Will Your Next PC Have AI Built In? Q&A With Vineet Gehani, HP India

HP recently launched the Omen Transcend 14 and Envy x360 14, its first laptops in India with integrated AI capabilities. While the Omen Transcent 14 targets the thin-and-light gaming segment, with a slick design and a mid-range Nvidia GPU, the Envy x360 14 is a versatile foldable 2-in-1 with a touchscreen and stylus support. In addition to performance and portability, the company is promoting AI capabilities such as background noise removal on video calls, live text transcription, and smarter content creation in supported software such as Adobe Photoshop.

These are both premium laptops with premium prices. We caught up with Vineet Gehani, Senior Director, Consumer Sales, HP India, on the sidelines of HP’s launch event, to talk about how they can fit into people’s lives, how the market is responding to AI, and whether consumers are interested enough in AI to buy a new computer right now.

In your experience, what does AI mean for the average PC user? 

AI is the next level of technology that everybody is talking about. AI, in very simple words, is all about how lives can be made simpler, how decisions can be made faster, how the productivity and efficiency levels of users and consumers or even maybe office and enterprise customers can just be made more intuitive and more efficient.

What are the practical uses of AI on PCs today?

AI also means enhancing the features, benefits or experiences that users are really looking for from their devices. For example, when they are using audio or video on their PCs, some of the AI features can actually make it intuitive in terms of understanding when noise in the background is high and lowering it; understanding when there is not exact eye contact with the screen; AI can actually help in terms of making that seamless [to fix such problems] so that the person sitting on the other side doesn't even know that.

Now these are some very simple examples, but on the other hand, on the computing side, AI is all about research and analysis becoming available at the press of a button. It's about the machine understanding and intuitively knowing what you want from that [data], and then throwing up ideas through the use of technology like Microsoft Copilot, for example. [AI can be used] in terms of the ideation and the inspiration for doing it.

HP Omen Transcend 14 (2024)

Do you believe AI is already driving an upgrade cycle for PC users? 

We think that everybody wants much better experiences, and they want more from their devices than they wanted earlier. So yes, there is already a premiumisation. There is a re-optimization trend happening in the industry of actually upgrading from old devices to newer devices with their new technologies. Now, with all these features and what we are now bringing to the market through the products that we launched today, we're confident we'll only accelerate. People will want to buy that much better and that much faster even if they have to come in and refresh their own products.

Do you think the consumers are aware enough of AI features, and what are you doing to show them that this is new and can affect their lives? 

We're talking to consumers through digital and marketing campaigns. We're also making sure that these experiences are actually getting delivered when consumers visit our stores, and our promoters help them with sales and buying experiences for them to actually see these effects in [real life] and then to understand how they will enhance their own lifestyles and their own productivity cycles.

India being a price-sensitive market, are AI features motivating people to spend more? 

I think, like I said, consumers are most definitely discerning that their lifestyles and their productivity will be enhanced by using newer and better technologies, and by now leveraging the use cases of artificial intelligence. How we make it easier for consumers to buy is by running good offers in the form of easy EMI schemes, cashbacks, trade-ins and buybacks. 

HP Envy x360 14 (2024)

Do you think all of this applies to creator and gaming markets as well?

Most definitely, because gaming for example, one big shift that’s been happening is that gamers now want bigger and better devices. It’s not only about the mobile or console gaming experience, it’s about the PC gaming experience. These products make it that much more [of a lifestyle shift]. For gamers to start using the Omen Transcend 14, for example. The creators are also not looking to not only create in one space, but really create on the go, using the thinnest, most ultraportable devices. AI as a trend applies to pretty much all users. 

What are you most excited about when you look at the next 5-10 years in the PC market in India?

Two things: Firstly, AI as a trend. We are just about seeing the beginning of it. AI itself will unfold in a lot of end-use cases, simplifying the lives of consumers and enterprise customers; pretty much all the customers that we want to serve. That’s personally very exciting in terms of how we keep up with this and take leadership, making sure we’re bringing the best technology and product end use-cases to enhance their experiences. Overall, the PC industry in India is poised for growth. With household PC penetration currently still at around 18 percent, we think this has the opportunity to double in the next 5-7 years. We want to take products not only to the existing customers but to users who are now going to move and adapt to the PC. 

Responses have been slightly condensed and edited for clarity.