Generative AI is a game-changer. Since the introduction of ChatGPT we’ve seen tremendous progress in AI capabilities. If you know how to use AI properly, the technology can have a profound effect on your productivity, particularly if you’re a knowledge worker.
That said, the AI hype machine is in overdrive, and companies are doing everything they can to ride the wave. Dell was no exception, introducing their “AI PCs” last year. Frankly, it sounded like hype, and it was.
Anyone who uses a PC has probably dealt with the reality that Microsoft is trying to drive usage of it’s AI CoPilot. Unfortunately, CoPilot gets in the way more than it makes your life easier. Who wants AI to constantly offer to rewrite your work?
It turns out that consumers are not impressed.
At CES 2026, Dell’s head of product, Kevin Terwilliger, and other executives openly said that despite all their new machines having AI-capable hardware (like NPUs), consumers simply aren’t buying PCs because of AI.
“We’re very focused on delivering upon the AI capabilities of a device—in fact everything that we’re announcing has an NPU in it—but what we’ve learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is they’re not buying based on AI,” Terwilliger says bluntly. “In fact I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome.”
In other words, even if a PC has an AI chip, if it doesn’t deliver practical benefits that consumers understand and care about, it doesn’t matter in the sales process.
It’s refreshing that Dell has been so blunt, but this is not great news for Microsoft’s AI strategy. They’ve tried everything to get consumers and busines users to use CoPilot, but the approach isn’t working. Microsoft has denied rumors that the company has slashed its CoPilot sales targets, but that would not surprise us.
