Colombia’s AI Boom Faces PC Access Gap, Windows 11 Upgrades and Rising Memory Prices

According to an October 2026 interview in the Colombian business daily La República—subsequently summarized by ColombiaOne—Juliana Hurtado, Intel’s country lead for Colombia and consumer business director for Latin America, estimates that roughly 10 million Colombian households still lack a PC. At the same time, Hurtado estimates that more than 2 million consumer PCs currently in use across the country are obsolete and unable to upgrade to Windows 11.

For IT observers, hardware vendors, and everyday Windows users, Colombia’s situation is a vivid case study in what happens when rapid software diffusion collides with an aging installed base and a hostile component supply chain.

The AI Boom Meets the Hardware Gap​

To understand why PC manufacturers are watching Colombia so closely, you first have to look at how quickly its population has embraced generative AI tools.

In its September 2026 Global AI Diffusion Report, Microsoft Chief Data Scientist Juan Lavista Ferres noted that global generative AI usage reached 18.8% of the working-age population (ages 15 to 64) in June 2026, up roughly one percentage point from the first quarter. That same report highlighted a widening divide between the Global North, where working-age adoption hit 28.8%, and the Global South, where it stood at 16.2%. Microsoft’s methodology tracks this diffusion using aggregated, anonymized telemetry adjusted for operating system and device market share, internet penetration, and population, while also finding via consumer Microsoft Copilot insights that users in the Global South lean much more heavily toward education and learning tasks.

Within that broader landscape, ColombiaOne and La República report that Colombia’s working-age generative AI adoption reached 25.9% in the second quarter of 2026—placing the nation second in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 7.1 percentage points ahead of the 18.8% global average.

Why is there such a glaring gap between high AI engagement and low PC availability? Because in emerging markets, the smartphone does the heavy lifting for initial internet and chatbot access. Firing off a prompt to a cloud-based assistant on a mobile screen is easy. However, as general industry experience shows, mobile access is not a one-to-one substitute for a full desktop operating system when it comes to long-form academic writing, local software development, spreadsheet modeling, or running a small business.

Sorting Executive Estimates from National Survey Data​

When evaluating hardware penetration numbers, it helps to separate commercial estimates from government census data. Hurtado’s statement in La República that PC penetration in Colombia sits around 37%—leaving roughly 10 million homes without a computer—tracks closely with figures cited by ColombiaOne from Colombia's national household survey, which reported that 37.2% of households had a desktop, laptop, or tablet in 2025 (up slightly from 35.7% in 2024), and that roughly half of households without a desktop cited high cost as the primary barrier. Historical data compiled by the Media and Journalism Research Center from Colombia’s National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) shows household ownership of desktops, laptops, or tablets sat at nearly 38% back in 2021, illustrating how stubbornly flat residential hardware ownership has remained over several years.

Furthermore, DANE’s Encuesta Nacional de Calidad de Vida (ECV 2025) documentation—updated in July 2026—demonstrates that national statistics also track individual usage frequency across any location (whether at home, work, school, university, or an internet café) for residents aged five and older, rather than just household ownership. Even when looking at usage anywhere, laptops remain out of reach for most of the sample: in the raw ECV 2025 microdata catalog for question P1911 (which DANE explicitly cautions reflects raw sample cases rather than a weighted summary of the national universe), 83.3% of the 221,043 recorded cases indicated they do not use a laptop at all, while only 7.4% reported using one every day of the week.

Whether you measure by household asset ownership or individual daily access, the takeaway is identical: a massive portion of the population is locked out of personal computing hardware.

The Windows 11 Cliff and the "AI PC" Push​

For those who do own a computer in the region, a major platform transition is forcing tough financial decisions. Hurtado told La República that across Latin America, roughly 30 million older PCs are ready for replacement, and 26 million of those machines cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. Within Colombia specifically, she places the number of obsolete consumer machines unable to make the Windows 11 jump at over 2 million.

While those figures are internal Intel market estimates rather than an official Microsoft hardware audit, they highlight a very real friction point familiar to Windows Forum readers everywhere. Windows 11’s strict hardware baseline—requiring supported processor generations alongside TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot—draws a hard line in the sand for older systems. Families and small businesses holding onto aging seventh-generation Intel Core systems or older budget laptops cannot simply click "Update" to stay on Microsoft's latest operating system; they face a mandatory hardware refresh.

