Above: Enrique Lores interviews Patrick Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, who predicted that everything will be AI enabled and that Intel is building AI into all of its products.
HP showcased its commitment to AI at the HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference in Las Vegas, March 5-7. During the conference, the company introduced a series of AI initiatives and featured partners from leading technology companies at the forefront of the AI evolution.
Enrique Lores chats with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, who discussed how AI can enhance creativity and productivity. Pichai also predicted that future generations will expect a powerful collaborative experience for creation.
In addition to the HP executives’ presentations, HP partners participating in the program, live or remotely, including Jensen Huang, president, NVIDIA, whose Pandas app will be pre-installed in HP PCs; Lisa Su, chairman and CEO, AMD; Cristiano Amon, CEO, Qualcomm; Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google; Patrick Gelsinger, CEO, Intel; and Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. The final speaker of the conference was Rob McElhenney, co-owner of the Wrexham football team in Wrexham, Wales featured in the FX series “Welcome to Wrexham,” and star of the long-running television series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” HP is the football team’s technology partner.
Actor and co-owner of the Wrexham football club, Rob McElhenney, talks technology along with the joys and challenges of owning a football club during the final session of the HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference.
From the beginning of the conference on Wednesday morning to the final press and analyst briefing on Thursday afternoon, AI was the primary topic of conversation. However, another talking point came up often, and that was hybrid work. As Alex Cho, president of personal systems at HP, Inc., noted, “Our mission is not about providing gear; it is enabling these two mega-trends to be synergistic—hybrid work, how people are working, and AI as a way to help enable that.”
The event had over 2,000 attendees, including 1,500 partners from 90 countries, and was described by HP President & CEO Enrique Lores as “the most important event of the year for HP.” A few dealers were even in attendance, including Doug Pitassi of Pacific Automation and Greg Petrie of Copiers Northwest.
AI-Enabled Computing at HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference
HP introduced more than 200 products in the last 12 months with more than 100 of those AI enabled. During the conference, HP announced multiple AI-enabled computers, a clear indication of how business technology is evolving. The new HP Elite and Pro PC devices are designed to handle AI tasks with more personalized performance, according to the company.
Alex Cho announces HP’s new AI-enabled computers.
The introductions include notebook, desktop, and Zbook mobile workstations. The devices are equipped with HP Smart Sense, which automatically anticipates and adjusts to a user’s PC usage behavior, enabling what Cho described as the best balance of performance and power. Smart Sense reportedly allows the PCs to run up to 40% quieter. These devices are also designed for generative AI. Cho emphasized that these products are an example of hybrid work and life and AI coming together.
Another introduction was HP AI Studio, which enhances the capabilities of HP’s workstations by enabling AI development. The Z by HP workstations and solutions were designed with partner NVIDIA to help scale computing and AI resources from an on premise infrastructure to the cloud. This reportedly simplifies building and customizing private AI models through a platform that connects data teams, tools, and computing.
According to HP, by integrating NVIDIA’s data and pre-trained models into HP’s AI studio, users can easily access workflows anywhere. This will benefit data scientists and AI creators by providing them with the ability to scale projects from an AI workstation to the cloud. Also, by building AI models in a hybrid computing environment from one centralized location from the start, data scientists can more easily shift from product development to production for what HP described as “the most substantial data science and AI tasks.”
The AI-related introductions just kept rolling along with the Workforce Experience Platform (WEX), an AI-enabled digital experience platform. Its intuitive user interface reportedly ensures a seamless customer experience and connects multiple services into a single, unified platform view. A suite of capabilities provides persona-based recommendations, streamlines hardware monitoring, captures employee sentiment, reduces TCO, automates tasks, and strengthens security.
HP has also collaborated with Microsoft to integrate WEX with Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered virtual assistant which is designed to provide information, answer questions, and facilitate a wide range of tasks through conversation. According to HP, this can further automate tasks and maximize device uptime.
