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The AI Your IT Provider Hasn't Told You About Is Already on Your Employees' Laptops.

The AI Your IT Provider Hasn't Told You About Is Already on Your Employees' Laptops.

The AI Your IT Provider Hasn't Told You About Is Already on Your Employees' Laptops.

Steve Copeland

THE DIRECT ANSWER

By end of 2026, Gartner forecasts 143 million AI-enabled PCs will ship—representing 55% of the market. AI is moving from the cloud to the device. Here's what that means for your business.

By end of 2026, Gartner forecasts 143 million AI-enabled PCs will ship—representing 55% of the market. AI is moving from the cloud to the device. Here's what that means for your business.

What's Changing

Traditional AI (ChatGPT, Claude) processes everything in the cloud. Your data leaves your network, gets processed on someone else's servers, and comes back.

 

Edge AI processes locally. The AI runs on the device itself. Data never leaves your control.

 

Why This Matters for Privacy

•       Compliance: Data that never leaves your environment can't violate data residency requirements

•       Control: No third-party servers, no training on your data

•       Speed: No network latency for AI operations

 

The Challenge for IT

Traditional monitoring won't see local AI usage. You can block ChatGPT.com—but you can't easily block AI capabilities built into Windows Copilot or other local applications.

 

Organizations need new approaches: device management that understands AI capabilities, policies that address on-device AI, and monitoring that works for edge computing.

Sources and evidence

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