply AI across work hardware. According to Intel's market survey, executives in various countries responded that AI has the potential to revolutionize how work is done and enable smarter decision-making, and they are increasingly prioritizing AI capabilities in their technology strategies. Features such as search optimization, real-time translation and text auto-completion are driving rapid AI adoption, and among them, AI PCs are establishing themselves as key tools for improving IT efficiency and reducing expense, the explanation said.
However, the adoption of AI still carries burdens related to security and expense. According to the survey, the main security concerns related to AI PCs were data exposure (49%), manipulation of AI models (43%) and AI model tampering (38%), in that order.
An Intel official said, "CPUs released for AI PCs provide hardware-based security, from advanced threat detection and protection of applications and data to automated defenses that cover every layer from beneath the OS level (that is, covering the entire security stack without separate user action)," and added, "It appears there are still misunderstandings about security in the market."
Next year, the AI PC market is expected to gain even stronger growth momentum. The end of support for Windows 10 by MS in October is expected to spur PC replacement demand, and Intel's next-generation CPU, Panther Lake, is slated to launch around that time as a product specialized for AI PCs. As the industry's first 18A (1.8-nanometer-class) CPU—a 1-nanometer-class process—Panther Lake is preparing a chip design more specialized for AI than Luna Lake and Arrow Lake.
Bae Tae-won, president of Intel Korea, said, "The spread of AI PCs in the domestic market is beyond expectations," and added, "Intel is accelerating the realization of new user experiences by investing not only in hardware advances but also in cooperation with the software ecosystem to implement more than 400 AI features. Since the beginning of this year, we have sensed that corporations and government customers who want to adopt AI but have many concerns about data security are beginning to pay attention to AI PCs." He added, "As Intel has long advanced the vPro platform that reflects the requirements of corporate PCs, we will support AI PCs so they can be used effectively in the corporate and public sector markets."