After attending the HP Amplify Partner Conference 2024 in Las Vegas final week for 3 days, I can state unequivocally that I’ve not often participated in a know-how occasion the place my preliminary response modified so dramatically throughout the first 24 hours.
For these unfamiliar, HP’s Amplify occasion yearly showcases its newest applied sciences and improvements to empower companions and prospects within the digital age. The present serves as a platform for HP to reveal its imaginative and prescient for the way forward for know-how and its function 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 firm 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 brief 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; nevertheless, 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
Things bought a bit extra attention-grabbing on day two. An onstage interview with the all the time entertaining Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang energized the group together with his colourful framing of the AI enterprise alternative with Nvidia-powered HP workstations that drive large 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 Personal Systems Alex Cho, which outlined the essence of this yr’s Amplify. In my view, Cho gave essentially the most passionate, erudite articulation of the AI worth proposition for enterprise prospects of any senior know-how machine 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 units constructed to allow new generative synthetic intelligence workloads in a hybrid workspace. These units featured the most recent AI processor options from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia.
Cho’s statement that this AI revolution isn’t about speeds and feeds is a welcome rebuttal of how most tech corporations sometimes market and message their merchandise.
Instead, it’s activated by use instances, personas, and experiences, Cho famous, stating that the AI revolution won’t purely be an end result of know-how alone. Instead, Cho talked about, “[HP] is changing the world’s fundamental proficiency, productivity, and creativity.”
Cho chatted about a number of compelling developments this yr, significantly 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 essentially the most design wins. This level is a giant deal since massive language fashions, or LLMs, are the essence of generative AI functions and are usually developed on desktops.
AI Studio Shakes Things Up
The announcement of HP’s Nvidia-based AI Studio instantly captured my consideration. AI Studio closes a big hole in constructing gen AI apps and goes one other step in managing crew rights and duties. This latter ingredient is kind of attention-grabbing as gen AI growth requires the work of a number of people.
HP’s AI Studio console (Image Credit: HP)
Companies concerned with deploying gen AI functions are scrambling to take care of prices, as LLMs can price a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to develop. AI Studio is a big antidote for corporations that need to make LLM growth faster, inexpensive, and higher.
Developing LLMs Is Costly, Often Bureaucratic
So, what differentiates AI Studio from related choices within the AI area? It’s vital to recall that, for essentially the most half, solely Nvidia and IBM had “complete 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 subtle nature of LLMs requires distinctive safety protocols, that are difficult and necessitate explicit multi-user collaborative necessities, making conventional software program administration inadequate.
While 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. However, HP has demonstrated a number of flashes of excellence over the previous few years, particularly with its HP Wolf Security software program and HP Smart app, which have attracted thousands and thousands of downloads.
HP’s work with Nvidia on AI Studio has been vital because the partnership has produced a balanced AI collaboration and administration resolution. The result’s a software that permits information engineers to deal with the AI venture, 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, individuals, and compute for AI mannequin growth. (Image Credit: HP)
Closing Thoughts
From a normal enterprise perspective, HP’s pivot to AI is simple to know, on condition that business analysts anticipate a “supercycle” of PC upgrades within the second half of 2024 as extra AI PCs be a part of the market, together with a Windows 11 refresh following the post-Covid interval downturn.
Of course, HP is amongst quite a few PC suppliers utilizing AI to distinguish their merchandise for customers and firms. Still, following Amplify, its enterprise messaging stands out for its precision and meticulousness.
Moreover, 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.
Of course, the HP Amplify occasion is concentrated virtually solely on the corporate’s enterprise and company engagements with its prospects. HP offered a well-thought-out and deliberate plan to have interaction its enterprise prospects with AI options, although it has a lot work to do with customers.
While Microsoft and its Copilot initiative in Windows 11 will do many of the heavy lifting to persuade customers that an AI-embedded PC is price upgrading, the jury remains to be out.
The HP Amplify bulletins weren’t restricted to the AI shopper 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 attention-grabbing 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 frequently goes unappreciated regardless of HP’s huge printer consumables enterprise.
HP VP of Design & Sustainability Stacy Wolff emphasised the corporate’s dedication to eco-friendly practices. (Photo by Author)
However, 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.
More work must be accomplished 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 endurance can typically be definitely worth the wait.