An AI Master Class initiative, scheduled to launch in May, will offer a variety of topics and provide partners with the knowledge they need to educate and advise customers on the most appropriate AI products and solutions. HP is working with NVIDIA to develop the initial series of training models. Future releases with Alliance Partners will be designed to augment the expertise and capabilities of HP Amplify partners so that they can better understand the rapidly changing AI landscape.
Print and Managed Services at HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference
With all this talk of AI and hybrid work, HP is not abandoning print. Tuan Tran, president of imaging, printing, and solutions for HP, introduced a series of new imaging devices that illustrate HP’s ongoing commitment to print.
HP’s Tuan Tran underscores HP’s commitment to print at the HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference.
“In all of my conversations with you, even in the context of a flat print market, every single conversation was about growth,” Tran told HP partners. “’How do we place more hardware? How do we drive supplies? How do we configure service and solutions for our customers?’ It’s a good reminder for all of us that the world still needs print. That’s how we learn. It’s how work gets done. It’s how we communicate. That’s why I’m a big believer in the power of print, and that’s why I’m so excited about the year ahead.”
HP recently refreshed its A3 and A4 product lines for the office, and Tran noted that he’s received a lot of positive feedback on the new A3 products, specifically on the products’ features and how the devices are being deployed.
AI is also being integrated into HP’s imaging devices to simplify printing. Mary Fish, SVP, global head of print software platform & solutions for HP, discussed the impact of AI on users’ print experience, noting that HP is training AI to deliver perfect print. “With the power of HP print AI, we’re going to simplify the customer experience, and we are going to provide you with perfect output the first time and every time,” she said.
Fish provided a sneak preview of an AI solution HP is building and launching later this year. “With HP Print AI, it’s only perfect output because HP knows what good and bad printing looks like, and we have trained our print model to only provide those optimal outputs,” said Fish.
In addition to focusing on hardware, Tran discussed how HP is leveraging software, services, and AI to not only simplify printing but drive productivity and accelerate the growth of HP’s customers. One example is HP’s All-in-Plan, where for $699, a customer can receive a printer, service plan, ink delivery, 24/7 support, and an option to refresh their printer every two years. Twenty thousand people are on a two-year pilot, and after two years, Tran reports HP has a 90% retention rate. Although the All-in-One plan is currently focused on consumers, HP is looking at extending it to small and remote offices.
HP also announced that it is expanding its portfolio to bring its TerraJet technology down market to small and remote offices with the HP 3000 Color LaserJet. Tran described this device as the smallest, fastest laser product in its class and delivering the best color quality.
Last year, HP refreshed its large format product line. It is also providing professional print service plans to support small print service providers (PSPs) who buy HP’s latest products. These plans include support, workflow tools, and online training as well as web-to-print capabilities. This allows PSPs to implement e-commerce, manage print jobs, ensure their printers are up and running, and enhance the customer experience so customers can see what output would look like by accessing the PSP’s digital catalog.
Tran challenged the company’s partners selling its large-format products to attach a print service plan with every large-format printer. “This gives you more revenue opportunities and customers a solution they can use, and it’s a win-win,” he said.
Dave Shull shares the latest on HP’s new managed services initiatives.
Dave Shull, president of workforce solutions for HP, introduced HP’s new managed solutions. These include enhanced managed print services that now integrate with secure print software, new managed print for SMBs under a simple cloud-based subscription model, and managed devices services, a new offering centered around PC configuration, monitoring, and support all in one contract.
More Than This at HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference
HP’s sustainability initiatives were a big talking point during the second day of the HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference. Here Stacy Wolff, HP’s SVP of design and sustainability shares highlights of the company’s sustainability efforts.
Those were just some of the highlights and key talking points at the HP Amplify 2024 Partner Conference. In addition, attendees learned about HP’s sustainability and supply chain initiatives, updates to the Amplify program, and much more. Most importantly, attendees were presented with a deep dive into where HP is heading in the future while accentuating its commitment to growing with its channel partners.
