Dell's head of product: 'I think AI probably confuses more than it helps'

The annual CES 2026 show is hitting its stride in Las Vegas this week, and "AI" remains one of the most popular buzzwords you'll hear at the show. From Nvidia's AI-driven DLSS 4.5 upgrade to AI-powered robot pets, the tech industry's fascination with AI shows no signs of slowing in 2026.

That's not a huge surprise given basically the same story played out last year at CES 2025, where nearly every major laptop maker was talking up the promise of the AI PC. It's a vague marketing term that typically connotes PCs packing CPUs with onboard NPUs (Neural Processing Units) optimized for AI-driven work like blurring your background on video calls.

Dell was one of the big promoters of AI PCs at CES last year, rebranding their laptop lines and repositioning many as AI PCs. But this year the PC vendor took a different tack, reversing last year's rebranding (XPS is back!) and clearly stating that it's pulling back from promoting its new computers as AI-first PCs.

How come? According to Dell exec Kevin Terwilliger, people just aren't buying computers based primarily on their AI capabilities.

People aren't buying based on AI

Terwilliger said so during a pre-briefing for Dell's CES 2026 product announcements, which include new Dell XPS laptops packing the latest Intel Panther Lake CPUs. And as our sister site PC Gamer helpfully pointed out, the Dell exec made a point of saying that while Dell isn't abandoning AI features, it's not going to keep trying make them a primary selling point of PCs.

"One thing you'll notice is the message we delivered around our products was not AI-first," Terwilliger said. "So, a bit of a shift from a year ago where we were all about the AI PC."

He went on to note that while every new product Dell unveiled at CES this year has an NPU inside, the company refrained from promoting their AI features first and foremost because it believes people aren't buying new PCs based on AI.

That's a significant bit of insight into how people are buying laptops and desktops from one of the biggest suppliers on the planet. And as someone who personally had to review a fair number of "AI PCs" over the last year or two, I can tell you they're nearly always all style and no substance.

"What we've learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is they're not buying based on AI," added Terwilliger. "In fact I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome."

This was a common note during Dell's CES 2026 presentation, echoing folks like Dell COO Jeff Clarke claiming "we have this un-met promise of AI" that's struggling to convince folks to buy laptops right as "we're about ready to enter 2026 with a memory shortage that is pretty significant."

Outlook

So while all of Dell's new laptops will support the latest AI features in Windows 11, you can expect them to return to the classic XPS branding and feature a bit less AI-focused advertising.

As someone who's been reviewing laptops for decades I gotta say, this sounds like good news to me. I've reviewed over a dozen "AI laptops" in the last year and I've yet to actually use any of their AI features in my day-to-day work. They're typically fun to play around with for five or ten minutes, but unless you like a robot rewriting your words or fiddling with your scribbles in Paint they aren't much help.

Even better, Dell has brought back not just the XPS branding but a few other features I loved about the old XPS laptops as well, including a visible touchpad and physical function keys instead of the frustrating old capacitive versions. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to review Dell's 2026 XPS lineup when they ship later this month—stay tuned!