Lenovo races to become the king of AI PCs

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

After nearly two years of layout in AI PCs, seizing the important moment when AI PC sales are about to explode, at the beginning of 2025, "the world's largest PC brand" Lenovo, with its latest achievements, released the strongest voice to become the "king" of the AI PC era at CES, known as the "Spring Festival Gala of the global technology circle."

During CES, Luca Rossi, Executive Vice President of Lenovo Group and President of the Intelligent Devices Group (IDG), stated that Lenovo's goal is to continue to expand its global leadership and lead the transformation of AI PCs.

"We expect the penetration rate of AI PCs to reach 40%-50% in the next two to three years, and even as high as 80%. It is foreseeable that in the next three to four years, every PC will become an AI PC. If we want to secure the future, we must be more proactive in the field of AI PCs."

Faced with the sluggish traditional PC industry, Lenovo, which once enjoyed great glory, seems to have not stood at the center of the technology stage for a long time. To regain its former brilliance and avoid becoming the next Nokia or Blackberry, Lenovo must seize the opportunities of the AI era.

Lenovo has already embarked on a new journey of AI PCs.

At this CES, Lenovo, showcasing multiple groundbreaking AI products and solutions, undoubtedly became one of the focal points of the event, with its exhibition of the world's first rollable screen AI PC, ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, attracting countless eyes.

This is a product that has significant breakthroughs in both product form and AI functionality, set to officially go on sale in 2025. Two years ago, rollable screen laptops only existed in the realm of technological fantasy, and Lenovo is now the first to outline the blueprint for this forward-looking product.

According to reports, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is equipped with unique rollable display technology, allowing users to simply touch a dedicated button or use gesture control to instantly extend the originally compact 14-inch display to a 16.7-inch large screen, easily gaining nearly 50% more screen space.

What are the usage scenarios for rollable screen PCs?

According to Lenovo, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 can make business office scenarios more flexible and diverse. Whether urgently handling documents or revising plans in cramped travel seats, or conducting complex data analysis and project presentations in meeting rooms, users can freely and quickly switch screen sizes based on the characteristics and needs of the current task.

In addition to product form, the AI functionality is also a selling point of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6. Its built-in Lenovo AI Now can simplify cumbersome processes in real-time based on deep insights into user work habits, providing precise personalized task suggestions, equivalent to a "personal AI assistant" on the PC side At the same time, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is equipped with the Copilot + PC, which has generative AI capabilities, allowing these intelligent features to function even when offline.

Two years ago, ChatGPT sparked a wave of large AI models, and 2024 marks the beginning of the "AI + terminal" era, with AIPC becoming a major trend, pushing PCs into a third historic technological cycle.

As the leader in the global PC market, Lenovo is entering a new critical moment, having proclaimed "AI for All" in 2023, showcasing personal assistant solutions for AI PCs, and launching the world's first AI PC.

At last year's CES, Lenovo showcased more than ten AI PC products in one go. However, the AI PC products released by Lenovo can only be said to possess some AI features, and it is still difficult to consider them as having disruptive innovations.

In the vision of Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, the first generation of AI PCs should have five core characteristics: first, the ability to run compressed and performance-optimized personal large models; second, stronger computing power; third, larger storage; fourth, smoother natural language interaction; and fifth, more reliable security and privacy protection.

Since AI PCs have not yet provided users with a significant innovative experience, sales of AI PCs did not take off last year.

At this CES, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, admitted that the market sales of AI PCs in the past year have indeed been disappointing, mainly due to the underdeveloped AI ecosystem on PC terminals.

Luca Rossi also stated that the PC market in 2024 is relatively stable. The final market data has not yet been fully compiled, but it is roughly around plus or minus 1%, essentially flat. "But I am not too worried about this, because the technology is ready for 2024, and there are many reasons to believe that the market will grow in 2025 and 2026."

First, Luca Rossi pointed out that the lifecycle of Windows 11 or Windows 10 will end in October 2025, which will inevitably lead to a large demand for device replacements. Additionally, there are 400 million devices purchased during the pandemic, which have now been in use for 4 to 5 years and are due for replacement.

At the same time, the interest or catalytic effect of AI PCs will also drive users to choose AI PCs. Even if users currently feel they do not fully understand the reasons for purchasing an AI PC, it may be because related applications are not yet fully prepared, but they will still have a future-oriented purchasing motivation.

Luca Rossi stated that this means when users replace their computers, considering the future, it will be hard for them to find reasons not to choose an AI PC and instead buy an old model, as they know that an old PC may need to be replaced again in a year.

Therefore, Luca Rossi believes that the question is not "whether AI PCs will develop," but rather "when they will be fully popularized." "I am confident about the performance of the AI PC market in 2025 and 2026, and we will see significant growth in the AI PC market by then." Canalys also pointed out that 2024 will be a year of slight recovery for the PC market, returning to traditional seasonality, with an annual shipment growth of 3.8%, reaching 255 million units. It is expected that 2025 will be a year of accelerated growth.

The emergence of AI PCs is expected to revitalize the market and change user experience, thus becoming a watershed moment for the PC industry. Although a sales explosion has not yet occurred, this trend seems irreversible.

In 2025, the moment of AI PC transformation will begin. Lenovo, which aims to continue being a leader in the PC industry, must seize opportunities through product innovation and differentiation