"At a press briefing ahead of CES 2026, two of Dell's top executives threw a bucket of ice-cold water on the idea that consumers are clamoring for AI. Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke, in his opening remarks, referred to the "unmet promise of AI." The company had "an expectation of AI driving end-user demand," he noted, but "it hasn't quite been what we thought it was going to be a year ago.""
"In the Q&A portion, the company's head of product, Kevin Terwilliger, stressed that Dell's messaging about its 2026 PC lineup is not "AI first." Customers aren't buying it That's "a bit of a shift from a year ago, where we were all about the AI PC," he acknowledged. "What we've learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, they're not buying based on AI. In fact, I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome.""
Microsoft is promoting Copilot PCs and an AI-driven, 'agentic' Windows 11, but major PC makers report weak consumer demand. Dell executives described the 'unmet promise of AI' and said expectations that AI would drive end-user purchases have not materialized. Dell's product leader said messaging is not 'AI first' because consumers are not buying based on AI and may find AI confusing rather than clarifying outcomes. Microsoft’s AI offerings have not delivered obvious home-user benefits or reduced usage of services like ChatGPT, while competitors such as Google Gemini and Anthropic's Claude receive favorable attention.
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