Thousands and thousands of Australian PCs are nonetheless operating Home windows 10, which reached finish of help in October 2025. With out ongoing updates from Microsoft, these techniques have develop into prime targets for attackers utilizing AI to launch refined, personalised scams and hacks towards small companies that lack devoted cybersecurity groups.
Safety incidents towards small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) at the moment are costing as much as $3 million — sufficient to shut many completely, based on a latest dialogue between Andrew Ridley, Enterprise and Authorities Gross sales Director, ANZ, Intel Company, and Andy Malakuti, Go-to-Market Lead, Microsoft.
But many firms proceed counting on five-year-old PCs that may’t meet immediately’s menace panorama.
The dangers aren’t simply digital. Beneath Australian privateness rules, administrators can now face private legal responsibility for preventable information breaches. For a lot of SMBs, that makes ageing {hardware} a governance problem, not simply an IT one.
Past safety, the economics of older expertise not add up. Ageing PCs fail extra usually, want extra help, and restrict group mobility with poor battery life. In the meantime, present era PCs with Intel vPro expertise permit IT individuals to diagnose and repair issues remotely (even reimage blue-screened machines) and not using a website go to.
The democratisation of AI
The productiveness hole between five-year-old PCs and immediately’s is simply as stark. New processors greater than double efficiency, whereas graphics functionality has jumped over 40 per cent. This isn’t nearly letting group members get issues executed extra rapidly: the additional processing velocity permits AI to run on-device.
Home windows 11 Professional Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel® AI Enhance Neural Processing Unit (NPU) convey enterprise-grade AI capabilities to gadgets that solely value round $2,500.
These PCs mix CPU, GPU and NPU processors to run AI workloads regionally, with out sending delicate firm information to the cloud. Which means companies can use AI safely for duties as soon as restricted to massive organisations. Docs can routinely generate session notes on their PC whereas preserving affected person confidentiality. Insurance coverage assessors can produce immediate injury experiences on website. Advertising and marketing businesses can personalise weblog content material for various demographics in minutes with out sharing unreleased data with public AI fashions.
For a lot of Australian SMBs, significantly these with numerous workforces, on-device AI assistants can polish written communication immediately, and real-time assembly transcription and natural-language doc search can reduce hours of ‘administrivia’ time.
Safety constructed from the bottom up
Fashionable PCs shield information from the silicon upwards. Intel’s Assured and Trusted Provide Chain verifies elements by means of every manufacturing stage to forestall tampering, addressing a rising concern as organised crime teams goal {hardware} itself.
Applied sciences like Intel Trusted Execution (TXT), Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0), and Microsoft Pluton create a sequence of belief from boot to browser. NPUs now offload steady threat-scanning duties, sustaining system efficiency whereas detecting anomalies in actual time.
Safety distributors akin to McAfee and CrowdStrike have optimised their software program for this {hardware} layer, utilizing AI to determine deepfakes and artificial assaults earlier than they unfold.
Even day by day usability options now improve safety. Fashionable PCs routinely lock when customers step away, then reauthenticate by means of Home windows Good day facial recognition. Stay caption translation and noise cancellation imply employees can work securely and professionally from airports or cafés with out exposing delicate conversations.
A surprisingly fast payback interval
For a lot of SMBs, the upfront value of upgrading rapidly pays for itself. Whole cost-of-ownership research present most get well the funding inside six months by means of greater productiveness, fewer help visits, and decrease vitality use.
Avoiding even one safety breach can greater than offset a complete fleet refresh.
Crucially, immediately’s gadgets future-proof companies for the fast evolution of AI. Open-source instruments out there by means of platforms akin to Hugging Face and AI Playground imply groups can now construct customized chatbots, advertising engines or analytics dashboards with out coding experience.
A platform for the following decade
In keeping with Intel and Microsoft, after 4 many years of partnership, the 2 firms have shifted from democratising private computing to democratising synthetic intelligence. The PCs of 2025 aren’t incremental upgrades; they’re a basis for a way work can be executed within the AI period.
For small companies the place time and belief are the final word currencies, upgrading to Home windows 11 Professional gadgets is now much less about maintaining with expertise and extra about staying forward of opponents who’re already remodeling how they work.
Empower your group. Safe your online business. Unlock the complete potential of your expertise. Discover out extra about AI PCs powered by Intel and Microsoft Home windows 11.
