The Biggest HP Imagine 2024 News: From EliteBook X AI PC To On-Demand GPUs
HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores says the PC and print giant is doubling down on its commercial business with new AI-enhanced products and solutions, which include the EliteBook X AI PC, AI features for printers as well as fleet management and remote remediation capabilities.
These products and solutions were revealed at the HP Imagine 2024 event on Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., and they range from the business-oriented EliteBook X AI PC and AI features for printers, to new managed services offerings and an on-demand GPU compute workstation solution for developers.
[Related: HP Bets On Startup To Help Developers Create Trustworthy AI Models]
“With our AI-enhanced portfolio, we will unlock even greater levels of productivity and personalization, because AI does more than just streamline tasks. It helps create more engaging work experiences tailored to the individual,” Lores said in his keynote speech.
What follows are the biggest news announcements from HP Imagine 2024 event, which also included new Poly video conferencing solutions as well as expanded availability and new features and integrations for the Workforce Experience Platform.
EliteBook X Next-Gen AI PC Makes Case For NPU
HP said its newly revealed 14-inch EliteBook X business laptop will deliver next-generation AI PC capabilities thanks in large part to its “industry-leading” neural processing unit (NPU) performance and a new high-speed memory architecture.
Like the consumer-focused OmniBook Ultra revealed in June, the EliteBook X’s NPU is capable of 55 trillion operations per second (TOPS), and it’s made possible by a next-generation AMD Ryzen Pro processor, according to HP. The company previously said the 55-TOPS NPU capability of the OmniBook Ultra, which it called “the world’s highest-performance AI PC,” was made possible by a “deep co-engineering” partnership with AMD.
What’s also special about the EliteBook X is a new memory architecture that allows it to deliver 8,000 megabytes per second on 64 GB of LPDDR5x memory, according to HP.
The new laptop takes advantage of the powerful NPU in multiple ways beyond the growing number of independent software vendors who are designing applications around the emerging processor type. This includes HP’s AI Companion app, which can use generative AI to analyze and answer questions about private files and optimize system performance, among other things, according to the company.
With HP’s Poly Camera Pro software, video calls can be enhanced with features like spotlight, background blur and replace by using the NPU to boost CPU performance while “preserving battery life,” the company said.
The EliteBook X also comes equipped with an updated version of HP’s Wolf Security endpoint protection software, which offloads security tasks to the NPU. In addition, the laptop contains HP’s Endpoint Security Controller, which is designed to protect against “evolving threats.”
HP said the EliteBook X takes advantage of its Smart Sense software and dual turbo high density fans to deliver a snappy performance while keeping the device quiet and cool.
It also uses HP’s Poly Studio software to reduce noise during calls and Dynamic Voice Leveling to “optimize voice clarity,” according to the company.
The EliteBook X is expected to be available in December. Pricing is not yet available.
Z By HP Boost On-Demand GPU Solution
HP announced a new software solution called Z by HP Boost, which gives data scientists and AI developers a solution for sharing GPUs across workstation PCs.
The company is calling Z by HP Boost the first solution of its kind and said it “delivers instant access to GPU resources,” giving developers the flexibility to “perform complex computations and manage large data sets.”
An expansion of HP’s portfolio of workstation solutions for AI development, HP Boost is meant to give “companies a more efficient way to allocate and fully utilize its GPU resources,” according to the company. This, in turn, will reduce the need for “costly cloud instances” while “increasing productivity,” HP added.
The company also revealed Z by HP Gen AI Lab, the name for its solution that enables developers to build trustworthy AI models by providing a trust layer that can detect and correct bias. HP said in July that the trust layer is provided by a startup called Galileo.
HP Boost availability is expected in early 2025 in the United States and United Kingdom.
HP Expands IT Management, Support Solutions
HP said it’s making a “series of significant advancements” to its portfolio of IT management and support solutions in its Workforce Solutions division.
Among the announcements, the company said it’s expanding access for its Workforce Experience Platform, which provides tools for managing fleets of devices and improving employee experience, to customers using HP Proactive Insights at no additional cost.
