3048: The AI PC Revolution: Intel's Vision for Smarter Workplaces

[00:00:03] Are you or your business curious about how the latest advancements in artificial intelligence are transforming the business technology space right now?

[00:00:13] If you are, you're in for a real treat because today I'm going to be joined by Bradley Jenkins, Intel's EMEA lead for AI PC and ISV strategies.

[00:00:25] And together we're going to explore how Intel is incorporating AI into the workplace.

[00:00:30] And they're doing that with cutting edge computing solutions.

[00:00:35] Yep, that's right. We're talking about the AI PC.

[00:00:39] With over two decades at Intel and a keen insight into AI's capabilities,

[00:00:44] my guest Bradley is going to be bringing with him a wealth of knowledge on the transformative effects of AI PCs.

[00:00:51] But the big question for business leaders and business owners out there is how are these technologies like AI and AI PCs?

[00:01:00] How will they reshape productivity, security and manageability in business environments?

[00:01:07] These are the real world problems we're going to address today.

[00:01:11] And in a year where consumers are talking about AI smartphones, today we're going to talk about AI PCs and the difference that it can make to your business.

[00:01:22] But enough from me. Let's find out more by getting today's guest on.

[00:01:27] So a massive warm welcome to the show Bradley.

[00:01:30] Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:01:34] Now, good afternoon, Neil. It's really great to meet you and thank you for inviting me to your podcast today.

[00:01:39] So yes, I'm Bradley Jenkins. I've been working within IT for the last 24 years and in that time being part of the Intel family.

[00:01:48] Most recently, I've been working within our client category organization.

[00:01:52] This is an organization within Intel that's responsible for our client products and our go-to-market.

[00:01:57] And within the client category, I'm responsible for the AI PC go-to-market in and air.

[00:02:04] Well, it's a pleasure to have you join me on the podcast.

[00:02:07] There's so much I'm excited to talk with you about today because there is a lot of hype around AI everywhere at the moment from our smartphones to computers and data centers.

[00:02:17] So just to set the scene for our conversation today, can you tell me a little bit more about exactly what an AI PC is and why it's already becoming more essential for businesses?

[00:02:27] So an Intel AI PC is a PC with new hardware capabilities that can effectively process new modern workloads through software with AI and ML algorithms in science.

[00:02:41] So the motivation behind the AI PC is essentially software.

[00:02:45] It's software that people use every day.

[00:02:47] There's an increase of AI and ML features becoming a feature of those types of applications.

[00:02:53] And this is software that helps boost productivity, that helps protect the system, that helps enhance people's collaboration, even support better analytics on the system.

[00:03:05] So that's essentially a good summary of what an AI PC is.

[00:03:10] And the Intel AI PC, as I mentioned, features the Intel Core Ultra processor inside.

[00:03:16] And I think for just everybody listening, the concept of AI PC will be incredibly exciting.

[00:03:24] And for the techies listening that like to look under the hood and see what powers these PCs, can you tell me a bit more about how Intel Core Ultra processor family, how that brings this AI PC that we're talking about to life?

[00:03:38] Well, fundamentally, there's three AI compute engines.

[00:03:41] And each AI compute engine plays a really important role so that the CPU, which most people are familiar with, within the CPU, we've added VNNI instructions and NN stands for neural network.

[00:03:53] And the CPU is often used for very low latency workloads or anything that requires a short, sharp burst of performance.

[00:04:01] So think about things like voice-to-text or even voice-to-text translation, or even potentially the CPU is used as the setup piece for other AI workloads.

[00:04:10] The GPU is the highest-performance AI accelerator inside the PC.

[00:04:16] Now, for content creators, it's all about, for example, fastest time to completion.

[00:04:21] And the GPU or graphics processing unit is the right place for these types of workloads.

[00:04:26] And then the NPU is the new chip on the old block.

[00:04:30] And it's a dedicated AI engine to run sustained workloads that are going to become increasingly resident on systems.

[00:04:38] And if these workloads are becoming resident on systems, you need them to run at really low power.

[00:04:43] And that's what the NPU is really great at doing, running these sustained workloads at very low power.

