How the PC Reborn Will Revolutionize the Enterprise

Daniel Newman:
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Six Five Summit. Daniel Newman here, CEO of the Futurum Group. We are in the modern work track today. This is a spotlight session. I’m very excited to bring on someone that I consider to be a personal friend, but also a very influential chief information officer, Cisco Sanchez of Qualcomm. Someone I’ve spent a few days at the races with. I’ve spent a few days at events because Cisco, not only are you the CIO of Qualcomm, which is a company that we’ve worked with very much over the years, you’re also customer zero in many cases because you are the CIO and you’re deploying all this stuff.

Cisco Sanchez:
Yeah, man. So first on Dan, it’s really nice to see you and be part of this podcast. I think what you and Pat do are fabulous. So we appreciate you and it’s nice to be part of this because I am Customer Zero. All the great tech that we use, I have to implement and then also tell where it needs improvements or where their gaps are. But my goal is to make the sure that the software is better than anything that’s out there on the market and we’re doing a pretty good job at it, right?

Daniel Newman:
Yeah. You got to build the technology stack that enables the company to build new products and services solutions, get them into market, is dependable. The stuff has to work and your teams need to be empowered to get stuff done so whether it’s someone’s laptop goes down, your network goes down. I know it’s not actually you in the rack plugging the cables in anymore. You probably – Oh, well, you can’t become a CIO, well, you can, but you really shouldn’t become a CIO, if at least at one point you haven’t desperately been trying to get a server back up or get a network up and running, or you haven’t set yourself on fire in the back of a rack somehow. Or bringing an application up in the middle of the night. Yeah, all of it. Or getting a note from your CEO in the morning saying, “Why am I not getting email?”

But it is what it is. Listen, the Customer Zero trend is super hot right now. The tech industry loves putting themselves out there and saying, “We are going to drink our own champagne.” I won’t use the dog food analogy. I’ve never quite understood that to me. But let’s talk about PCs because you will be… You have tens of thousands of employees, you have a new architecture, new PCs, a new Copilot Plus product in market. I have to imagine that everyone’s got a note that says, “Ship back the old crap. We’re sending you something great.” And by the way, I’m not actually calling anyone stuff crap. I’m having a little bit of fun. But the point is you’re going to probably deploy this enterprise wise. So talk a little bit about the innovations going on in the PC space and why this is so attractive to you as a CIO.

Cisco Sanchez:
Yeah, yeah. So there’s a few things. This PC is amazing. I mean it really is. And the three things that we look at is how is the performance because it matters. How fast can you innovate, how fast can you create something, how fast can the next chip design, how fast can you get the finance report, sales report, whatever. So performance does matter. Battery life matters. And so the battery life is important because I’m going to run it all day and I don’t want carry this charger with me everywhere I go. And then the third thing that is the new wave is, man, this AI thing is taking off like crazy and it’s super exciting. But AI on Edge is born. If you have a cloud, you need an Edge and that’s where the AI on Edge is going to be really a super attractive because I can start to move models to the Edge, make the compute more reliable, more functional, it’s more secure. It’s my datasets. So it’s very, very attractive.

And the reason for this next revolution that’s going on right now is a couple pivot points. Remember the pandemic happened in 2021, around there, and we all refreshed a bunch of PCs, because everybody’s going to work from home. And so we said, “Ah, we need to get people new PCs.” So that happened. And typically people are on a four-year refresh cycle, most enterprises, because you can’t get a new PC every day. And so there’s a refresh cycle happening.

So that’s the first pivot point so that there’s something happening. The second pivot point is Windows 10 to Windows 11 is happening. It’s going to happen. Windows 10 end of life is coming soon. So as a CIO and IT professional, you’re making choices. After we start to refresh some of my fleet, I have to identify what’s the next thing coming on the wave. How do I make sure that I set my team up for the right success? And this AI PC is born and it’s interesting, the Microsoft Copilot Plus, the recall capabilities, fabulous. But do we think that’s the end of it? No.

Daniel Newman:
I hope it will be.

Cisco Sanchez:
Me too. So we’re making bets on this. I PC has more abilities and more capabilities that are start to mature and I’m going to make a safe bet to ensure that I can ensure my workforce is ready for it and be more productive.

