Adoption of Copilot+ PCs in the enterprise sector has thus far been subdued despite a surge in marketing by Microsoft and its hardware partners, with IT decision makers demonstrating caution toward the exclusive AI features these machines provide and appearing more motivated by hardware lifecycle refreshes than cutting-edge AI capabilities. The phenomenon presents a complex intersection of technology promise and business pragmatism, as the so-called “AI PCs” face a skeptical enterprise customer base whose priorities remain rooted in operational predictability, compatibility, and value.
Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC initiative, introduced in 2024, sought to demarcate a new echelon of computing hardware distinguished by powerful Neural Processing Units (NPUs) capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This threshold is significant: previous “AI PC” branding, such as that seen in Intel’s Meteor Lake CPUs, fell short at 11 TOPS, whereas Copilot+ PCs push for a substantial leap in local AI inference capability—a factor theoretically promising more advanced features without relying on cloud computation. Initial launches focused on Qualcomm Snapdragon X series-powered laptops, with Intel’s Core Ultra 200V and AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 series joining later in the year.
By the summer of 2025, Copilot+ PCs boasted a collection of exclusive local AI-driven features, including the controversial Recall tool, “Click to Do” actions, enhanced Studio Effects for webcams, and on-device image manipulation. Ostensibly, these are intended to set Copilot+ systems apart from both regular AI PCs—those with less powerful NPUs—and traditional machines.
Marie-Christine Pygott, Senior Analyst at Context, offers further statistical perspective: in the second quarter of 2025, only nine percent of AI-capable PC shipments to European resellers were Copilot+ models, up from a mere two percent at the end of 2024. These headwinds reflect both absolute and relative numbers—a small segment of an already modestly sized market, as only two in five PCs sold in early Q2 2025 were AI-capable at all.
However, for now, the primary differentiators for business buyers remain performance, compatibility, and power efficiency. The marketing “hook” of future-proofing for AI apps yet to arrive is real—but not sufficiently compelling to drive large-scale purchasing on its own.
Yet, in practice, these positive statements are often tempered by pragmatism. When committing to hardware purchases, buyers still prioritize immediate deliverables—security, reliability, total cost of ownership—over “potential” or “future readiness.” As Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research succinctly puts it: “They’re not necessarily buying [Copilot+ PCs] to have those capabilities right now. By investing in Copilot+ PCs now, they are making an investment in systems with capabilities.” This implies a hedging strategy: enterprises want to be equipped should local AI workloads take off, but are unwilling to pay a premium for features their users cannot yet exploit.
Microsoft is clearly aware of the feedback, providing granular controls and evolving the user experience to enable opt-outs and more transparent data management. However, the persistent insistence on onboarding users with Recall during system setup sends a mixed message, and enterprise IT will likely demand even stricter controls or, possibly, entirely disable the feature until confidence is restored.
Historically, the “premium hardware” narrative loses momentum if not paired with genuinely differentiated software experiences. With Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft’s pivot is now evident: the marketing playbook has shifted to foreground performance and power efficiency, relegating AI talk to more muted “future-proofing” claims. This move appears to resonate with enterprise buyers, who increasingly view high-end, NPU-enabled laptops as a baseline for tomorrow’s desktop, not a panacea for today’s needs.
Enterprises are shrewd: they recognize the value in buying “advanced” hardware if the price is right and the compatibility is broad, but will not divert budgets on the hope of “killer apps” that have yet to be delivered. For now, Copilot+ PCs will continue to ride the prevailing hardware refresh cycles, with their unique features providing optionality rather than necessity.
In the near term, IT leaders would be wise to:
Source: theregister.com Enterprises slow to pick up on Copilot+ PCs
The Anatomy of Copilot+ PCs: What Makes Them Different?
Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC initiative, introduced in 2024, sought to demarcate a new echelon of computing hardware distinguished by powerful Neural Processing Units (NPUs) capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This threshold is significant: previous “AI PC” branding, such as that seen in Intel’s Meteor Lake CPUs, fell short at 11 TOPS, whereas Copilot+ PCs push for a substantial leap in local AI inference capability—a factor theoretically promising more advanced features without relying on cloud computation. Initial launches focused on Qualcomm Snapdragon X series-powered laptops, with Intel’s Core Ultra 200V and AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 series joining later in the year.By the summer of 2025, Copilot+ PCs boasted a collection of exclusive local AI-driven features, including the controversial Recall tool, “Click to Do” actions, enhanced Studio Effects for webcams, and on-device image manipulation. Ostensibly, these are intended to set Copilot+ systems apart from both regular AI PCs—those with less powerful NPUs—and traditional machines.
