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As organisations across the EMEA and GCC navigate growing demands for productivity, security, and cost efficiency, AI-enabled PCs are rapidly emerging as a strategic necessity. Taha Khalifa, GM for Intel Middle East and Africa, explains how these devices are reshaping enterprise computing by integrating AI directly at the endpoint.
By processing workloads locally, AI PCs enable businesses to gain faster insights, maintain control over sensitive data, and reduce reliance on cloud infrastructure—a critical advantage for sectors like government, finance, and energy.
Intel’s AI PC Global Report highlights tangible benefits: enterprises using AI PCs spend 65 per cent less time on device management, require 90 per cent fewer on-site IT visits, and achieve a 213 per cent higher ROI over three years.
With Windows 10 support ending, businesses have a timely opportunity to upgrade their fleets with AI PCs, combining enhanced productivity with robust security. Intel’s vPro platform provides multi-layer hardware-based threat protection, while AI training programmes and collaboration with over 200 software vendors ensure employees and organisations can fully harness AI capabilities.
In this interview, Khalifa discusses how AI PCs are not just a technological upgrade, they are a tool for driving efficiency, innovation, and secure enterprise operations, positioning organisations to compete in an increasingly AI-driven world.
Intel has reported that AI PCs are driving productivity gains, enhancing IT efficiency, and helping businesses reduce cloud costs while keeping data local. From your perspective, how is AI PCs reshaping enterprise computing in EMEA and the GCC, and why should businesses care now?
AI PCs are transforming the way enterprises operate by integrating artificial intelligence directly at the endpoint, delivering higher ROI. Across EMEA and the GCC, where data sovereignty and operational efficiency are crucial, the ability to process AI workloads locally helps businesses achieve greater productivity, optimise costs, and maintain control over sensitive information.
This is particularly important for sectors such as government and finance, where regulatory compliance and data protection are critical.
According to Intel’s AI PC Global Report, research conducted across EMEA and the GCC shows that enterprises using AI PCs spend 65 per cent less time on device management, require 90 per cent fewer on-site IT visits, and achieve a 213 per cent higher ROI over three years.
By enabling real-time AI inference and minimising reliance on cloud infrastructure, organisations can realise substantial performance gains and cost savings, making AI PC adoption essential in today’s fast and competitive workspace.
With Windows 10 support winding down, many IT leaders see AI-enabled PCs as a timely upgrade to boost both security and productivity. How is Intel leveraging this transition to position AI PCs as essential, not optional, for modern business fleets?
As Windows 10 support nears its end, businesses are presented with an opportunity to upgrade their PC inventories. We recognise this transition as the ideal juncture to upgrade to AI PCs as a strategic necessity.
Our latest Intel Core Ultra processors seamlessly integrate CPU, GPU, and NPU technologies, delivering advanced AI capabilities, superior performance, and enhanced energy efficiency. Combined with Intel vPro platform, businesses can safeguard their infrastructure as well as future-proof operations with enhanced security.
Research shows that while most businesses plan to move to AI PCs, many employees still don’t fully understand the benefits. What is Intel doing, regionally and globally, to bridge that knowledge gap and ensure businesses realise the full value of AI on the PC?
We recognise that raising awareness is key to successful AI PC adoption. Effective training is crucial for maximising AI PC benefits; in a recent global survey 95 per cent of respondents believe employees need training to use AI PCs effectively.
Ongoing training is essential to bridge the skills gap, as many organisations currently offer only one-off training sessions. Intel is collaborating with many organisations locally to scale its AI training programmes adapted for the youth and the workforce. This can help bring this knowledge gap. Intel is also working closely with the growing ecosystem of independent software vendors (ISVs) to optimise applications for AI PCs, enhancing their capabilities and ensuring organisations are prepared for future demands.
We have optimised more than 400 AI application features through our collaboration with more than 200 ISV’s. Additionally, Intel established the AI PC acceleration programme, which brings together a robust ecosystem of independent software vendors to deliver hundreds of optimised AI-enabled applications ready for immediate deployment. This ensures that when organisations adopt AI PCs, employees experience tangible benefits in their daily work.
According to Intel AI-PC global report 90 per cent of business and IT decision-makers say AI PCs will boost productivity, 92 per cent link AI PCs to innovation enabling new products, services, and revenue streams and 90 per cent see AI PCs as key to gaining customer insights.
Intel’s latest product launches include processors with integrated NPUs and GPUs designed to optimise AI performance. Looking ahead to next-generation desktop and enterprise solutions, how do these innovations reflect Intel’s strategy for empowering enterprise AI workflows?
Our strategy is clear: We allow businesses with the flexibility to deploy AI workloads where they deliver the greatest impact, whether on CPU, GPU, or NPU. The Intel Core Ultra processors family and next-generation platforms are built to optimise this balance, supporting everything from lightweight AI assistants to heavy enterprise workloads.
This architecture is developed to deliver optimal performance, enhanced energy efficiency, and seamless mobility, ensuring organisation can scale AI solutions without compromise.
Looking ahead, the company’s roadmap will further extend these capabilities to desktop and enterprise systems, meeting the growing demand for scalable AI workflows across industries. Our approach is to allow organisations with new possibilities to grow in a rapidly evolving AI-driven world.
AI PCs handle more sensitive inference locally, which carries its own risks, from data poisoning to new cyber threats. How is the company helping enterprises balance the performance benefits of edge AI with the need for stronger cybersecurity?
Intel vPro platform delivers the most comprehensive security — as security remains the the number one refresh driver, together we can help customers benefit from the most comprehensive threat and identity protection with multi-layer hardware-based protection for today’s evolving cyber threats — delivered out of the box. AI PC workloads benefit from a secure foundation.
Advanced capabilities such as hardware-based threat detection, memory encryption, and AI-assisted security solutions help mitigate sophisticated cyber risks.
Moreover, keeping sensitive data processed locally minimises the vulnerabilities associated with transmitting data across networks or to the cloud. This comprehensive, layered approach spanning hardware, firmware, and software ensures enterprises can leverage AI PCs while maintaining the highest standards of trust and security.
The company has forecast that a significant portion of the PC market will be AI-enabled within the next few years. In your view, what’s the real state of AI PC adoption in EMEA and the GCC today, and what needs to happen for that vision to become reality?
We expect that by 2028, 80 per cent of PC sales will be AI PC’s. Adoption of AI PCs in EMEA and the ME is steadily growing as the technology, and the AI applications start gaining momentum in both the consumer and commercial segments.  Organisations are actively evaluating AI PCs, particularly those in government, telecoms, and energy sectors, where innovation and regulatory compliance are paramount.
As we discussed before, creating awareness and scaling AI training programmes aligned with the continued availability of AI applications and features through our ISV enablement programmes will be critical to deliver to this vision. It is also crucial to ensure alignment with regional data protection and security regulations.
We are committed to collaborating with governments, enterprises, and software developers to accelerate adoption. We are confident that soon, AI PCs will become the standard for enterprise computing infrastructures throughout the region.