It is the price differential that has left consumers cold. According to industry experts, consumers prefer to buy regular notebooks and simply install ChatGPT or Gemini or other such high-tech generative AI (Gen AI) software, at a fraction of the cost, even free. On their part, laptop brands insist that enterprises are lapping up the new products, and picture a future where the AI laptop will be default when it comes to buying a computer.
Today, though, the picture is starkly different. Data sourced from market researchers Counterpoint India and International Data Corporation (IDC) India showed that as of 30 April, the market share of AI devices in the entire laptop market of more than $5 billion is under 5%.
To be sure, it has been just a year since Microsoft,which makes the ubiquitous Windows operating system, spurred a push for “AI PCs” by laying down a set of parameters to define it.
Chipmakers, too, are ho-hum about all the noise. On 24 April, Intel Corp, the world’s third-largest chipmaker as per Gartner’s 2024 Worldwide Semiconductor report, said that demand for processors that it launched up to two years ago is currently far greater than its cutting-edge, AI-compliant processors.
“We’re really seeing much greater demand from our customers for n-1 and n-2 products, so that they can continue to deliver system price points that consumers are really demanding… (the new chips) are great, but (they) come with a much higher cost structure—not only for us, but at lower price points for brands as well,” said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, chief executive of Intel Products, during the company’s post-earnings analyst call last week.
No clear use case
Bharath Shenoy, principal analyst at IDC India, said buyers have not seen clear use cases of an AI PC. “There have been some sales in commercial contracts with enterprises, where brands procuring new laptops, especially for higher-rank employees, are simply opting for an AI PC to future-proof their investment since in five years, most PCs will feature AI in bigger ways,” Shenoy said. “But for now, consumers have offered a very lukewarm response to brands offering AI PCs.”
Retailers, too, are seeing weak sales. The chief executive of a top pan-India multi-brand retailer, requesting anonymity since he has multiple marketing and non-disclosure contracts with each of India’s top five laptop brands, said, “There’s no buyer who walks in saying they want an AI laptop—largely, this fad has not caught on as yet. Any laptop that is marketed by brands as an AI PC gets sold due to other factors—premium build quality, gaming, and so on. But AI is yet to prove to be a sales driver for laptops as yet.”
As per market data from IDC sourced by Mint, overall laptop sales in India saw a slim 4% year-on-year growth last year—after a sharp 11% decline in 2023 due to a post-pandemic lull. Sales are expected to pick up pace this year, since the average usage cycle of a laptop per user in India is four to five years—and 2020 and 2021 were the years when most laptops were sold in India after the covid-19 pandemic forced everyone to scurry indoors for both work and leisure.
Pricing, too, is a key factor. Shenoy and Pathak both said that while the entry point to AI laptops has come down to ₹60,000, the bulk of these devices is still priced at ₹1,00,000 and above. But, this too is still at least 30% more than the average price of a laptop in India, which stood at ₹45,000 as of this month.
While the growth itself has been slow, the growth of AI laptops in line with the industry has been weaker than anticipated. In 2024, approximately 1-2% of all laptops were sold from the ‘AI laptops’ bracket, per market estimates.
“This, though, may change by the end of this year—2025 is a transition year for laptop usage behaviour trends, and retailers marketing laptops are yet to become fully aware of the key use cases of AI,” said Tarun Pathak, partner and director at Counterpoint India. “This is why brands are right now pushing hard to launch and stock inventories with AI laptops, in anticipation of sales picking up in the near future.”
One for the future
Despite this lukewarm response, brands see clear value of investing in the marketing of AI laptops in India. Ashish Sikka, director and category head for laptops at Lenovo India, agreed that AI laptops are priced higher today primarily because of their upgraded hardware configurations, but felt the future would be different.
“We see AI PCs triggering replacement cycles of computers in India… These devices could account for 60% of all shipments by 2027,” Sikka said. “Our early adopters are already seeing tangible benefits, and as awareness grows, consumer perceptions will shift toward viewing AI PCs as essential, not experimental.”
Indrajit Belgundi, senior director and general manager of client solutions group at fellow laptop maker Dell, cited an internal study within the US-based tech firm to state that “by 2028, 98% of PCs will be AI-enabled”. He further said that among enterprises, three of every four IT heads at companies see AI access in workplace devices to be imperative.
“This shift is already driving change, with 32% of organizations planning to equip their teams with AI PCs by 2026. Key trends for this transition include the migration of workloads from traditional data centres to the edge, and the rising demand for localized, intelligent PCs,” Belgundi said.
Dinesh Sharma, vice-president of commercial PCs and smartphones at Taiwanese tech firm Asus, admitted that for consumers, AI has not been a big mover as yet.
“The commercial perspective on AI value fundamentally differs from consumers,” said Sharma. “The CIOs and CTOs have a greater understanding of the incremental value AI is adding to their firms. We’re seeing significant empathy from enterprises towards AI PC pricing.”
He further said that Asus is seeing AI PC sales to small businesses—in a further nod that for now, the only sales driver for these laptops are businesses at the moment.
In the long run, experts believe AI PCs will undeniably take over the market. Shenoy said this will be driven largely by chipmakers switching entirely to AI-first processors even among mass-market products.
For now, though, a lack of clear market demand could be a dampener in the near term for these brands, in what is the third-most valuable electronics market in the country, after smartphones and televisions.
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