I liken it to when ultrabooks and netbooks launched in a time when most people were offline and uninterested in connectivity. Full featured laptops existed then, as well.
In this case, dedicated capacity for AI has been in systems for a while behind the scenes (ie- Intel GNA) but without consumer demand; it's OEMs and OS/software vendors who are most interested in pushing the "AI Ready" standard.
If Microsoft built a set of local tools and models that integrated with Office or other applications (like Krita + ComfyUI) that were "sold" out of the Microsoft Store and only available on AI Ready systems, it might ignite some consumer interest.
However, leading with "Look how we can record your screen in secret and use AI to harvest your private information!" instead of "Here's you as a cartoon character" more or less solidified everyone's distrust in their responsible intent.
In this case, dedicated capacity for AI has been in systems for a while behind the scenes (ie- Intel GNA) but without consumer demand; it's OEMs and OS/software vendors who are most interested in pushing the "AI Ready" standard.
If Microsoft built a set of local tools and models that integrated with Office or other applications (like Krita + ComfyUI) that were "sold" out of the Microsoft Store and only available on AI Ready systems, it might ignite some consumer interest.
However, leading with "Look how we can record your screen in secret and use AI to harvest your private information!" instead of "Here's you as a cartoon character" more or less solidified everyone's distrust in their responsible intent.