After attending the HP Amplify Accomplice Convention 2024 in Las Vegas final week for 3 days, I can state unequivocally that I’ve hardly ever participated in a know-how occasion the place my preliminary response modified so dramatically inside the first 24 hours.
For these unfamiliar, HP’s Amplify occasion yearly showcases its newest applied sciences and improvements to empower companions and clients within the digital age. The present serves as a platform for HP to display its imaginative and prescient for the way forward for know-how and its position in shaping a extra inclusive and sustainable world.
With that as a backdrop, the primary day didn’t precisely knock me off my ft, because the keynotes lacked important substance or main product information. The corporate management clarified that HP is embracing AI in a full-throated and consequential method.
Fellow CEOs Pat Gelsinger from Intel, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai added big-name star energy with quick real-time interviews with HP CEO Enrique Lores. They spoke about their respective corporations’ commitments to maximizing the AI enterprise alternative, however little substance was supplied about how.
HP’s urgency in making a strategic pivot to embracing AI was evident on the primary day of the convention; nonetheless, particular proof factors and what the corporate would do about it have been laborious to seek out.
Then got here the second day.
HP’s Second Act
Issues acquired a bit extra fascinating on day two. An onstage interview with the at all times entertaining Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang energized the group along with his colourful framing of the AI enterprise alternative with Nvidia-powered HP workstations that drive super effectivity in AI-based content material creation.
Following the Huang interview, the occasion took off with a tour de power presentation by HP President of Private Methods Alex Cho, which outlined the essence of this yr’s Amplify. For my part, Cho gave probably the most passionate, erudite articulation of the AI worth proposition for enterprise clients of any senior know-how gadget firm I’ve encountered.
Cho launched a brand new technology of AI-powered enterprise laptops, desktops, and workstations, which he believes will spark a race to revitalize the PC market. He claimed it’s the largest-ever portfolio of “AI PCs” with new gadgets constructed to allow new generative synthetic intelligence workloads in a hybrid workspace. These gadgets featured the most recent AI processor options from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia.
Cho’s statement that this AI revolution just isn’t about speeds and feeds is a welcome rebuttal of how most tech corporations sometimes market and message their merchandise.
As an alternative, it’s activated by use circumstances, personas, and experiences, Cho famous, stating that the AI revolution won’t purely be an final result of know-how alone. As an alternative, Cho talked about, “[HP] is altering the world’s basic proficiency, productiveness, and creativity.”
Cho chatted about a number of compelling developments this yr, notably HP’s product management in AI PCs and workstations.
HP cited 30% greater efficiency and higher battery life for AMD-based cellular workstations than Intel, which earned probably the most design wins. This level is an enormous deal since giant language fashions, or LLMs, are the essence of generative AI purposes and are usually developed on desktops.
AI Studio Shakes Issues Up
The announcement of HP’s Nvidia-based AI Studio instantly captured my consideration. AI Studio closes a major hole in constructing gen AI apps and goes one other step in managing workforce rights and duties. This latter component is kind of fascinating as gen AI improvement requires the work of a number of people.
HP’s AI Studio console (Picture Credit score: HP)
Corporations curious about deploying gen AI purposes are scrambling to take care of prices, as LLMs can price a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} to develop. AI Studio is a major antidote for corporations that wish to make LLM improvement faster, inexpensive, and higher.
Creating LLMs Is Expensive, Usually Bureaucratic
So, what differentiates AI Studio from related choices within the AI area? It’s essential to recall that, for probably the most half, solely Nvidia and IBM had “full stack” options earlier than the discharge of HP’s workstation bulletins at Amplify. Nvidia, for its half, has needed to construct its personal particular and costly workstations.
The delicate nature of LLMs requires distinctive safety protocols, that are difficult and necessitate explicit multi-user collaborative necessities, making conventional software program administration inadequate.
Whereas HP, to its credit score, has been clear about utilizing AI internally, the corporate is new to AI and doesn’t come to the tip of the tongue as a software program professional. Nonetheless, HP has demonstrated a number of flashes of excellence over the previous few years, particularly with its HP Wolf Safety software program and HP Sensible app, which have attracted tens of millions of downloads.
HP’s work with Nvidia on AI Studio has been crucial because the partnership has produced a balanced AI collaboration and administration answer. The result’s a instrument that permits information engineers to deal with the AI undertaking, which is the software program dealing with the bureaucratic administrative and reporting portion.
Z by HP AI Studio is a single platform that brings collectively information, folks, and compute for AI mannequin improvement. (Picture Credit score: HP)
Closing Ideas
From a basic enterprise perspective, HP’s pivot to AI is simple to grasp, provided that trade analysts count on a “supercycle” of PC upgrades within the second half of 2024 as extra AI PCs be part of the market, together with a Home windows 11 refresh following the post-Covid interval downturn.
In fact, HP is amongst quite a few PC suppliers utilizing AI to distinguish their merchandise for shoppers and corporations. Nonetheless, following Amplify, its enterprise messaging stands out for its precision and meticulousness.
Furthermore, HP Amplify was the primary occasion I attended that laid the groundwork for compelling and ROI-driven causes to hunt out a enterprise PC or workstation with AI components.
Alex Cho deserves particular credit score for making that case so enthusiastically and straightforwardly, eschewing some ambiguous and obtuse claims which have begun to plague many corporations’ efforts to market AI.
In fact, the HP Amplify occasion is concentrated virtually completely on the corporate’s enterprise and company engagements with its clients. HP introduced a well-thought-out and deliberate plan to interact its enterprise clients with AI options, although it has a lot work to do with shoppers.
Whereas Microsoft and its Copilot initiative in Home windows 11 will do many of the heavy lifting to persuade shoppers that an AI-embedded PC is value upgrading, the jury continues to be out.
The HP Amplify bulletins weren’t restricted to the AI consumer portfolio outlined above. HP revealed partner-related packages to assist its channel companions with coaching and AI-based enhancements to HP’s Poly lineup. A very fascinating Poly videoconferencing AI-related function introduced at Amplify eliminates the “bowling alley” impact that plagues convention calls in an oblong desk setup.
HP VP of Design & Sustainability Stacy Wolff gave a wonderful presentation on the corporate’s magnificent work in making its product packaging extra sustainable and planet-friendly, which regularly goes unappreciated regardless of HP’s monumental printer consumables enterprise.
HP VP of Design & Sustainability Stacy Wolff emphasised the corporate’s dedication to eco-friendly practices. (Photograph by Writer)
Nonetheless, taking the lengthy view, HP succeeded on the enterprise degree in convincing some extra skeptical observers that the 76-year-old firm can nonetheless innovate, pivot, and re-invent itself.
Extra work must be executed to message the tangible advantages of native AI in PCs past safety and decreased latency, however that may be left to a different day. The yr’s HP Amplify occasion proved the reality of the adage {that a} little bit of persistence can typically be well worth the wait.