New features in the Workforce Experience Platform include the ability the “monitor, secure and monitor printer performance at scale” as well as AI-powered fleet management capabilities such as proactive anomaly detection and smart recommendations.
Workforce Experience Platform now supports integrations with Microsoft Power BI, Power Automate, and Tableau, according to HP. Integration with Microsoft Intune and ServiceNow is expected in a future release.
New to the Workforce Solutions division are what the company is calling global command centers that provide advanced monitoring and management capabilities, including detecting and resolving issues, for HP and non-HP devices. These command centers rely on telemetry data from PCs, printers and conference room equipment.
The company said HP Managed Services provided through these command centers will be sold through direct channels to HP’s managed solutions customers.
Another new addition to the Workforce Solutions portfolio is an out-of-band remediation service for PCs that HP is calling the “industry’s most advanced.” The solution enables HP support agents to fix PCs remotely, even if they won’t turn on, and grants them with full keyboard, video and mouse control to troubleshoot issues.
The new remote remediation solution will be available later this year in North America and the European Union “as an add-on to an HP Essential, Premium or Premium+ Support package with the purchase of any new Intel vPro-enabled PC direct from HP or an authorized reseller.”
HP expects to expand support to other commercial PCs in the “coming months.”
Another new solution is an AI advisory service that HP said will “help customers tap into the full potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot, and it’s slated for a November 2024 release in the U.S., U.K., France, Spain, Ireland and Germany.
Other Workforce Solutions enhancements include the global availability of HP Managed Collaboration Services, the addition of laser jet multi-function printers and EliteBook 800 G6 and G7 laptops to the HP Certified Refurbished hardware portfolio, and the expansion of the HOPE Recycling Futures program to Mexico.
New Poly Hardware And Software Solutions
HP said it’s expanding its portfolio of AI-enabled video conferencing solutions with multiple camera capabilities with the Poly Studio X32 and Poly Studio X72 all-in-one video bars as well as the Poly Studio V32 and Poly Studio V72 premium USB video bars.
These products will take advantage of the new Poly VideoOS 4.4 software. The update comes with Poly Director AI Perimeter, which enables smart camera boundaries to be configured in real time, and Poly NoiseBlockAI v2, which uses “machine learning technology and advanced noise filtering to eliminate reverberations caused by glass walls and reflective surfaces.”
The company said customers can get access to experimental features through a new program called Poly Labs. Among these experimental features is VoiceScoreAI, which analyzes the quality of audio and “suggests ways to enhance the overall experience.”
In addition, HP is bringing new capabilities to its Poly Lens cloud management platform. These include Poly Lens Premium, which enables advanced features like Remote Room Control to help IT administrators “troubleshoot and resolve issues remotely.” There’s also Poly CloudConnect for Zoom Rooms, which enables people to join Microsoft Team calls from Zoom Rooms, and Poly PrivateConnect Meeting Control, which provides a wider range of configuration options for customers in “secure and controlled video environments.”
HP Print AI Features
HP revealed HP Print AI, a set of new features coming to home and office printers that the company is calling the “industry’s first intelligent print experiences.”
The first feature, called Perfect Output, is available today in beta to select customers, and it’s meant to optimize how content is displayed on pages by removing unwanted white space or objects—such as ads, for instance, when it comes to printing web pages. The feature is also expected to improve the way spreadsheets are displayed on pages.
Other HP Print AI features coming next year are expected to unlock "new possibilities for creativity, productivity and collaboration,” according to the company.
Among these features is simplified and customized support for individual customers, which is made possible by “intelligent technology” that can anticipate their needs while using natural language and context awareness to remember user preferences.
The company is also expanding the availability of HP Scan AI Enhanced in North America, most of Europe and Latin America as well as parts of Asia. The cloud-based solution “automatically recognizes the type of documents being scanned and extracts key information based on the customer's specific business needs,” according to HP.
HP said HP Print AI will also simplify and customize support for individual customers by relying on “intelligent technology” to anticipate their needs while using natural language and context awareness to remember user preferences.