Apple takes direct aim at Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs in new AI-focused Mac promos

Apple is ramping up its efforts to promote the Mac as a powerful platform for artificial intelligence. In the Apple Store app and various places around the web, Apple is promoting that the Mac is the “best AI PC.” Notably, the company is also taking direct aim at Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs in this advertising.

In promotions being shown on Apple’s website, the Apple Store app, and elsewhere, Apple touts that the “best AI PC is a Mac.” The company first started promoting the Mac as the “world’s best consumer laptop for AI” back in March alongside the launch of the new M3 MacBook Air. As the launch of Apple Intelligence approaches, however, Apple is taking things up a notch.

In these new promos, spotted by Aaron Perris on social media, Apple touts:

MacBook Air with M3 has up to 40 percent faster graphics performance than Copilot+ PCs. So it’s great for things like video editing and playing graphics-intensive games. MacBook Air is also up to 25 percent faster for browsing the web.

How did Apple come to those numbers? The company says the testing was done last month, comparing an M3 MacBook Air with a Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition. Here are the specifics:

Testing conducted by Apple in August 2024 using production 15-inch MacBook Air systems with Apple M3, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD.

Copilot+ PC performance data from testing 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition (3048A-2037) with 12-core Snapdragon X Elite, Qualcomm Adreno GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD.

Speedometer 3.0 performance benchmark tested with Safari 17.5 on macOS Sonoma, and Chrome 128.0.6613.113 on Windows 11 Home, with WPA2 Wi-Fi network connection.

Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of MacBook Air.

Apple Intelligence is currently in developer beta testing, and the first set of features is expected to launch to the public this fall. In addition to its own AI tools, Apple says the Mac is great for “productivity and creative apps that tap into the power of AI,” including Pixelmator Pro, Woodnotes, Capcut, and … Microsoft Copilot.