Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs need to prove their worth in front of enterprises

Microsoft introduced Copilot+ PC during the Build 2024 conference. This is a new name for the AI PCs that can run Copilot locally and have a 40 TOPs NPU. Such a device could help employees achieve new performances and work faster. However, enterprises might initially not want the Copilot+ PC due to its price and compatibility challenges.

Enterprises fear that Copilot+ PCs could have compatibility issues

The new Copilot+ PCs have a Snapdragon X Elite Arm processor, and because they are Arm-based, some tools and applications won’t work. Microsoft developed the Prism Windows Emulator to support x86-64-based software, but it doesn’t work for all programs. In addition, the new Copilot+ PCs should work well with other hardware, such as printers, monitors, and network adapters.

The upcoming Copilot+ PCs for enterprises will most likely use the new Lunar Lake 86x chip from Intel. Yet, they will be available from the third quarter of this year.

Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Samsung are taking pre-orders for Arm-based Copilot+ PCs. Also, a few enterprise software makers like Adobe and Zoom are making their apps Arm-compatible. Future this year, Salesforce will bring Slack to the Arm-based AI PCs.

The current pricing is too high

Even if enterprises showed interest in the new Copilot+ PCs, they are way too expensive to have a high sales volume. To fix this problem, Microsoft should sell them for under $1000, but the price is way too low compared to their current pricing, which ranges between $1000 and $1800.

According to TechTarget, enterprises will buy a few Copilot+ PCs to test how they work with their software and if they are better than Apple’s MacBooks. Besides, the sales of the new AI PC from Windows might increase once it starts using Intel’s Lunar Lake chip, which will most likely be better than Qualcomm’s Snap Dragon X.

Another issue with the Copilot+ PCs is that they can find and remember everything their users see with the Recall feature. So, companies might be redundant to have an integrated app capable of recording data.

Ultimately, enterprise customers want their Copilot+ PCs to last longer than Apple’s MacBooks, work with their applications and hardware without experiencing compatibility conflicts, and be performant. Also, the future of Microsoft’s Windows on Arm PCs lies in the hands of software developers. After all, employees spend most of their time on applications.

Do you think most enterprises will wait for Intel’s Lunar Lake PCs? Let us know in the comments.