- Dell hosted a Q&A session as part of its pre-briefing for CES 2026
- One executive said of the company’s laptops that “from a consumer perspective…they’re not buying based on AI.”
- This admission comes just as another Windows 11 AI flaw is going viral, which is unfortunate timing for Microsoft.
Dell is saying this clearly when it comes to the contemporary PC world, with the computer maker bluntly explaining that consumers are not buying laptops based on AI capabilities.
PC Gamer reports (as noted by The Verge) that Dell executives were refreshingly frank on the topic of AI and the PC in a Q&A that was part of the company’s pre-briefing for CES 2026 this week.
First, Dell COO Jeff Clarke noted that there was an “expectation that AI would drive end-user demand” but also an “unfulfilled promise of AI,” hinting at some of the disappointment – or confusion – around AI-enabled PCs for the average consumer.
Dell’s chief product officer, Kevin Terwilliger, then went further, highlighting the company’s new product launches (which included the new
Terwilliger continued: “We’re very focused on delivering the AI capabilities of a device – in fact, everything we advertise has an NPU – but what we’ve learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is that they’re not buying based on AI. In fact, I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome.”
Analysis: It could be a “hit or miss” for AI in Windows 11 this year
In short, Dell is taking its foot off the pedal when it comes to pushing AI in its marketing, simply because it doesn’t think consumers will be all that interested, and it might even be a point of confusion for some.
While one could argue that this last point of view is somewhat condescending, I think it’s a pretty fair observation overall. I think some consumers don’t really care about AI and don’t see the benefit of the various capabilities of Copilot+ PCs (those Windows 11-only AI features) or how they could use them.
And in truth, there’s not much to get excited about with these AI features to date, not beyond image editing tricks (and let’s face it, a lot of people don’t do much with their photos) and additional search powers (some of which people may be very suspicious of on the privacy front, particularly the key piece of the AI puzzle here, which is Recall).
Many people probably don’t use AI beyond queries posed to ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, or whatever their favorite version of the AI portal is, using them as a kind of enhanced Google search (other engines are available, etc.).
Furthermore, with all the heat Microsoft is taking on trying to include more AI in Windows 11, despite constant cries from detractors who would rather the software giant fix what’s wrong with its desktop operating system, rather than adding new features that “no one asked for” at a breakneck pace, the reputation of AI features is being tarnished considerably in terms of questioning Microsoft’s motives here.
Is this all for show, jumping on the AI bandwagon and pushing as hard as possible with such features in Windows 11 in a bid to further impress shareholders and boost market cap?
Viewers of the kinds of online fights that have been going on between anti-AI rebels and Microsoft executives are no doubt absorbing messages that, shall we say, don’t put these features of AI in the best light.
Especially not when you see videos like the one below on
That clip has currently racked up over four million views (at the time of writing) and, as you can see, shows the AI freezing and unable to offer any answer to a basic query. not only any Basic query, of course, but the one that Windows 11 suggested the user should try to show the agent’s capabilities; So you would expect it to work well given that fact.
Well, this is a unique example, but we have seen others. I can’t help but remember (pun totally intended) the video from Microsoft’s marketing department where the Copilot AI assistant makes a mess trying to help a user change the text size in Windows 11. (That clip was eventually deleted and I’m not sure how it was posted in the first place.) These are telling cases of AD (artificial nonsense), a term I coined two minutes ago (one that, unsurprisingly, already exists, Google tells me, or should I say Gemini, which provides an ‘AI overview’).
With sentiment around AI in Windows 11 becoming increasingly sour lately, is it any wonder Dell wants to distance itself from the AI PC concept? At least for now, especially now that we are moving into a difficult sales environment for laptops and desktops (with increasing costs of RAM, storage, and also GPU in some cases).
And yes, Dell can remind us that despite its comments here, it’s still pushing AI in some way, since “everything we’re announcing has an NPU,” but it’s not like there’s an option in that regard, right? Far from budget laptops, all of the cutting-edge PC chips that will power modern laptops now have beefy NPUs, whether they’re AMD, Intel, or Qualcomm.
To be fair, the agent AI functionality that Microsoft is now rolling out with Windows 11 may be the piece of the puzzle that finally moves the needle with AI and captures consumers’ attention more broadly, but that remains to be seen. As are potential security issues or other unpleasant things that AI agents could bring with them.
And since one of the main problems with AI is a lack of trust in these functions, whether from a security or privacy perspective, or simply “hallucinations” (AI does things completely wrong), AI agents could be the “break”, rather than the “creation”, of Copilot and all its associated pitfalls in Windows 11.
I think 2026 will be a very telling year for AI, but for now, Dell gets credit for being upfront about the current state of AI features on Windows 11 PCs. Although this is arguably the only sensible route to take with PC marketing right now, given the circumstances mentioned above.
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