Enterprise Reception: Skepticism Over Substance
Despite these advancements, evidence collected by respected market analysts points to sustained reticence among enterprise buyers. Canalys’s 2025 surveys of global B2B channel partners reveal that, while 73 percent were familiar with Copilot+ PCs in March, only 33 percent considered AI capabilities as a key buying factor the following month. The overwhelming majority of deployments have occurred in pilot programs targeted at niche use cases or specific corporate personas; mass rollouts remain rare.Marie-Christine Pygott, Senior Analyst at Context, offers further statistical perspective: in the second quarter of 2025, only nine percent of AI-capable PC shipments to European resellers were Copilot+ models, up from a mere two percent at the end of 2024. These headwinds reflect both absolute and relative numbers—a small segment of an already modestly sized market, as only two in five PCs sold in early Q2 2025 were AI-capable at all.
Barriers to Adoption
Several core challenges underpin this reluctance:- Cost Sensitivity: Copilot+ PCs entered with notably higher prices, though recent months have seen modest reductions as competition intensifies and production scales.
- Unclear Use Cases: Many businesses find the AI features either redundant (due to equivalent cloud services), irrelevant to their workflows, or immature in scope and polish.
- Software Compatibility Concerns: Enterprises are wary of early Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs due to legacy application issues on ARM architectures, preferring x86 alternatives unless software compatibility is guaranteed.
- Privacy and Security: Particularly with Recall—an opt-in tool that continuously records screenshots for natural-language search—it quickly became evident that privacy concerns trumped novelty. Although Microsoft tightened its security model and limited Recall’s scope, the perception of risk persists, especially in regulated sectors.
- Perceived Consumer Focus: Features like image upscaling, in-app drawing cocreation, and gaming frame enhancement resonate weakly with commercial buyers, who often opt for specialized third-party solutions.
- Refresh Over Innovation: The modest Copilot+ PC adoption growth is largely attributable to standard hardware upgrade cycles, not a widespread desire for new on-device AI functions.
Exclusive Features in Context
While exclusive to Copilot+ PCs, most of the flagship features have been met with tepid enthusiasm in commercial environments.Recall (Preview Mode)
Recall operates by screenshotting all user activity and storing the data locally, protected by secure enclave technologies. Users can later query past actions in natural language (“what site did I see the red shoes on?”). Despite improvements—such as exclusion of sensitive personal information and secure storage—Recall has drawn intense scrutiny. It has repeatedly captured content like usernames and passwords, leading browser vendors such as Brave to preemptively block its operation. Even Microsoft’s pressure to enable Recall during setup has not overcome a fundamentally skeptical enterprise user base, with privacy officers voicing ongoing concerns about accidental data exposure or regulatory non-compliance.Click to Do
This feature allows users to interact with elements on-screen for context actions—copying text from images, performing web searches, or removing backgrounds instantly. It introduces accessibility enhancements and shows technical promise, but many of its capabilities already exist in standalone applications, sometimes available even on less advanced Windows devices. The local NPU does offer faster and potentially more secure processing, but IT leaders are unconvinced that such marginal gains justify a premium hardware spend.Cocreator in Microsoft Paint
Copilot+ PCs enable image redrawing by AI based on user sketches and prompts—a genuinely novel feature but one primarily suited to creative or educational work. Most business environments, if needing advanced graphics, already depend on established platforms like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, which have their own robust (and enterprise-grade) AI integrations.Windows Studio Effects
An improved webcam experience—blur, background replacement, local effect processing—is valuable in a hybrid work era. Still, the differentiation from non-Copilot+ PCs is muted, as mainstream video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet offer these functions natively via the cloud, lowering the need for hardware-specific processing.Live Captions and Semantic Search
Real-time video captioning and advanced, NPU-powered search for files are meaningful accessibility improvements. Yet, the advantages over existing cloud solutions (or even built-in OS tools on less powerful machines) are incremental, not transformative.Image Restyling, Super Resolution, and Gaming Features
Features like image upscaling, art style transfer, or game frame-rate enhancement may dazzle individual users or consumer hobbyists. For organizations, these tools offer minimal practical upside, as professional design teams already integrate superior, industry-standard solutions, and corporate IT regards gaming features as superfluous.The Competitive Landscape: Not Just Microsoft
While Microsoft sets hardware standards and bundles Copilot+ with flagship features, it is not alone in pushing local AI acceleration. Apple’s recent push for on-device AI in macOS (including Apple Intelligence and NPU-powered features in M3 chips) sets another example, while PC OEMs continue to experiment with their own branded AI optimizations. The industry at large, from chipmakers to software developers, is keen to highlight the long-term potential of distributed, privacy-preserving AI workloads.However, for now, the primary differentiators for business buyers remain performance, compatibility, and power efficiency. The marketing “hook” of future-proofing for AI apps yet to arrive is real—but not sufficiently compelling to drive large-scale purchasing on its own.
