'AI going to redefine what a PC is,' says HP CEO as company shares less-than-stellar earnings

HP CEO Enrique Lores recently expressed his belief that artificial intelligence (AI) will bring about a profound transformation in the personal computer industry, particularly within his own company. In an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Lores highlighted the potential to create a new category of PCs that will drive substantial advancements in the industry. He emphasised that AI will play a crucial role in redefining the PC and revolutionising customer experiences, as HP collaborates with leading software vendors and silicon providers to redesign the architecture of their PCs.

″[AI is] going to help us to redefine what a PC is, the experiences that customers will be able to get are going to be much different, and we are working to redesign the architecture of a PC,” Lores said.

Lores shared that HP is currently developing AI-enabled PCs that will enable users to perform tasks such as spreadsheet building and data analysis in record time. Instead of spending hours scrutinising figures, analysts will be able to rely on AI to generate spreadsheets, analyse data, and even engage in dialogue about the findings within seconds. These innovative PC models are anticipated to hit the market as early as 2024.

Expressing his excitement, Lores stated, "Having worked in this industry for many, many years, I have never seen an opportunity like this to truly drive innovation and cater to new types of customer needs that we consider to be fundamentally important."

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Meanwhile, HP recently reported second-quarter earnings of $12.91 billion, slightly below the expected $13.07 billion estimated by Refinitiv, the company did surpass expectations in terms of second-quarter earnings and raised its full-year forecast. 

Lores remains optimistic that the second half of the year will bring significant improvements, attributing the current performance to channel inventory reduction efforts and anticipating a boost from the end-of-year shopping season. The PC maker now expects annual adjusted profit between $3.30 per share and $3.50 per share, compared with the $3.20 to $3.60 forecast earlier.

He explained, "We believe this is an overall market adjustment that will occur. The first-half results were impacted by the reduction of channel inventory that both we and the industry have been driving. However, in the second half, we expect consumer demand to strengthen, especially with the back-to-school and holiday seasons."

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