Las Vegas (AFP) – Lenovo, the world’s top PC maker, unveiled its own AI assistant Tuesday at the CES tech show in Las Vegas, promising a tool that follows users seamlessly across laptops, smartphones, and connected devices. The Beijing-based company commanded 28 percent of global PC market share in the third quarter of 2025, ahead of rivals HP at 21.5 percent and Dell at 14.5 percent, according to US research firm Gartner.
Lenovo’s new artificial intelligence agent, dubbed Qira, is designed as an autonomous interface capable of performing tasks rather than simply generating content on demand, a move Lenovo hopes will showcase the breadth of its product portfolio. Unlike rivals focused on single categories, Lenovo was the only major manufacturer whose offering spanned laptops, tablets, and smartphones—under its Motorola brand, acquired in 2014—as well as servers and even supercomputers.
The company also unveiled prototypes of connected glasses and an AI-powered pendant, still in testing, that captures “important moments” with user consent by recording conversations, said Motorola’s Angelina Gomez. Codenamed the AI Perceptive Companion, the pendant features a microphone and camera and “sees what you see and hears what you hear,” Lenovo vice president Luca Rossi told reporters.
An interaction with Qira can start via the pendant, continue on a smartphone, and end on a laptop, with the agent retaining user context across devices. It can summarize the highlights of a user’s day, draft and send emails, or even select photos from archives to post on social media. Lenovo stressed it is not positioning Qira as a rival to Microsoft’s Copilot and announced the integration of Copilot into Motorola smartphones.
For major hardware makers, the challenge now is proving the utility of generative AI in everyday applications rather than simply flaunting cutting-edge tech. Amid lingering geopolitical tensions with Washington, Lenovo was the only Chinese firm to take center stage at CES, choosing Las Vegas’s futuristic Sphere venue for its showcase. Executives emphasized the company’s global footprint, with most revenue generated outside China and several top managers from overseas.
© 2024 AFP