[00:04:48] And the difference between the NPU, the CPU, and the GPU is that the NPU is dedicated to parallel math computation, whereas the CPU and the GPU can handle a multitude of different workloads.

[00:05:00] It's so refreshing to hear you talk about this stuff.

[00:05:03] It's incredibly cool.

[00:05:04] And one of the things I always try and do on this podcast every day is bust myths and misconceptions about how people perceive technology or indeed a company.

[00:05:13] And we do that every day on this podcast.

[00:05:15] And I think when most people listening think of Intel, they'll think of that famous Intel jingle.

[00:05:20] Maybe they'll hear that jingle inside their head as I've just said it there.

[00:05:25] And also Intel processors.

[00:05:26] But of course, Intel offers so much more than this.

[00:05:29] So for both the IT and business leaders listening to our conversation today all around the world, can you just tell me a bit more about the Intel vPro platform and why it's positioned by Intel as being built for business?

[00:05:43] So within business today, there are a lot of different types of personas.

[00:05:47] So for example, at Intel, we've identified at least six different personas, the road warrior, the gear head, the builder.

[00:05:54] And in many different businesses, there are different types of personas by different names.

[00:05:58] But essentially what it boils down to is that each of these personas have a different PC requirement, different form factor PC.

[00:06:06] Do they need a laptop?

[00:06:07] Do they need a desktop?

[00:06:08] Do they need a workstation?

[00:06:10] What performance do they need?

[00:06:11] What type of device battery life do they need in order to maximize their personal productivity?

[00:06:17] So what Intel vPro is, it's a platform.

[00:06:19] And because it's a platform, it means that what we've done is we've curated what we would consider as mission critical or maybe it's not mission critical, but essential technologies that business IT need in order to manage their fleet.

[00:06:34] So we've developed four pillars and within each of these pillars, we have standard technologies.

[00:06:40] For example, within performance, we focus pretty much not just on the processor because you can select different processes for different form factors, but we focus very much on the connectivity of the device.

[00:06:50] So best in class connectivity.

[00:06:53] So Wi-Fi 6E, but not just a really good wireless connectivity, but a really good wide connectivity with Thunderbolt 4.

[00:07:00] Security, we know is important to business.

[00:07:03] So we have three security layers within vPro below the operating system, data and application protections.

[00:07:11] And then we also have advanced threat detection technologies.

[00:07:15] So manageability is the next pillar and within manageability, we have all the right tools to help businesses to manage their fleet out of band, which means that you can have a remote, you can have remote IT worker, basically supporting workers that could be remote, or you could even have IT supporting devices that are operating remote.

[00:07:38] So if that operating system isn't working, they could even potentially get to those systems and get those systems up and running again.

[00:07:45] And then this is all underpinned by the last pillar, which is stability.

[00:07:49] So we validate the hardware with different operating systems.

[00:07:53] We also test with commercial workloads as well.

[00:07:56] So we do this work.

[00:07:57] So that means that IT spends less time doing this work.

[00:08:00] And this is fundamentally what we mean by built for business.

[00:08:04] So it's essentially a platform that if the device carries the Intel vPro logo, it could be a workstation, it could be a Thinomite laptop, could be a desktop computer.

[00:08:15] It's standard space, which means that essentially IT is going to have a common set of tools and ingredients within all of those platforms that helps them to manage their business more effectively.

[00:08:25] I love how you've broken down a variety of business personas, because there isn't a one size fits all approach to PC deployment when dealing with, as you mentioned a few there, road warriors, gearheads, builders, hybrid workers, creatives.

[00:08:40] And there are so many other different departments within every single organization.

[00:08:44] So for that business leader that wants to refresh their PCs with new AI ready laptops that ticks all the right boxes for different personas and the IT teams challenge with deploying these PCs, I would imagine it's quite exciting because it makes that PC fleet management easier for hybrid and remote work.

[00:09:04] Not to mention those additional security features, increased performance that you mentioned there.

[00:09:10] But what about the teams and various stakeholders from around the business?

[00:09:14] For any people like that that are listening today, how will an AI PC help every department in the workplace in ways that their existing three-year-old device cannot?

[00:09:24] I suspect that is the big selling point, really.