Daniel Newman:
Well, it’s like the software defined vehicle. I mean the cool thing about, I know you have Snapdragon, but just as for relatability purposes, people Tesla’s a lot. Part of what they like about it though is that the car is not finished. Maybe the physical appearance of it’s finished, but it gets an upgrade. It changes the whole experience of the car. I mean, that’s when you have all this additional horsepower, you got the NPU that can do all this, it’s like we probably haven’t really imagined entirely what’s possible. We’ve only put the first alpha beta cases out there. There’s a whole bunch of stuff that the developers in your community and other communities are going to build and develop. They’re going to create hacks and productivity and efficiency that people should be super excited about.

Cisco Sanchez:
Well, and I am, I mean, I think the PC is now sexy again. Before it was just kind of a commodity I got to use, but now that I can throw software on top of it, add more capability, you do the sexy back. I thought you just did.

Daniel Newman:
I was trying. I don’t –

Cisco Sanchez:
I saw –

Daniel Newman:
I got it. I got it.

Cisco Sanchez:
But putting the ability for more software to be upon your PC, it becomes more personal. It becomes yours. I think this is part of the next wave that is going to be super interesting for all of us. But architecture matters and more than anything, and Dan this, you’ve done this a long time. The way that the PC is constructed with the CPU, GPU and you mentioned the NPU and having the dedicated NPU on the device to start rolling your LLMs, you don’t impact the performance of your spreadsheets and your Word and Excel, you don’t impact the performance of your video. It’s dedicated. And so that’s what makes it super interesting and allows for the PC to be reborn properly. That’s why it’s sexy.

Daniel Newman:
Yeah, I’m glad you double-clicked too on the NPU because I was going to ask you about that. But that effectively, this is part of that whole Chiplet architecture now of having the different chips that can offload workloads that can give more efficiency. And part of the whole Qualcomm and the whole original idea of moving compute, whether even the Mac to the arm was about efficiency. And so the thing has to last longer. And if we’re doing all these more intensive compute activities, Cisco, on the device, we’re recalling which by the way, one thing I do want to say about recall ’cause I got to keep moving, I could talk to you all day, buddy, but the one thing I want to say about it is a lot of people got all sensitive about like, “Well, it’s tracking you and it’s taking a lot of steps.”

And yes, but no, it’s taking it and the settings as such are on your device, meaning that it’s tracking it and it’s becoming a convenience for you. Now, if you want to upload things to the cloud, they’ll always be that option for you to do that. And of course the companies probably like it that you do that, but you don’t have to do that. And that’s really an important distinction because this can be a great data-driven experience for the users, but keep the data safe, which is going to become, I don’t know, I have these debates about how important it becomes ’cause we really are all about experience sometimes. We’re like, “I don’t care. I’ll share it all.” But enterprises have to be sensitive to that. We mentioned recall. Can you give me some other good examples of use cases of on-device versus in the cloud?

Cisco Sanchez:
Yeah, first off, so I actually agree with the security and it’s on my device. It’s me, it’s mine. I have a password. We also carry these phone devices with us all the time. And so if they really are tracking, they’ve been tracking for a long time. But the way that copilot and the recall is working, and by the way, and I think you know this, right now it’s exclusively to Snapdragon because of the number of tops available on our MPU. It takes 40 tops to run. We have 45 tops. So that’s why Microsoft made a big spiel about it and rightfully so because a pretty cool feature set.

But I don’t think recall is the only capability and it’s not. And we’re seeing all the other ones starting to mature in that space to take advantage of the MPU. So recall being a cool one, and it’s localized, it stays with you, but you’re starting to see coding that’s being more secure. You’re starting to see more creative capabilities being more secure. You’re seeing even DJs starting to use capabilities on the AI to make it even faster. And so I think it’s just the beginning of all of the other stuff that’s going to start to mature that needs to be localized. And my belief, Dan and I, what we’ll see how it plays out making a bet is that today we use a lot of GPUs in the cloud to do common inference stuff, make a request, classify-

Daniel Newman:
You don’t need to, do you?

Cisco Sanchez:
You don’t need to. That’s the point. And I think that will help us in a lot of ways where I don’t have to go to the cloud, I don’t have to make that call. I could save some money. I don’t have to do it on prem. I can do it on the device and actually leverage the hardware all through the whole stack. So you can get efficiencies through your Edge, your laptop, to on-prem if you have some or to the cloud where it’s available. And I think all three, and you can work in harmony and it’s not just one or the other. That’s why I think cloud and Edge need to work together because you can move some of the LLMs that are appropriate to the Edge and run efficiently and probably cost a little bit more, a little better to be faster, to be able to secure. And so I think that’s the next wave that we are just dipping our toe into. And I think it’s super exciting to be honest.

