At present, under the rolling wave of AI, almost the entire industry is undergoing a new round of technological revolution. With the help of large models, profound changes are taking place in industrial technology, operational efficiency, and terminal logic. What is certain is that under this round of changes, the prediction of technological development and the logic of application in the past will change, the competition standards between industries will be different, and the market will be re-ranked.
As can be seen from the 2024 Mobile World Congress (MWC Shanghai 2024), while talking about 5G-A and other communication technologies, everyone is also promoting the integration of their own and AI technologies, as well as exhibiting various AI landing products. "It's not the same as last year, this year's AI model is further mature, and the landing will be the main feature, and I feel that without AI, I am embarrassed to come out to participate in the exhibition." Said one of the exhibitors.
In the view of Liu Jun, executive vice president of Lenovo Group and president of China, the wave of artificial intelligence is surging, and AI has become the core driving force for the development of new quality productivity. At this year's MWC Shanghai, Lenovo also showcased its "full-stack AI" strategic layout to operators and other industries, government and enterprise customers, and the public.
Jun Liu, Executive Vice President and President of Lenovo China
A few days ago, Lenovo has released a number of AI PCs and AI mobile phone products, hoping to drive the rapid operation of the entire AI terminal through the layout of "one body and multiple terminals". "At present, we have a total of about 10,000 AI PC customers, and I believe that 'all-in-one multi-terminal' will also drive Lenovo's growth in non-PC smart terminals."
Full-stack AI, the first change seen 7 years ago
The accelerated evolution of artificial intelligence has brought new excitement to the dull industry. It can be seen that companies such as Nvidia have doubled their business and market value with this round of technological change, including Lenovo. In the past 2023, Lenovo Group's share price has increased by 81.09%. At MWC Shanghai 2024, Lenovo also proposed full-stack AI for the first time at a public exhibition.
"In fact, we put forward the vision of promoting intelligent transformation seven years ago, and promoting the intelligent transformation of China's industry, enterprises and individuals, and we have been making some reserves for this direction in the past seven years. I think this year is the right time, place and people, and our technical reserves, product reserves, and all aspects have reached a time when they are in full swing, so we officially put forward the full-stack A strategy. ”
Liu Jun said that 12 words were added to the booth of MWC Shanghai this year, representing how Lenovo realizes the full-stack AI strategy in the three major sectors.
Lenovo booth at MWC Shanghai
Among them, the intelligent terminal business has added "one integrated multi-terminal", and through the Tianxi intelligent body system - Tianxi AS, it connects AI PCs, AI mobile phones and other AI terminals. Nowadays, terminal competition in the AI era is no longer limited to the competition of a single device, but more about the connection between multiple terminals, and providing better services through AI.
Liu Jun pointed out that in the application scenario of multiple devices, the devices work together through a common "AI brain", and the super interconnection capability of the "Tianxi Intelligent Twins System" allows applications and content to flow between multiple types of terminal devices, and one device can call the hardware functions of other devices or their components.
The intelligent infrastructure business adds "one horizontal and five vertical", which is the "heterogeneous intelligent computing platform", which can be understood as the operating system of the intelligent computing center, helping customers efficiently call computing power and maximize the overall efficiency. The "five verticals" are server, storage, data network, software, hyper-converged and edge.
The "One Engine and Three Arrows" is added to the intelligent solution service, and "One Engine" is the DynaSky Engine, and the three arrows refer to three customer segments, which provide them with solutions and services provided by the DynaSky Powerr.
Liu Jun revealed that Lenovo is still continuing to invest in and develop three major ecosystems, namely the Tianxi ecology for the AI terminal industry, the Wanquan ecology for the intelligent computing industry, and the Qingtian ecology for the large model and intelligent twins industry, to accelerate the intelligent transformation of thousands of industries.
AI PC, the third leap upgrade
Judging from the data given by a number of research institutions and the actions of terminal manufacturers, AI PCs are accelerating. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has pointed out that in the next 10 years, new AI PCs will replace traditional PCs, with a market value of trillions of dollars. Recently, major brand manufacturers have also accelerated the market landing of AI PC products.
