We’ve experienced the PC Age, the Internet Age and the Mobile Age; now, we’ve entered the AI Age. From individuals and small businesses to worldwide corporations, the adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) has taken off like a rocket. According to a Slack Workforce Lab study, 80 per cent of those who have used AI and automation tools have noticed an improvement in their productivity. And now, the arrival of AI laptops, also called next gen AI PCs, is propelling computing into a whole new era. 

With the help of downloadable or pre-loaded AI tools, such as Copilot in Windows, AI laptops can anticipate our needs and take over tasks to help us become the most efficient and creative we’ve ever been.

What Is an AI Laptop?

With built-in hardware to optimise AI-driven tasks, these next-level devices bring the capabilities of cloud- and web-based AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Meta Llama to your computer. Along with the standard CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processing unit), AI laptops have an NPU (neural processing unit) to provide extra power for AI acceleration.

How Is an AI Laptop Different From a Web-Based AI App?

An AI laptop has the ability to run offline AI tools, doing all of the AI and data processing on the device. This not only means you can get results much faster, it also means greater security and privacy as more of your data stays on your computer. Cloud-based AI requires users to share their queries and data online. This information will be used, and in most cases retained, by the AI service to improve future queries and tasks.

What is a Copilot+ PC?

A Copilot+ PC is a type of AI laptop that’s certified by Microsoft as it meets certain processor requirements, including having an NPU that can process a minimum of 40 trillion operations per second. Copilot+ PCs come with Copilot in Windows installed as well as a Copilot key built in to the keyboard, which can bring up the Copilot AI assistant with a single tap.

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How an AI Laptop Can Make Your Life Easier: Work

Group of four people sitting at a table during a meeting, with notebooks and a laptop in front of them.

An AI laptop has the potential to amplify your productivity at work and on the go with smart, yet simple automation tools, so you can spend less time working and more time relaxing on your commute home.

Summarise Emails

There’s no bigger reality check than coming back to work after a holiday to a massive inbox of unread emails. AI-enabled email desktop apps, like Outlook and Spark, can summarise your messages and help write replies to the important ones.

Review Documents Faster

Receiving a long document can be daunting. You don’t want to miss or gloss over the most important parts. AI-assisted programs like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat can come into play here to summarise the documents to a chosen word count or number of pages.

Steamline Video Meetings

An AI laptop can not only transcribe and take minutes of your video calls, it can get to work on any action items from the moment you hang up the call. With Copilot in Microsoft Teams, you can have your call summarised with clear next steps, and have these emailed to your coworkers. Or if, for example, an action item was to start a PowerPoint presentation, Copilot will get this started for you, creating the slide deck with an outline ready to be filled in.

Automate Tasks

Person pointing at a colourful pie chart on a document, surrounded by various charts and graphs on a table with a coffee cup nearby.

Your AI laptop can recommend settings and apps that can take care of tasks for you, so you can blitz through your to-do list. For example, AI can analyse your data for you and turn insights into handy charts and tables, or it can create your schedule for the day.

Translate Live Audio

Communication is at the heart of why technology exists, and AI makes that even easier, even if you’re not speaking the same language. Microsoft’s Live Captions tool, available on Copilot+ PCs, offers real-time translation between more than 40 languages so you can be on an audio or video call on the laptop and see subtitles which is the translation of what you’re hearing – and it’s all happening on the device almost instantly.

Hot Tip: There are four types of AI: 

  • Reactive AI, which can make calculations, sort information and recognise patterns.
  • Limited memory AI, which recognises complex patterns and makes predictions using data.
  • Theory of mind, which understands motives and reasoning and learns with fewer examples.
  • Self awareness, the level of intelligence equal to humans and beyond.

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How an AI Laptop Can Make Your Life Easier: Play

An AI laptop is the perfect tool for gaining back free time to spend however you like. Forget spending hours planning your next holiday when an AI laptop can build an itinerary for you from the comfort of your bed while you binge your favourite show, or let your laptop create a video from footage you captured from your four-year-old’s birthday party so you can savour more spare time with your family. 

Generate Images and Videos

An AI-generated, cartoony image of a golden retriever dog wearing roller skates on a path in a forest.

One of the most compelling features of AI is generative AI, which can create content like images, drawings and even videos. Need a visual of a dog riding rollerskates through a forest? All you have to do is ask. With a simple text prompt, AI tools like Copilot or DALL-E can create several interpretations of your request within seconds. An AI laptop can now deliver this same result with video with software such as Virbo.

Plan a Holiday

If you’ve booked a trip, you can ask an AI assistant, like Copilot in Edge, to create an itinerary for you based on where you’re staying and your interests. It will even remind you if your favourite band or team is in town while you’re there and offer a link to buy tickets.

Edit Video

And when you’re back from that holiday, your AI laptop can use a tool such as Clipchamp to examine all your videos and images and edit them into a video at the length of your choosing and set it all to music.

Create Recipes

A woman using a laptop computer on a kitchen counter surrounded by a variety of vegetables.

If you’re ever stuck on what to cook for dinner, an AI laptop can come to your aid. Simply pop your laptop on your kitchen bench, list the ingredients you have in your pantry and refrigerator, and AI will create a step-by-step recipe based on what you have that you can make right away. Or it can even give you a shopping list if there’s a particular meal you’d like to cook.

How an AI Laptop Can Make Your Life Easier: Learn

A man using a laptop computer and writing on a notepad in an office setting.

Whether you’re studying at home or on campus, doing your daily commute, or a teacher planning lessons, your AI laptop can help you plan and prepare to give you back hours of time.

Create Study Aids

An AI assistant like Copilot can become your ultimate study buddy. Ask it to simplify complex topics, create quizzes and flashcards or generate a structure for your essay. You can even get it to create a study schedule for you.

Develop Lesson Plans

You’ll also benefit from AI if you’re helping others to learn. An AI laptop can put together lesson plans and come up with fun and interactive ways for students to learn the material.

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How Do I Know if It’s an AI Laptop?

Look out for laptops that use the term ‘AI’ in their names and features. Most current AI computers are built with an Intel Core Ultra Processor or, in the case of Microsoft’s certified CoPilot+ PCs, a Snapdragon X processor, so check for these in the laptops’ specs.

An assortment of AI laptops, including Asus Vivobook and Surface Pro Copilot+ PCs, shown on various brightly-coloured backgrounds.

What to Try