Commercial AI PCs are supposed to be the next big thing in enterprise security — and honestly, they might have to be.
Let’s start with the bad news. Every 39 seconds, someone gets hacked. In South Africa, it’s worse than bad — we ranked first in Africa for ransomware and infostealer attacks in the second half of 2024. Threat actors are running wild, file-less malware is now the dominant attack method, and Microsoft is about to abandon support for hundreds of millions of Windows 10 machines in 2025. That’s a perfect storm of vulnerability, and if you’re still clinging to five-year-old hardware, your risk profile looks like Swiss cheese.
Enter: commercial AI PCs. That’s the new category Dell and Intel are pushing — AI-capable hardware designed with security in mind. On paper, it sounds like marketing. In practice, it’s starting to look like the only way to stay ahead of attackers who are already using generative AI to break into systems faster and more creatively than ever before.
It’s not just your software that’s vulnerable. It’s your silicon.
Let’s be clear: your old endpoint protection setup isn’t built for this. Modern attacks go deeper than software — they target memory, firmware, and even BIOS-level processes. So Dell’s pitch is simple: build the defence into the machine itself.
Commercial AI PCs from Dell ship with features like Secured Component Verification to fight supply chain tampering, and SafeBIOS to detect suspicious firmware activity. There’s hardware-level encryption, root-of-trust protections, and Windows 11 virtualisation baked into the silicon. You can’t install that with a patch. You need newer machines.
And it doesn’t stop at hardware. Dell and Intel are working with security heavyweights like CrowdStrike to bring in telemetry integrations that enrich threat detection without draining IT resources. File-less malware? Intel’s Threat Detection Technology offloads the scan to the integrated GPU — leaving your CPU free to breathe.
It’s security by design — not by afterthought.
Security now comes with an NPU
Here’s where it gets weird (and interesting): those same neural processing units that power generative AI features like Copilot also run on-device security AI models. We’re talking local deepfake detection, anti-phishing classifiers, data loss prevention, and secure file transfer — no cloud roundtrip required.
In fact, CrowdStrike has documented how AI models running on the NPU outperform their cloud-run counterparts in certain real-time detection tasks. In this case, AI isn’t just a buzzword. It’s the engine powering your firewall — assuming you’ve got the hardware to handle it.
But there’s a catch. These defences only work if your device is modern enough to support them. That means Windows 11, updated BIOS, current-gen Intel processors, and yes, an actual commercial AI PC. Legacy laptops can’t run this playbook — and if your IT team is still managing fleets of dusty pre-2020 notebooks, you’re not secure. You’re exposed.
The hidden cost of sticking with old PCs
Security isn’t just about blocking threats. It’s about recovering fast. Commercial AI PCs are built to be remotely manageable, even when offline or bricked. Dell uses Intel vPro to let IT teams remediate, isolate, or update systems no matter where they are — including those left behind on a remote worker’s home Wi-Fi. That matters in a world where threat actors don’t care about your business hours.
MITRE’s Centre for Informed Defence recently validated how the hardware stack itself plays a crucial role in enabling software protections. If your machines can’t support the security features you’re paying for, your defences are just window dressing.
The AI arms race is already here
There’s something deeper going on here. We’re entering a new era of endpoint security — one where the adversary also has access to powerful AI. Script kiddies are becoming cybercrime entrepreneurs. The dark web is offering AI-as-a-service. And enterprises that don’t upgrade their tech stack fast enough are essentially playing an outdated game on a new field.
Commercial AI PCs are Dell and Intel’s response to that reality. It’s not magic. But it’s a recognition that the rules have changed, and hardware has to play a central role in security going forward.
If you’re serious about protecting your data, your employees, and your future business operations, the answer is simple: Upgrade your PCs. Upgrade your security.