From 15% to Half: Yang’s AI PC Enterprise Forecast at CES 2026
At the heart of CES 2026, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing delivered a definitive roadmap for the future of the workplace. His message was clear: the era of the traditional PC is ending, and the era of the AI-enabled enterprise is arriving faster than most anticipated.
According to Yang, while AI PCs will account for roughly 15% of the market by the end of 2025, that figure is set to skyrocket to 50% of all enterprise PCs by the end of 2026. This rapid adoption is being fueled by a desperate need for productivity gains and a software landscape that increasingly demands specialized hardware.
The AI PC Defined: Beyond the Hype
To reach a 50% adoption rate, the industry has moved past vague "AI" labels. Yang defined the standard for the modern workplace as Copilot+ PCs equipped with Neural Processing Units (NPUs) capable of 40+ TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second).
Unlike early AI attempts that relied on the cloud, these machines handle heavy lifting locally. This shift enables:
- Low-latency tasks: Real-time meeting summaries and instant video editing.
- Enhanced Privacy: Processing sensitive corporate data on-device rather than in the cloud.
- Lenovo’s Flagship Hardware: Leading this charge is the ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition and the ThinkPad Carbon Aura Edition, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors designed specifically for high-efficiency AI workloads.
Drivers and Barriers to Adoption
The jump from 15% to 50% in a single year is ambitious, but Lenovo argues the ROI makes it inevitable. McKinsey reports that over 50% of firms are already utilizing AI in at least one business function, and the hardware is finally catching up to the software's hunger.
| Driver | Description |
|---|---|
| Productivity | AI agents automate routine tasks, freeing up hundreds of hours per employee. |
| Software Demand | Next-gen Windows features and creative suites now require an NPU for optimal performance. |
| Refresh Cycle | Corporate hardware enters a natural multi-year refresh cycle in 2026. |
However, the path isn't without hurdles. Yang acknowledged that pricing premiums and roadmap uncertainty remain concerns for IT departments. Full adoption requires scale, which Lenovo intends to drive through its diverse portfolio, spanning from Yoga laptops to ThinkCentre towers.
Qira: The "Super Agent" Differentiator
Perhaps the most significant announcement at CES 2026 was Qira, Lenovo’s cross-device AI agent. Designed to be "ambient," Qira lives across laptops, Motorola phones, and wearables.
Qira represents a shift from reactive AI (waiting for a prompt) to proactive AI. It can anticipate a user’s needs—like prepping a brief before a scheduled meeting or optimizing battery life based on travel patterns—all while keeping data localized on the NPU to ensure enterprise-grade security.
"Nobody Can Avoid AI"
Addressing the skeptics and those fearful of displacement, Yang remained firm but empathetic.
"Nobody can avoid AI, but it won’t replace humans," Yang stated during his keynote.
The focus, according to Lenovo, is augmentation. By offloading the "drudgery" of data entry and organization to agentic AI, humans are freed to focus on high-level strategy and creativity. This "Smarter AI for All" vision positions the AI PC not as a luxury, but as a mandatory tool for staying competitive in a global market.
With partners like Nvidia, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm backing the infrastructure, the momentum seems unstoppable. As we head toward 2027, the question for enterprises is no longer if they will adopt AI PCs, but how quickly they can deploy them to avoid being left behind.