[00:09:26] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:09:28] So what we're focusing on here is that AI PC is a really good PC first, if you will.

[00:09:35] That's AI ready.

[00:09:36] So for most people upgrading three, four, even five-year-old device, they're going to have a really uplifting experience.

[00:09:43] So my personal experience was quite dramatic.

[00:09:46] I'm not sure we lost you refresh your PC, but with my old device, I was on a conference call.

[00:09:52] I was looking at, okay, well, what applications could I shut down?

[00:09:55] Because I was really worried that with all of these modern features, that my system might freeze up.

[00:10:00] And so when I got my new PC, it was a case of, oh, finally, finally, I can have all of these really cool applications running and be really productive at the same time.

[00:10:11] So if you look at the PC or PC with Intel Core Ultra, it's really fundamentally different from what a system was three or even four years ago.

[00:10:21] Better performance, better energy efficiency, better graphics, better connectivity, and it's AI ready.

[00:10:28] So basically, with the right software, you can improve your productivity.

[00:10:33] So you can use software to help manage your email, take meeting minutes and actions, and even summarize documents.

[00:10:40] Or as I mentioned, you can use the technology that's inside of these applications to help improve your collaboration.

[00:10:47] And there are many more usages that you could explore.

[00:10:49] And from conversations I have on this podcast every day, I get the impression that every tech budget is now scrutinized for things like ROI and what business value will it bring.

[00:11:01] And when you combine that with the fact that AI often feels like a buzzword, its practical usages are not always well understood or at least celebrated and discussed and talked about as much as they should.

[00:11:14] So to bring to life everything we're talking about here, are there any specific use cases that you see for AI PCs in a typical business environment, whether it be in corporate America or indeed anywhere in the world?

[00:11:26] Yeah, so I mean, deciding on which device to buy for your individual personas is a really important decision because fundamentally, it impacts the personal productivity, it impacts the running cost of the device, it impacts the life cycle of the device.

[00:11:45] Essentially, if you're going to invest in new equipment, you want it to last three, four, sometimes even longer than that.

[00:11:52] And so nobody wants to be replacing a PC earlier because that can be really expensive exercise for any company to undertake.

[00:12:00] So if we take that simple use case, and I'm only going to refer to a simple use case, but there are more of a Teams collaboration call.

[00:12:07] The user's not just on a collaboration call, they're multitasking at the same time.

[00:12:12] So they're using applications with Office applications with AI features inside.

[00:12:17] And it's not just those applications because you have a bunch of background tasks running.

[00:12:21] So for example, security or analytics on the device.

[00:12:25] So all of these workloads are added up.

[00:12:27] So it's on top of things that people are doing already.

[00:12:31] And so if you have a traditional PC, that can quickly stack up, which could potentially mean that if you're just running on traditional PC, your device lifespan could be perhaps a little bit more shorter than a PC that's actually designed and equipped to manage these new types of modern workloads.

[00:12:50] And I think over the last six months, there has been an increase in conversations around everything from AI smartphones to AI computers.

[00:12:58] So I've got to ask, what is it that makes an Intel powered AI PC different from everything else that people listening may have seen or may not have seen out there at the moment?

[00:13:07] What is it that makes you guys unique and stand out from the crowd?

[00:13:10] For me, and what I think besides our fantastic engineers, what makes us really stand out kind of boils down to software.

[00:13:17] Intel's got a really deep experience in working with software developers.

[00:13:22] We've been working with software developers for the last 45 years.

[00:13:26] And because of this work that we've done with the software community and even within the space of AI, for businesses, that means that business has a very, very rich selection of applications, whether they're business applications or whether they are applications with AI features to choose from.

[00:13:43] So we invest with this environment.

[00:13:46] We created an environment that makes it easier for them to design on and for our architecture.

[00:13:51] And as a result of those investments, our Intel Core Ultra processes support a very wide range of data types.

[00:13:59] We support the most popular frameworks and there are already over 500 AI models that will work with Intel Core Ultra processes.

[00:14:07] And as a tech journalist, I've got too many flashbacks of comparing spec sheets and benchmark testing reports in my written articles.

[00:14:16] So I'm curious, as somebody on the other side of the fence here, how do you test and benchmark your devices against your competitors?

