HP Readies Partners for AI PC Push In 2025

HP is readying partners to pitch the new era of AI PCs as users embark on refresh programs from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

HP’s UK&I managing director, Neil Sawyer, said the vendor was training “thousands of reseller sales people and those of clear positions of influence around HP’s proposition on device AI capability.”

According to Canalys (an Informa company) data, 14% of all PCs shipped in Q2 2024 – 8.8 million – were AI-capable PCs. The devices are defined as desktops and notebooks that include a chipset or block for dedicated AI workloads, such as an NPU.

Windows 10 will reach end of support on Oct. 14, 2025.

“There are many millions of devices that are naturally up for their refresh period, as many organizations that our partners work with are transitioning from Windows 10 into a Windows 11 platform," said Sawyer. "That is a great stimulus for the market.

HP's Neil Sawyer

“HP is out there on the front foot, working with partners to make sure that the forecasts actually deliver the realities they represent. We are very confident of growing in line with the market, if not above, as we go into 2025. So that’s the cause for us to be optimistic and we want to make sure that we support our partners in in that optimism.”

AI PCs Bringing Back Confidence to Market

Related:HP Debuts 'World's Highest Performance AI PC'

The vendor most recently announced the HP OmniBook Ultra, which it called the “world’s highest performance AI PC.” The company is also releasing the Z by HP AI Studio, which will help expedite the development of AI-powered applications.

Sawyer said AI PCs are bringing back a level of confidence and excitement into the market, “which has been much needed.”

“The last few years have been tricky to navigate around,” he said. “I would say that specifically HP partners have done a brilliant job in that. But the opportunity to work with customers on some of those strategic projects is much needed.

“It’s four years since a lot of technology was purchased, and those cycles come to an end. So, the next cycle of what you invest in has to be ready now, but also ready for future tasks.," Sawyer added.

HP Partner-First 'for 40 Years'

Sawyer was also keen to stress HP’s partner-first approach to sales. The approach made headlines when Dell adopted the strategy for its storage business in 2023, and other vendors have since said they are doing the same.

However, Sawyer said HP hasn’t needed to change strategies, “because we’ve always been partner-first for 40 years. Others might need to make adaptations, but you can ask any one of our partners about how we partner together. It’s always the case of collaborating with one another and that has remained consistent for as long as I’ve known HP, which is 22 years, and we don’t anticipate any change.”