Why Is HP Confident About India, Ipsita Dasgupta, Explains HP in India is working towards AI PC penetration, upskilling, education use cases and helping small and medium businesses (SMEs)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic, said Arthur C. Clarke, British fiction writer.

…And this magic needs a tech leader to reach the masses. A chief who can assess, evaluate and implement a strategy for technomancy to do wonders.

For Hewlett-Packard (HP), Ipsita Dasgupta is the leader for the Indian market, under whose aegis artificial intelligence (AI) personal computers (PCs) were launched. AI PCs are a technological breakthrough which is poised to make an uptick from 2025 in India. As per Dasgupta, the senior vice president (svp) & managing director (MD) - HP India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, "India is a dynamic and fast moving market. The tech advancements are at its infancy, this is a really exciting time for innovation."

Currently, HP in India is working towards AI PC penetration, upskilling, education use cases, and helping small and medium businesses (SMEs).

AI integration: PCs & beyond

In her first year as the MD, Dasgupta worked towards driving consumer growth and a new approach to the market on building use cases for education and skilling. She spearheaded programs around SMEs and trained them on AI.

"We launched our AI PCs and we were first to go to the market with it. Since then, we have seen great traction around AI PCs and have had great conversations around AI. Overall, it's been a phenomenal year," she quipped.

In the beginning of 2024, HP announced its next-generation AI PCs HP EliteBook Ultra and HP OmniBook X for pre-booking in India for businesses, creators and retail customers. These are powered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor. The HP EliteBook Ultra AI PC is targeted towards enterprises, public sector organizations and government departments while the HP OmniBook X AI PC is built for retail consumers.

"I believe in the next three years AI PC sales will be half of all PC sales in India. The growth will be rapid and if companies don't invest in an AI PC today, then they would be three-four years away from the investment in technology," she added.

The increasing demand of AI PCs in the next couple of years and lower prices of AI laptops could accelerate the penetration in the Indian market. As the market shows signs of recovery, the growth will be driven by a fresh replacement cycle and increased adoption by enterprise users, startups and IT organizations.

PC penetration in India is less than 20 per cent when compared with the US. Still, the opportunities in the country are plenty, "The fertility of this market is driven by youth. A young future workforce, a youthful consumer base, and a really large young population or children who need to be educated. It is the right time for a digital transformation wave," she explained.

The purpose is to make PCs available to every Indian, "One of the things I love most about HP and the reason I came here is the spectrum of products across the board. There is something for everyone. From a price point perspective we are very conscious and we care a lot about affordability. The company keeps on pushing to make products accessible for everyone," she said.

Not only PCs, AI is an integral part of HP's different products such as Poly, the communication portfolio, and printers. "We are making a huge difference and will continue to do so, with the use of AI in our Poly products and by embedding it in our printers," said the MD.

A recent study by HP has revealed that 89 per cent of Indians view technology as a crucial factor in integrating traditionally excluded populations into the economy and AI holds the transformative power to bring the change.

Powering Aatmanirbhar Bharat

HP has been expanding its manufacturing operations in India since 2020, and is making a variety of products in the country such as laptops, desktops, Chromebooks, display units, amongst others.

With a workforce of 20,000 people in India, the country is a larger part of the global value chain. Almost 9,000 people are full time workers and 12,000-plus are contract workers here.

Recently, HP and Dixon Technologies' Padget Electronics have signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) to manufacture HP laptops, personal computers, and all-in-one systems in Tamil Nadu. The announcement, made by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, highlighted the importance of the Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) under the Make in India initiative.

"We are well on track for our PLI 2.0 plans. We already manufacture in India and will look forward to driving more. As part of Make In India, some components will be locally sourced while a few will be imported," she explained.

Furthermore, the company manufactures multiple models of laptops, desktop towers, mini desktops at the Flex facility in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Asked if there would be more partnerships in 2025, she said, "Too early to speak on that. I am really excited about the latest partnerships."

Bridging the gap: MSMEs, TIer II & more

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are a major contributor to India's economic growth and HP India recognizes this. The company is driving consultative interaction with MSMEs, engaging with state governments for skilling, training SMEs on adoption of AI & generative AI. "We are talking to people across multiple industries, marketing experts, data analysts, strategy & finance folks to help bridge the digital divide in the AI era," the MD explained.

Large enterprises often have the funds to be able to experiment with generative AI and then deploy analysts, lawyers and other experts to evaluate the content. This is not the case with MSMEs as they lack a surplus and here comes the role of a support system. "We are launching a program with the confederation of Indian industry (CII), where we are training SMEs to get hands-on experience on utilizing AI in an immersive workshop, so they can start experimenting with it. We're driving this across multiple cities, about 15 or 20 towns across the country," she said.

Highly digitized SMEs achieve two times the amount of profitability and revenue growth than non-digitized SMEs.

In India, Tier II and III cities are emerging as innovation hubs. According to a study by SAP India, in collaboration with Dun & Bradstreet, 40 per cent of tech startups originate in these small pockets by leveraging local talent and cost advantages. This tech-driven evolution solidifies India's global stature as a leading technology powerhouse, supported by robust corporate governance and a conducive regulatory environment. "There is a good amount of AI adoption in Tier II and III cities. AI can make expertise accessible to these smaller areas and hence empower these places with better choice and resources," she said.

What helps HP retain its position in India?

In the third quarter of 2024, HP Inc. led the PC market shipment with an overall share of 29 per cent. It topped the charts in both commercial and consumer segments with shares of 34.3 per cent and 24.8 per cent, respectively, as per IDC. HP shipped 1.05 million notebooks in 3Q24, its third biggest quarter ever, driven by strong performance in the enterprise segment which grew by 30.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and good demand for consumer notebooks during festive sales.

The IT/ITES buying had already begun and is expected to pick up momentum in calendar year (CY) 2025. Meanwhile, the growing adoption of PCs for gaming and content creation coupled with the increasing focus on AI features and tools in PCs are expected to drive the consumer segment in CY2025.

"We sell a large number of gaming PCs in the market today. Gaming PCs are becoming much more than just a pastime, it is becoming a profession. It's an area of enormous growth for HP," the svp explained, adding that education too plays an important role in expanding the company's business in India. "As parents are focused on their child's education, we believe that there is nothing that can add more value like the PC," she concluded.