Enterprise Perspective: Survey Insights and Outlook
Intriguingly, there is a discrepancy in enterprise sentiment depending on which survey or analyst you consult. Dell and Intel have touted bullish numbers from their UK IT decision-maker survey, with 62 percent indicating a preference for Copilot+ PCs over regular AI PCs, and 64 percent rating the ability to run AI apps locally as critical or extremely critical for their business. Meanwhile, TECHnalysis Research’s preliminary findings suggest that 88 percent of enterprise respondents believe having an NPU is at least somewhat important right now—the number rises to 93 percent when asked about two years into the future.Yet, in practice, these positive statements are often tempered by pragmatism. When committing to hardware purchases, buyers still prioritize immediate deliverables—security, reliability, total cost of ownership—over “potential” or “future readiness.” As Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research succinctly puts it: “They’re not necessarily buying [Copilot+ PCs] to have those capabilities right now. By investing in Copilot+ PCs now, they are making an investment in systems with capabilities.” This implies a hedging strategy: enterprises want to be equipped should local AI workloads take off, but are unwilling to pay a premium for features their users cannot yet exploit.
Security, Privacy, and Trust: The Recall Conundrum
Security and privacy thresholds in enterprise environments are notoriously high. Recall, despite Microsoft’s repeated assurances and technical improvements, remains “radioactive” for many IT pros. Anecdotal testing continues to surface potentially compromising screen captures—bank logins, password files—that fuel ongoing mistrust. Regulatory compliance, both in Europe (GDPR) and elsewhere, amplifies the concern, with some organizations assessing whether the risk can be holistically managed or whether restricting such features at the group policy level will suffice.Microsoft is clearly aware of the feedback, providing granular controls and evolving the user experience to enable opt-outs and more transparent data management. However, the persistent insistence on onboarding users with Recall during system setup sends a mixed message, and enterprise IT will likely demand even stricter controls or, possibly, entirely disable the feature until confidence is restored.
Value Proposition: Performance, Battery, and Beyond
Despite mixed attitudes toward AI features, most analysts agree that Copilot+ PCs offer tangible hardware gains—longer battery life (especially on ARM-powered models), reduced reliance on cloud resources, and superior multitasking thanks to dedicated NPUs. For remote and hybrid workforces, these can make a difference, notably in mobile scenarios where battery autonomy is critical and network reliability fluctuates.Historically, the “premium hardware” narrative loses momentum if not paired with genuinely differentiated software experiences. With Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft’s pivot is now evident: the marketing playbook has shifted to foreground performance and power efficiency, relegating AI talk to more muted “future-proofing” claims. This move appears to resonate with enterprise buyers, who increasingly view high-end, NPU-enabled laptops as a baseline for tomorrow’s desktop, not a panacea for today’s needs.
The Road Ahead: Risks and Opportunities
Strengths
- Clear Hardware Performance Gains: Battery life and performance exceed previous generations, particularly for mobile users.
- On-Device AI as a Strategic Bet: Over time, local processing could become essential for latency-sensitive, privacy-critical workloads in sectors like healthcare, finance, and government.
- Granular Control: Features can be selectively enabled, providing flexibility for enterprises adapting to evolving regulatory and security landscapes.
Potential Risks
- Software Ecosystem Gaps: Until the broader software market catches up—delivering compelling, enterprise-grade apps that exploit NPUs—much of the capacity will remain underused.
- ARM Compatibility Issues: Early negative experiences may have long-lasting effects on trust, despite improvements and expanded x86 support.
- Security and Privacy: Any misstep with privacy (Recall, in particular) risks protracted reputational damage and could trigger enterprise bans, especially in regulated sectors.
- Unmet Business Needs: If AI features are consumer-centric and do not align with mission-critical workloads, IT budgets may flow elsewhere.
Critical Analysis and Takeaways
The Copilot+ PC narrative is a tale of technological ambition meeting commercial reality. Microsoft and its partners have succeeded in setting a new bar for local hardware acceleration and have seeded the market for AI-powered workflows that arc into the future. However, real-world enterprise adoption hinges on more than top-line specs or flashy demos. Until AI features solve pressing business problems, rather than simply promise future utility or replicate what’s accessible via the cloud, uptake will be incremental rather than explosive.Enterprises are shrewd: they recognize the value in buying “advanced” hardware if the price is right and the compatibility is broad, but will not divert budgets on the hope of “killer apps” that have yet to be delivered. For now, Copilot+ PCs will continue to ride the prevailing hardware refresh cycles, with their unique features providing optionality rather than necessity.
In the near term, IT leaders would be wise to:
- Pilot, but not mass deploy, Copilot+ PCs where specific AI features align with business needs.
- Restrict or tightly control Recall and similar features pending further hardening and regulatory clarity.
- Factor in ongoing software ecosystem maturity when projecting NPU-driven productivity gains.
Source: theregister.com Enterprises slow to pick up on Copilot+ PCs