Liu Jun said that the PC is undergoing the third generational upgrade, the first two being the integration of multimedia technology and computers in 1995 and the integration of the Internet and computers in 1999. In the 24 years since, there has been no leap forward in technology comparable to these two. However, the combination of AI and computers is now the third big leap. AI PC is a revolution in the PC, which will once again greatly improve the application of the PC, and at the same time, the customer's control is simpler, and the customer will be more helpful.
It is worth mentioning that for AI PCs, the understanding between different manufacturers has also led to the emergence of multiple routes in the current market. For example, some manufacturers and organizations believe that computer products equipped with NPU are AI PCs, or have built-in AI applications, which can also be called AI PCs.
In Lenovo's concept, AI PCs need to have five characteristics: first, personal agents with natural language interaction; the second is to embed a large personal model; Third, it is equipped with local hybrid AI computing power as standard; Fourth, an open application ecosystem; Fifth, device-level personal data and privacy security protection.
"Our embedded personal model is 7 billion parameters after cutting, and there are great differences in the design and development ideas of the entire human agent, and we have independently developed the Tianxi personal agent system, and put it in, I believe that more and more people will rely on this AI assistant in the future."
According to public information, on April 18, Lenovo released AI PC, and deliveries began on May 20. Up to now, Lenovo has released dozens of AI PCs in multiple times, and there are currently about tens of thousands of AI PC customers. For the performance of the market, Liu Jun's overall evaluation is relatively satisfied, "JD.com's praise rate has reached 99%, compared with the average IT products of about 95%, indicating that the products we deliver should still exceed their expectations." ”
Valuing the customer's experience is something that Lenovo is more concerned about at present. However, considering that AI PC is still being explored and developed, continuous iteration is still needed. Liu Jun believes that AI PC should become a mainstream product, and now this stage is to increase the volume and give customers more choices in more product lines.
The domestic mobile phone business will be further strengthened
As Lenovo's core business, PC has always been the first in terms of revenue contribution. However, in recent years, in order to build stronger risk resilience and expand the growth curve of new business, non-PC business has become the focus of further investment. The latest financial report data shows that Lenovo's non-PC business revenue has exceeded 40%.
In addition to AI PCs, with the help of this round of AI, Lenovo also plans to increase investment in the domestic mobile phone business and accelerate the establishment of an AI terminal ecosystem through the "integrated and multi-terminal" strategy. On June 25th, Lenovo moto razr 50 Ultra AI Yuanqi Edition was officially released, which can run the Tianxi large model with more than 6B computing power, and can work together through Tianxi AS and AI PC and other AI terminals.
According to the data released by statistical agencies, Lenovo mobile phones performed better than the domestic market in Latin America and North America, ranking relatively high, ranking among the top five. In comparison, the voice of the Chinese market is not as good as the original "China Cool Alliance" era.
In this regard, Liu Jun explained to the titanium media APP that customers in the Chinese market have always been able to buy Lenovo moto mobile phones, but we really did not spend a lot of investment in the market to promote. At that time, I felt that customers in the Chinese market had a lot of choices, many products, and these products were relatively "homogeneous". From the perspective of customer value, we should invest in R&D such as AI.
"Now the time has come. Relying on AI PCs and the 'all-in-one multi-terminal' strategy and innovation in mobile phones, it is time for Lenovo to start its mobile phone rejuvenation journey in the Chinese market. He believes that the empowerment of mobile phones and Xiaotian's personal agents will give users a more valuable choice.
A new round of AI has begun, and the industry landscape will also change. Upgrading from "All in AI" to "AI for all", Lenovo's attitude towards AI and its current layout are the key to its recognition by the capital market. However, all technologies can only go further if they are marketized.
For Lenovo, relying on full-stack AI, mobile phones and other businesses have opportunities for recovery, but at the same time, PCs are also accepting more challenges, abandoning traditional products and business logic, and being close to the market and users is the key to future market competition. (This article was first published in Titanium Media APP, author | Du Zhiqiang, editor - Zhong Yi)