At CES 2026, AMD used its keynote to outline how it sees artificial intelligence becoming a routine part of everyday computing rather than a specialized feature reserved for high-end systems. Chair and CEO Lisa Su framed the company’s latest announcements around the idea of making AI-capable PCs broadly accessible, a theme that continued with the unveiling of new processors aimed at both general productivity and gaming.
Central to the announcement was the introduction of the Ryzen AI 400 Series, the latest generation of AMD’s AI-focused PC processors. Positioned as a step beyond the Ryzen AI 300 Series announced in 2024, the new chips are designed to support on-device AI workloads alongside traditional CPU tasks. According to AMD, the processors offer improved multitasking and content creation performance compared with competing platforms, though those claims are based on internal benchmarks rather than independent testing.
The Ryzen AI 400 Series features up to 12 CPU cores and 24 threads, reflecting a continued emphasis on parallel workloads. AMD says this configuration is intended to support scenarios where AI-assisted tasks run alongside everyday applications, such as document editing, media creation, and communication tools. The company first introduced the Ryzen processor family in 2017, and the AI-branded variants represent a more recent shift toward integrating dedicated AI capabilities directly into consumer PCs rather than relying on cloud processing.
During a press briefing, Rahul Tikoo, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s client business, said the company now supports more than 250 AI PC platforms, roughly doubling the number available a year ago. He described AI as something that will gradually be embedded across all layers of personal computing, influencing how people work, create, and interact with their devices rather than functioning as a single headline feature.
In addition to the productivity-focused chips, AMD also announced the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a new processor aimed at gaming systems. While fewer details were shared during the keynote, the X3D branding signals continued use of AMD’s stacked cache technology, which has previously been used to improve gaming performance in CPU-bound scenarios. Systems built around either the Ryzen AI 300 Series or the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D are expected to reach the market in the first quarter of 2026.
AMD also briefly highlighted updates to its Redstone ray tracing technology, which is intended to improve lighting realism in games without imposing significant performance penalties. This reflects AMD’s ongoing effort to balance visual fidelity and efficiency, particularly as AI-assisted rendering techniques become more common.
Taken together, AMD’s CES 2026 announcements suggest a strategy focused on incremental integration rather than dramatic shifts. By expanding its AI PC lineup while continuing to refresh its gaming processors, the company appears to be betting that AI features will become an expected part of mainstream PCs over the next few years, rather than a differentiator limited to niche systems.