[00:14:24] Yeah, so there are two types of benchmarks.

[00:14:26] I'm sure there's those synthetic benchmarks that test the theoretical performance of processing technology, measuring things like the floating point of the processor or the integer map calculations.

[00:14:38] And then on the other hand, you've got benchmarks that measure real applications executing real workloads, things that people do every day.

[00:14:47] And a couple of examples of those benchmarks are like Crossmark.

[00:14:51] They test the cross-operating systems to give businesses a more balanced view of the performance across operating systems.

[00:14:57] And then you also have a UL Procyon that does include real applications.

[00:15:04] Intel really focuses in, as you can imagine, on the real applications part of it because it's the real applications that matter most to businesses.

[00:15:13] When it comes to gauging AI performance, we're still in the development area in the space because, as I mentioned before, it's all about application compatibility.

[00:15:23] And the software developer really decides as to where they want their software to run and potentially which computing engine to run it on.

[00:15:33] So even if you wanted to, for example, run a synthetic benchmark to test the AI performance just on the NPU, you've got to keep in mind that whilst the NPU is important, the CPU and the GPU are also important as well for a more balanced system.

[00:15:48] So we spend a lot of time with developers.

[00:15:50] We also share our long-range roadmaps with developers.

[00:15:54] And what the software developers are telling us is that all three AI compute engines really matter, the CPU, the GPU and the NPU.

[00:16:03] And as we move over time, I'm pretty sure there'll be more benchmarks that can help test the AI capabilities of systems.

[00:16:11] And before you came on the podcast today, I was doing a little research on Intel and I came across your AI PC acceleration program.

[00:16:20] Incredibly intriguing.

[00:16:21] So can you tell me a bit more about that?

[00:16:23] And also, how does this fit into your mission of building AI for businesses?

[00:16:27] Yeah, so the AI PC acceleration program was launched in October 23.

[00:16:33] And the intention of the program fundamentally was to make it easier for hardware and software developers to connect with our tools and the resources that we have to support their development of their applications.

[00:16:48] And there's some really good tools in there that include things like co-engineering, complete tool chains, libraries.

[00:16:55] There's even co-marketing opportunities as well as sales opportunities.

[00:16:58] So there's actually a lot in there including testimonials from developers that we've worked with traditionally.

[00:17:04] And if anybody's interested, they should really visit the link www.intel.com forward slash AI PC.

[00:17:12] And that's where any developers that might be listening, if they're really interested in tools that can help them to develop and optimize their applications, that's the destination to go to.

[00:17:23] I love that.

[00:17:23] We've covered so much in our conversation today.

[00:17:26] So much food for thought.

[00:17:27] But is there anything else you'd like to share about how you see businesses implement AI PCs, how they leverage AI to solve real problems in the workplace?

[00:17:37] It can be a vision for the future or now.

[00:17:40] Is it something that excites you?

[00:17:42] But how do you see businesses implementing AI PCs and the kind of problems that you see it fixing?

[00:17:47] Yeah, it's really interesting.

[00:17:48] It's almost we're at the very beginning of our journey and there's some incredibly exciting use cases coming out all the time.

[00:17:58] One of the most exciting use cases is this new technique called RAG, which is retrieval augmented generation.

[00:18:08] So if you can imagine one of the real problems that many businesses face is retaining institutional knowledge.

[00:18:14] Now, everybody in every company has got that one or two person go-to people that if they get stuck, they go to those folks for help.

[00:18:22] And basically, those folks can help them to solve challenges that they have.

[00:18:27] But now, imagine that with a retrieval augmented generation or an AI assistant program that you can train locally on your data.

[00:18:36] So that, for example, if you're manufacturing or if you're delivering services and those services take maybe 50 steps or 100 steps or 1,000 steps, instead of any one person having to remember all of that information.

[00:18:52] For example, what is step number 102?

[00:18:55] Basically, you can have an AI assistant application within the business with that knowledge.

[00:19:00] And with that knowledge, you could extend it to many more employees.

[00:19:05] It's more accurate knowledge.

[00:19:06] It's based on your institutional knowledge.

