This week we will present coverage of the HP Imagine 2023 event at HP’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California on October 5. The invitation-only one-day event gathered together analysts and press from around the world to learn about the new products, software, and solutions that HP will introduce in the next quarter.
HP Imagine 2023 kicked off with HP, Inc. President & CEO Enrique Lores identifying three key trends inspiring the company to develop the various solutions that would be discussed throughout the day, many of which were also on display at the Innovation Showcase.
HP Imagine 2023 Trend #1: The Era of Flexibility
“We strongly believe that how people want to work has fundamentally changed,” said Lores. “COVID accelerated a transition that was already happening. In fact, anytime we talk to a customer or a company, this is the first conversation we have. Are you allowing hybrid work in your company? How are you managing that? How are you fulfilling the needs of your customers? This is something that almost every company in the world is asking today. What is going to be the right way of managing the future?”
To answer those questions, HP conducted a survey of more than 15,000 knowledge workers in 12 countries with the goal of understanding the relationship with work, what they like, and their concerns. Surprisingly, only 27% of respondents described the relationship with work as healthy.
“What this means is that they are not able to get the empowerment they’re looking for,” explained Lores. “They don’t have the ability to manage their work and their life in the way that they think would be working for them. And what is even more important, the connection that they have with their colleagues is not at the level where they want. They value flexibility, and they cannot get that flexibility.”
What was critical for HP to learn, according to Lores, was that almost all respondents believed that technology could help them address these issues. This was the inspiration behind many of the products and solutions discussed during the event. The key is enabling customers to have the right experiences even when they are working remotely or in a hybrid model.
HP Imagine 2023 Trend #2: The impact of AI
Lores noted that AI will help HP become a much better company and allow its employees to be more productive. It will also help HP design and build new experiences for its customers. Many of the solutions on display at HP Imagine 2023 were built on AI developments. “But what is really exciting for us is how AI will transform the PC category,” said Lores. “It’s going to create a new set of PCs that are going to deliver totally new experiences for our customers.”
As we would learn in a later presentation by Alex Cho, president of personal systems and solutions, HP’s vision is to transform the personal computer into a personal companion.
Lores noted that we all will have access to AI at a much lower cost. HP’s estimate is the cost per transaction will be up to 80% cheaper. “This is very important not only for our customers but also for all the big software developers, for all the big ISVs because they will be able to offer those experiences to their customers at a much lower cost,” he said. “But also, this will enable access to AI at a faster way and reduce latency, which is very important for many critical applications.”
HP Imagine 2023 Trend #3: Building Trust, including Protecting Data and Privacy, and Promoting Sustainability
“You will be able to use your data to process large language models without having to upload the data to the cloud in a much simpler and trustworthy way,” observed Lores. “The value of trust will define what technology is going to mean for customers in the coming years.”
He added that customers want to buy technology from companies that have similar values to them, from companies that are not only creating the right solutions but that want to have the right impact in the world, the right impact on the environment.
“This is why HP wants to be the most just and sustainable technology company,” continued Lores. “This has been a goal that we set a couple of years ago and is inspiring and driving the actions we do across our portfolio. This is driving us to use new types of materials. It’s driving us to change how we design our products to make sure they can be part of the circular economy and is driving us to define new business models.”
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