Dell has become the first big Windows PC maker to say out loud what a lot of buyers have been signaling with their wallets: the “AI PC” pitch is not moving units. After a year of marketing laptops around neural processing units and Copilot features, the company is now conceding that most people still shop on old fashioned basics like performance, battery life, and display quality. The shift exposes a widening gap between Silicon Valley’s AI obsession and what everyday users actually understand or value in a new computer.
At the same time, Microsoft and its partners have tried to turn “AI PC” into the next must have label, promising a new generation of agentic operating systems and background assistants. Yet Dell’s own executives now acknowledge that the branding has confused more customers than it has convinced, and that the company is quietly retreating from AI first messaging even as it keeps adding the same underlying hardware.
Dell’s blunt verdict on AI PCs
Dell’s head of product has been unusually candid about how the AI PC experiment is landing with buyers. In an interview cited across several reports, he said that People are not making purchasing decisions based on AI labels, even when devices ship with dedicated NPUs and preloaded assistants. Instead of treating “AI PC” as a reason to upgrade, customers are still asking the same questions they always have about CPU speed, RAM, storage, and whether the machine will last a full day on a charge.
He went further, saying, “I think AI probably confuses more than it helps,” a line that has quickly become shorthand for Dell’s new realism about the category. In another account of the same conversation, he added that, “In fact I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome,” underscoring that shoppers do not see a clear link between the buzzword and what they can actually do on a laptop. That sentiment is echoed in a separate report that notes Dell is the first Windows OEM to openly admit that the AI PC push has not changed how people buy, even though Jan and other analysts had warned that the branding might be premature.
Marketing retreat: from AI-first back to XPS
The most visible sign of Dell’s change of heart is its decision to pull back from AI first branding on its flagship laptops. Executives have explained that the company has reverted to its familiar XPS identity instead of leading with AI slogans, a shift that shows up clearly in the latest product announcements. One report notes that Dell execs walked through why they have backed away from AI first marketing and returned to the old XPS positioning, emphasizing design and performance rather than neural hardware in the opening pitch, a move detailed in a post that highlights how Dell is recalibrating expectations.
At the same time, Dell is not ripping out the AI capabilities it has already built. The same executives stress that the new XPS machines still ship with NPUs and support for Copilot features, they are simply no longer the headline act. In one detailed account, the head of product points out that “One thing you’ll notice is the message we delivered around our products was not ‘this is an AI PC’,” even though every model in the line has an NPU inside. That remark, captured in a report that quotes “One thing you’ll notice” as a deliberate messaging choice, shows how the company is trying to keep the silicon while dropping the hype, a balance that is spelled out in coverage of the updated XPS branding.
Consumers still care more about basics than buzzwords
Underneath the marketing pivot is a simple reality: buyers still rank traditional specs above AI features. In another interview recap, Dell’s head of product explains that when customers are asked what matters most, they consistently put battery life, performance, and display quality ahead of any AI capability. That hierarchy is spelled out in a report that notes how shoppers prioritize “battery life, performance, and display above AI,” even when the devices in question are technically Copilot Plus PCs. The same piece, which attributes the comments to Jan, reinforces the idea that AI is still a secondary consideration at best.
That disconnect helps explain why Dell’s more honest tone has resonated with parts of the tech community. On Hacker News, a discussion of the company’s comments quickly filled with anecdotes from users who said they had no interest in paying extra for AI features they did not understand, including some who identified themselves as having worked at Intel until recently. The thread reflects a broader skepticism among power users who see AI PCs as a marketing construct layered on top of the same x86 and ARM hardware they have been buying for years, rather than a genuinely new category.
Microsoft’s AI ambitions meet user pushback
Dell’s candor also lands awkwardly for Microsoft, which has spent the past year trying to turn Windows into an AI first platform. Company leaders have talked about building an “agentic OS” that can proactively handle tasks for users, and Windows president Pavan Davuluri has promoted Copilot as a central part of the experience. Yet users have pushed back against those plans, especially when AI features feel bolted on or intrusive, a tension captured in coverage that notes how Users are already frustrated with Windows’ current AI capabilities.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has even urged people to stop saying “AI” and instead talk about “Copilot,” an attempt to turn a generic technology into a specific product brand. That rhetorical shift, reported in the same context, underlines how central AI is to Microsoft’s strategy, even as partners like Dell quietly de emphasize it in their own sales pitches. The result is a strange split screen: on one side, Microsoft and its ecosystem talk about Copilot Plus PCs and neural accelerators; on the other, Dell’s head of product says that AI probably confuses customers more than it helps them reach a specific outcome, a line repeated in multiple accounts that quote Jan and other Dell executives directly.
CES hype, real world confusion
The timing of Dell’s remarks is not accidental. The company’s leadership spoke as the annual CES 2026 show hit its stride in Las Vegas, where “AI” remained one of the most popular buzzwords on the show floor. Reports from the event describe how every major booth seemed to feature some AI powered demo, from laptops to smart home gear, yet Dell’s head of product used the same stage to argue that the term is confusing buyers. One account of his comments at CES in Las Vegas notes that he contrasted the marketing noise with the reality that people are not buying based on AI.
In that same conversation, he pointed to a “shortage that is pretty significant” in certain components, a reminder that supply constraints and cost pressures still shape what PC makers can ship, regardless of how they brand it. Another report on the AI PC debate, written by Tom Warren, notes that Dell’s comments come after Microsoft and its partners placed big bets on next generation AI experiences as the primary reason for people to buy Copilot Plus PCs. The fact that one of the largest Windows OEMs is now publicly saying that effort has seemingly failed to change consumer behavior is a significant data point for the entire PC industry.
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