[00:19:08] And that fundamentally, I think, is a huge opportunity to boost productivity for business, saving employees and saving business hours of time that would have been taken if that knowledge is lost.

[00:19:21] We've covered so much in a short amount of time today.

[00:19:24] Thoroughly enjoyed our conversation together.

[00:19:27] And for people listening, maybe they want to dig a little bit deeper on some of the topics we explored today.

[00:19:32] And for those people, where would you like to point them if they want to find you or your team online or just find anything about anything we discussed today?

[00:19:39] Yeah.

[00:19:40] So I think that the link that I mentioned before, www.inter.com forward slash AIPC.

[00:19:46] It's a great destination.

[00:19:47] You're going to find a lot of different use cases for creativity, for productivity, for security, for collaboration.

[00:19:54] You're also going to find third-party insight analysis and use cases.

[00:19:59] So that link is the best destination to go to.

[00:20:03] Well, I will provide links to that as well as the program we've discussed as well and anything else so people can find everything nice and easy.

[00:20:12] So I'd urge people to check that out.

[00:20:14] And for me personally, I think our conversation today is so important.

[00:20:19] For me, it's quite timely for business leaders wanting to refresh their PCs with new AI-ready laptops.

[00:20:25] But as I mentioned earlier, it's also for IT teams incredibly exciting because it makes PC fleet management easier for hybrid and remote working.

[00:20:33] Not to mention those additional security features that go with the increased performance.

[00:20:39] So many boxes to tick there.

[00:20:40] And I think just being able to sit down for 30 minutes, look beyond the AI buzzword,

[00:20:45] and how an AI PC can help every department in the workplace in the way that those three-year-old devices can't,

[00:20:53] I think that is a huge talking point.

[00:20:55] So I'd love to hear from people listening on what they thought of our conversation today.

[00:20:59] Maybe we can carry it on with everybody listening.

[00:21:02] But more than anything, thanks for sharing your story today.

[00:21:04] Thank you.

[00:21:05] Today, we've enjoyed a comprehensive discussion about Intel's AI PC innovations.

[00:21:12] And through enhancing productivity with AI-driven tools to pushing forward security measures and remote manageability,

[00:21:19] I think it's evident that Intel solutions are pivotal in the technological evolution of the workplace.

[00:21:26] The future of work is already here.

[00:21:29] And as businesses navigate the complexities of digital environments and hybrid working,

[00:21:35] I'm interested in how you envision these technologies influencing your organisation's strategies.

[00:21:41] And this is where I invite you to join the discussion, share your thoughts and experiences with me.

[00:21:47] So please check out the description of this podcast for links of what we talked about today.

[00:21:51] You'll find where you can contact Intel.

[00:21:54] And also, if you go to my website, techblogwriter.co.uk, head straight to podcasts,

[00:21:59] and you'll find a blog post associated with this episode,

[00:22:02] where I will also include a fantastic little video by Intel explaining exactly what an AI PC is

[00:22:10] and why it is so important for your business.

[00:22:13] Other than that, please subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter,

[00:22:16] because I will be featuring Intel over the next few weeks.

[00:22:19] And together, we can hit that 10,000 subscribers milestone to that newsletter.

[00:22:23] We are incredibly close.

[00:22:25] Other than that, remember, we can carry on the conversation about Intel's AI PCs

[00:22:30] by following the links in this episode.

[00:22:33] You can email me, techblogwriteroutlook.com.

[00:22:36] If you have anything you'd like to ask or share with me or join me on the podcast,

[00:22:41] remember, you can also direct message me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

[00:22:45] Same handle on all channels, just Neil C. Hughes.

[00:22:49] Love to hear your thoughts on this one.

[00:22:51] We've got another guest from Intel coming up in the next few weeks.

[00:22:54] I'm quite excited about too.

[00:22:55] So stay tuned for that.

[00:22:57] Remember to hit the subscribe button.

[00:22:58] But I have taken up far too much of your time today.

[00:23:00] I'll be back again bright and early tomorrow with another guest

[00:23:03] and another discussion about how technology is transforming the workplace.

[00:23:08] And you are all cordially invited to join me.

[00:23:11] So hopefully, I will speak with you all bright and early tomorrow.

[00:23:14] Bye for now.