Daniel Newman:
Yeah, it is pretty interesting, Cisco, as you think through this, and I like that you mentioned that. I’ve been a big proponent to where inference happens a lot of it on CPUs so people can maximize those. Of course, a lot of it on PC, can be done on flash device. All of them have some Qualcomm thing going on. So I am safe no matter what I flash. And then of course, going forward though, we’ve got these big power envelope challenges and I have a feeling at some point, I know you guys have done your AI 100 Edge-

Cisco Sanchez:
And I’m a user too, by the way of the AI 100 Ultra. I use them both.

Daniel Newman:
But I can’t imagine that’s it. You guys are going to do more. I’m not going to speak for you, but there’s going to be more. Qualcomm is going to address this whole Edge inference thing. I just see it as an opportunistic space for you and it will be on device, but your whole industrial plays and stuff, there’s lots of compute that needs to be done. Hey, we got a few minutes left here and I want to put your CIO Customer Zero hat on. I’m going to ask you a question that I want you to talk to me about your business and then I want you to give some advice to your fellow CIOs out there. How do you see this PC, Copilot plus, AI PC, lots of names, transforming your workforce, and how would you communicate the it’s time to change, time to invest to all the other CIOs that are likely going to be asking you as you start to roll this out?

Cisco Sanchez:
Yeah, so the first part, I think this new PC, the Snapdragon PC, actually enables better productivity. And I think we’ve all went to this wave of hire, not hire, hire, not hire. And now it’s how do you get better efficiencies on the things that we’re trying to accomplish across the board? And so I think the PC, the AI PC is going to allow for productivity to gain on the Edge with you to allow you to be a better employee, but a better creative, a better DJ, a better whatever. And so I think that’s the way that’s going to happen. I really do think so. And so that’s going to be efficiency gains that you get out of it. I also think that if we care about the earth, there is no planet B yet. How do you ensure that you’re conscientious of how you’re doing workloads?

And the AI PC, by the way, allows for that because you start moving workloads where they should be or closer to the user. So I think it’s another good thing. What I would tell my fellow CIOs and they’ve asked, “Don’t I just need my decision scientists to use this PC?” The answer is no. This is PCs for everybody. And I think how fast ChatGPT went into the market, it’s a year and a half ago, by the way, when ChatGPT first launched and everybody wanted to use it. This is how fast the AI PC is going to move of people wanting to identify and adopt and use. And so I don’t want my CIO friends to fall behind, for their companies, for who they are, because I love this industry. I think it’s a great one. So the urgency is you got to start to adopt technology to help enable your team members to be more effective and more productive because that’s what they need.

They need to be better, they need to be better at their jobs. And so the leap of faith is to identify how do I take a different architecture? You have to make a change. The fork in the road is coming. You want to go through the old path, the old architecture, the old ways, or do you want to start to lean in to the technology because the technology’s going to change for better and continue changing. And I think that’s the phase that we’re all in and high urgency for them to act now and not wait ’cause I think we have to.

Daniel Newman:
You know Cisco, that’s well said. Appreciate you putting that out there. I think in this community among CIOs, I know peers have to listen to peers because while of course analysts give great perspectives, it’s also great to hear from others that are going through these same challenges. You’re running a really large organization with a lot of complexity and I appreciate you leading from the front. And of course, I appreciate you drinking your own champagne.

Cisco Sanchez:
Of course.

Daniel Newman:
Cisco, let’s do this again. Perhaps I’ll see you on the track. I know you’re going to root for Lewis and George, I’m going to continue to root for Lando, but I always do appreciate the chances that we have to spend time in different parts of the world. I appreciate you joining us here at the Six Five Summit. Let’s talk soon. Let’s talk about how those Copilot Plus PCs are doing in a year’s time or maybe even sooner.

Cisco Sanchez:
Yeah, you got it, Daniel. Thank you.

Daniel Newman:
All right, everyone. You heard it here. Cisco Sanchez, CIO of Qualcomm. What a great conversation. Customer Zero, doing it in his own organization. Of course, sharing bits of wisdom for all of you out there that are going through these transformations in your own business. We hope you appreciate it. Glad you tuned in. Stick with us here at the Six Five Summit. Going to set it back to the team in the studio.