Dell's CES 2026 chat was essentially the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in possibly 5 years
The unshakable presence of AI has been an unwelcome companion of my job for the previous few years, but it surely positive looks like longer. It isn’t even prefer it’s some excitingly malevolent synthetic thoughts with tendrils of affect weaving its method all through my world. That will at the least be satisfying from a sci-fi perspective. No, what I’ve needed to take care of can barely write, undoubtedly can not depend, and has solely simply discovered what fingers are.
But it has been one thing that has pervading each product announcement, presentation, or pre-briefing I have been part of in current instances from any firm even tangentially associated to tech. To the purpose the place I now have a bullshit AI bingo card I fill out simply to distract myself from the hardly resistible want to stab a pen by means of my very own hand simply to really feel one thing actual.
CES 2026
Meet up with CES 2026: We’re on the bottom in sunny Las Vegas overlaying all the most recent bulletins from among the greatest names in tech, together with Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Asus, Razer, MSI and extra.
So thanks, Dell, for making your CES 2026 pre-briefing so blessedly freed from effusive AI chat that I simply needed to point out it.
It began off with Dell vice chairman and COO, Jeff Clarke, taking to a small stage to speak concerning the state of the business and the place Dell and its Alienware sub-brand goes this yr. He talks tariffs, the gradual transitioning of the business (he says CPU, however I am presuming he meant OS and Home windows 10 → 11), after which “we’ve this un-met promise of AI, and the expectation of AI driving finish person demand,” in addition to the truth that “we’re about able to enter 2026 with a reminiscence scarcity that’s fairly important.”
Clarke and his co-presenters then go on to introduce the return of the XPS laptop computer lineup, some new high-end ultraslim Alienware laptops, in addition to some entry-level Alienware laptops (low-cost Alienwares? Actually?), new spins of its Space-51 desktops, and a handful of recent screens.
All of that is very “consumer-first” and aimed toward dialling in to each increase the numbers of individuals utilizing Dell/Alienware tech and the areas by which it operates. And the one point out of AI in the whole factor is Jeff’s little line initially. It is clear, concise, centered on the tech and, within the Q&A that adopted, refreshingly trustworthy.
“One factor you may discover is the message we delivered round our merchandise was not AI-first,” Dell head of product, Kevin Terwilliger says with a smile. “So, a little bit of a shift from a yr in the past the place we had been all concerning the AI PC.”
It isn’t that Dell does not care about AI or AI PCs anymore, it is simply that over the previous yr or so it is come to grasp that the patron does not.
They don’t seem to be shopping for primarily based on AI. In actual fact I feel AI in all probability confuses them greater than it helps them.
Kevin Terwilliger, Dell head of product
“We’re very centered on delivering upon the AI capabilities of a tool—actually all the pieces that we’re asserting has an NPU in it—however what we have realized over the course of this yr, particularly from a client perspective, is they don’t seem to be shopping for primarily based on AI,” Terwilliger says bluntly. “In actual fact I feel AI in all probability confuses them greater than it helps them perceive a selected consequence.”
In a method, you can argue that is tantamount to dumbing down the know-how for the top person. However this is not like withholding details about the core counts of the chips inside your machine, or the TGP of the cellular GPU at its coronary heart for worry of complicated some fictitious buyer. There are individuals who care concerning the {hardware} inside these units, but it surely’s turning into clear there are valuable few who care concerning the AI elements or theoretical capabilities of these machines.
The truth that an enormous PC model reminiscent of Dell/Alienware has determined to ditch the AI-first advertising that appears to in any other case permeate all the pieces—and actually nonetheless permeates—is completely welcome, very refreshing, and hopefully the mark of issues to return.
As a result of, till AI turns into a legitimate, helpful know-how for the top person of those units, and never just a few advertising test field or buzzword for buyers, each firm should take a leaf out of Dell’s ebook and simply hold schtum. And that is actually not one thing I’ve mentioned many instances concerning the massive PC field shifter previously.
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