In this day and age, AI is a buzzword that gets thrown around in just about every product and every keynote, and companies will find every chance to advertise how AI-capable their hardware are. Does AI adds overall value to the hardware? That’s debatable, but one thing has been evident: it’s not worth any extra cost, according to an overwhelmingly majority of over 26,000 users voted on TechPowerUp.
AI-Capable Hardware Isn’t Worth The Extra Cost: Poll
The constant messaging around AI with how supposedly important it is for everyone’s lives doesn’t resonate well among enthusiasts, with 84% of the 26,000 voters outright refusing to pay extra for an equivalent hardware that comes with AI capabilities. On the contrary, just 7% of the voters are willing to pay extra to use AI. Suffice to say, despite the aggressive push from OEMs, most users are not buying into AI today.
While Microsoft has effectively mandated all PC makers to include a Copilot key to encourage the use of AI, and has since gone even further by creating a new class of “AI PCs” under the Copilot+ PC moniker, these laptops currently offer very little value over the conventional counterparts as far as features are concerned. Currently, Copilot+ PCs only offer Windows Studio Effects, Cocreator in Paint, and Live Translate; Recall was originally designed to be the flagship feature, but it has since received severe criticism over privacy concerns, forcing the company to pull the feature from launch.
Sure, you may argue that enthusiasts are just a very small group of people who often has a habit of yelling at clouds (like I am), and there’s a good chance that big companies will ignore them and pitch these AI devices to the masses, which are more likely to buy into the AI hype. Put it simply – to really make AI features welcomed by everyone, there’s still a lot of convincing to do and capabilities to prove before users are willing to shell extra money for AI-capable hardware.
Pokdepinion: The fact is, the marketing around AI today is trying desperately to make itself into an one-size-fits-all solution to everything, which it arguably isn’t.