And when Colombian buyers do walk into a store to replace those aging machines, the retail shelf looks very different than it did a year ago. According to Hurtado, consumer purchasing in Colombia has been surprisingly resilient in 2026 compared to other regional and global markets. She noted several distinct shifts in the local retail channel:

• Rapid AI PC Uptake: One out of every four computers sold in Colombia now features built-in AI capabilities, a sharp jump from just one in ten a year prior.
• The Core 5 Sweet Spot: Intel’s Core i5—now transitioned to the Core 5 branding—is the company's top-selling processor tier in Colombia, serving as the primary vehicle moving mainstream buyers into AI-ready configurations.
• Retailer Campaigns: Intel has poured significant marketing investment into major regional retail partners, including Alkosto, Éxito, and Mercado Libre, to educate shoppers on local AI features ahead of an expected December holiday push.
• Long-Term Ambitions: In the same La República report, Carlos Rebellón, Intel’s Director of Government Affairs for Latin America, stated that the company's goal is for 80% to 100% of personal computing consumed in Colombia to be on AI PCs by 2028.

It is an ambitious commercial vision. Having a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) on an Intel Core 5 laptop is great for offloading local background tasks and future-proofing a Windows 11 system. But can an average family trying to buy their very first home computer afford an AI-ready rig when component costs are skyrocketing?

The Memory Squeeze: How AI Data Centers Tax the Everyday Buyer​

Here lies the cruelest irony of the 2026 PC market: the exact same artificial intelligence boom that has Colombian students and workers eager to get online is actively driving up the cost of entry-level and midrange computers.

As ColombiaOne notes, massive AI data center buildouts are consuming vast quantities of memory chips, prompting semiconductor manufacturers to prioritize high-margin data center production over commodity DRAM and NAND for consumer laptops. The report claims that memory costs in certain laptops have climbed nearly sixfold compared to July 2025, and cites an IDC projection that average global PC prices will rise 18.3% in 2026.

A direct review of IDC’s June 2, 2026 market analysis (PC Market Enters Volatile Territory as Memory Shortage Persists Through 2027) confirms the severity of the supply crunch, while providing the research firm's specific baseline numbers:

• Shipment Declines: IDC forecasts global PC shipments to drop 11.3% across full-year 2026, worsening to a 20% year-over-year decline in the fourth quarter after early-year "pull-forward" buying fades.
• Persistent Shortages: Jean Philippe Bouchard, Vice President of Devices and Consumers at IDC, warned that the industry is seeing no relief to the memory shortage before the end of 2027, forcing PC makers to raise prices and trim their product portfolios.
• Rising Average Selling Prices (ASPs): Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Consumer Devices Trackers, stated that despite competitive downward price pressure from devices like Apple’s MacBook Neo—which IDC expects PC vendors to counter with new silicon, a more efficient OS from Microsoft, and promotional pricing—the overall price trajectory is firmly upward. Specifically, IDC’s June report forecasts 17% growth in PC average selling prices in 2026, noting that even as memory capacity expands over the next two years, prices are unlikely to return to 2025 levels.

Whether global ASPs settle at IDC's verified 17% forecast or the 18.3% figure cited in Colombian press reports, the practical impact on price-sensitive markets is severe. When memory scarcity squeezes OEM margins, budget configurations are the first to suffer—either disappearing from retail shelves entirely or shipping with higher price tags.

Practical Takeaways for Buyers and IT Planners​

Colombia’s predicament isn't happening in a vacuum; it is a preview of the procurement headaches facing budget-conscious households, schools, and small-business IT administrators worldwide through late 2027. If you are managing aging Windows machines or advising families on how to bridge the digital divide during this memory crunch, keep three grounded rules in mind:

1. Audit Windows 11 Eligibility Before Replacing: Don't assume an older PC is obsolete without checking. While millions of machines genuinely lack the CPU generation or TPM 2.0 support required for Windows 11, some desktop and laptop systems simply have fTPM or Intel PTT disabled in the UEFI/BIOS. Always verify hardware compatibility before committing to a costly hardware refresh.
2. Buy for Memory Capacity, Not Just NPU Marketing: Retail marketing in 2026 heavily emphasizes built-in AI capabilities. While an Intel Core 5 AI PC is a solid long-term investment, system RAM remains king for everyday Windows 11 longevity. Because memory prices are driving the current supply squeeze, watch out for vendors cutting corners with soldered 8GB RAM configurations on midrange laptops. Aim for 16GB of RAM whenever budget permits so the machine doesn't choke on modern browser tabs and background services.
3. Explore Refurbished Enterprise Fleet Options: For the 10 million Colombian households without a PC—and cost-constrained buyers everywhere—brand-new AI laptops at 2026 retail prices may simply be out of reach. Off-lease corporate laptops (such as eighth-generation Intel Core or newer business-class machines) often meet official Windows 11 hardware requirements at a fraction of the cost of new retail inventory, offering a practical bridge until global memory supply stabilizes after 2027.

Colombia has already proven that its workforce and students have the appetite to lead Latin America in adopting next-generation software. The real test over the next two years will be whether hardware makers, retailers, and policymakers can keep the humble personal computer affordable enough to turn mobile curiosity into lasting desktop productivity.