As we reach the midpoint of 2025, one thing is clear: AI PCs are no longer a concept on the horizon—they’re becoming an active part of the enterprise conversation. The potential is compelling. These machines promise to streamline workflows, personalize productivity, and offload compute-intensive tasks from the cloud to the edge. Yet for many organizations, adoption remains largely exploratory. Despite growing curiosity and investment, consistent ROI and enterprise-wide urgency haven’t fully materialized. That said, what we’re seeing now are the building blocks of future momentum.

1. The Killer App Hasn’t Landed Yet

While the benefits for AI PC are apparent —automated note-taking in meetings, real-time language translation, enhanced security, smarter battery life management, and intelligent system optimization – businesses now eager to understand the  “mission critical” features and results

In practical terms, this has made IT and procurement teams cautious. Refresh cycles for enterprise hardware are planned years in advance, and without a must-have feature that radically improves business operations or solves a major pain point, many organizations are opting to wait and observe rather than invest at scale.

That said, even where AI PCs are being deployed, we’re seeing a secondary challenge: underutilization. Without onboarding or role-based training, advanced features go unnoticed. So the roadblocks today are twofold: proving out clear enterprise-level use cases and helping employees use what they already have more effectively.

The strongest momentum today centers around personal productivity and workflow streamlining. AI PCs are beginning to demonstrate value in automating repetitive tasks, generating content, and adapting performance to user behavior.

2. Tangible Use Cases Are Emerging—And Expanding

Despite the absence of a singular killer app, a growing number of use cases are beginning to make a real difference at the user level. Features like AI-powered meeting summaries, voice-to-text transcription, intelligent search, and personalized system tuning are being adopted in greater numbers. These applications are particularly impactful in hybrid or remote work settings where time efficiency and streamlined communication are vital.

Creative and design-centric workflows are also seeing significant benefit from AI PCs—particularly as onboard neural processing units (NPUs) grow more powerful and software vendors update their platforms to take advantage of these local capabilities. Video editors, graphic designers, and digital marketers are beginning to appreciate the performance boost that on-device AI brings, from accelerated rendering to real-time content generation.

The extension of these tools beyond knowledge work and into domain-specific roles signals an important evolution. As software becomes more AI-native and NPUs become more ubiquitous, expect AI PC use cases to reach further across departments—and up and down the org chart.

3. Industry-Specific Adoption Is Taking Shape

AI PC momentum is not evenly distributed—and that’s a good thing. We’re seeing encouraging adoption patterns in specific verticals where the value proposition is clear and the operational demands align naturally with edge-based intelligence.

In healthcare, AI PCs are being used to reduce administrative burdens, such as documenting patient interactions or generating preliminary case summaries. In financial services, real-time modeling and sensitive data handling benefit from AI processing that happens directly on the device, without the latency or security trade-offs of sending data to the cloud.

Additionally, tools for accessibility and customization are gaining traction across K–12 and higher ed. These capabilities support students while also reducing workload for educators.

Looking ahead, we anticipate the fastest AI PC growth in sectors where latency, privacy, and bandwidth constraints make cloud-dependent AI less viable. According to Lenovo’s Global CIO playbook, 46% of respondents plan to prioritize AI service providers in areas of hybrid architecture, privacy, security and data strategy. In these environments, AI PCs act as a crucial bridge, offering powerful AI experiences without relying on consistent internet access or centralized infrastructure.

4. Upskilling Is the Missing Link

The power of AI PCs doesn’t lie in the silicon alone—it lies in how people use them. Time and again, we’ve seen that organizations realizing the most value from AI PCs are the ones investing in AI literacy. That means going beyond spec sheets and system updates, and actively training teams on how to use AI to solve real-world problems.

Short, role-specific training modules have proven particularly effective. Instead of generic tutorials, these sessions focus on how AI tools enhance a given function—be it drafting reports, analyzing data, or organizing information. Peer-led learning has also shown promise, creating space for natural discovery and collaboration around new tools.

In this way, upskilling becomes a cultural initiative, not just a technical one. The organizations that embrace AI as a workplace competency—not just a device feature—are the ones pulling ahead.

5. Unexpected Learnings From User Behavior

One of the most interesting trends we’ve observed in the first half of 2025 is that some of the most enthusiastic adopters of AI PC features aren’t sitting in corner offices or engineering labs—they’re on the frontlines.

In retail, education, and healthcare, field teams are using AI-enabled features to adapt quickly to customer or patient needs, capture and process data on the go, and make decisions in real time. These users often rely on their PCs for direct service delivery, which makes the autonomy and flexibility of AI-enhanced tools especially valuable.

Another compelling insight: users are customizing their AI experiences more than expected. They’re tweaking automation rules, adjusting assistant settings, and personalizing performance modes to align with their unique rhythms and preferences and according to a recent Mckinsey study, it’s paying off. This appetite for configurability suggests that future generations of AI PCs may benefit from more user-facing control panels and customization pathways—bringing personalization to the forefront of device design.

Looking Ahead

At the halfway mark of 2025, the AI PC space is still young—but undeniably maturing. The narrative is shifting from “what could be” to “what’s already happening,” with real-world deployments, refined features, and broader cross-functional experimentation beginning to take root. It’s important to recognize that adoption won’t happen all at once. The transition from traditional PCs to AI-powered systems will unfold gradually—driven by use cases, supported by training, and reinforced by user experience.

Still, one thing is clear: smarter devices alone won’t unlock transformation. The enterprises that thrive will be those that pair powerful AI hardware with thoughtful deployment, strategic planning, and human-centered enablement. As we move toward 2026, the opportunity isn’t just to bring AI into the PC—it’s to redefine how we work smarter in an increasingly intelligent world.