Intel’s New AI Suite Helps Customers Quickly Create AI Assistants

What sets an AI PC apart from a regular PC?

This new generation of PCs, introduced in December 2023 with the Intel® Core™ Ultra processor family, combines the power of a central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU) and neural processing unit (NPU) to elevate user productivity, creativity, gaming, entertainment, security and more.

Powerful hardware that delivers the performance needed for modern-day artificial intelligence (AI) workloads is only part of what makes a great PC an AI PC. The big opportunity for the PC industry is clear: develop new AI software and new user experiences that take advantage of this modern hardware.

Finding fast, efficient ways to create new AI assistants that help with everyday tasks is the next frontier for making AI PCs deliver the best AI experience.

At CES Las Vegas in January, Intel unveiled Intel® AI Assistant Builder (code-named Project SuperBuilder). It’s a fuss-free solution that enables computer makers and software vendors to create tailored AI assistants for any use case in minutes.

AI Assistant Builder takes the nitty gritty guesswork out of building these models. It breaks down the tasks to just three easy steps: choose a ready-made AI assistant model, download and install it, and then launch the program.

“We’re providing the industry the building blocks to create their own AI-centric content. That enables our customers to reduce their overall development time and speed up the rollout of their own smart solutions,” explained Olena Zhu, senior principal engineer in Intel’s Client Computing Group.

This is how it works:

• The app features a chat window where users can ask questions and upload or delete documents across numerous formats (including PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations and text files).
• Each time the user asks a question, the AI assistant responds based on the query. It learns from the conversation history, related documents and the inherent knowledge of the large language model (LLM).
• It also includes advanced AI safety guardrails that include profanity filters and a secondary safety system that guides the model to respond safely without bias.
• It has ever-growing rich feature sets to allow users to pick and choose different advanced features and custom-build their own AI assistant.

Intel’s key partners are already using AI Assistant Builder to craft customized models for targeted needs:

• Acer built an AI sales assistant proof of concept (POC) integrating its camera vision technology in just three days.
• In South Korea, Intel and Samsung Electronics introduced a generative AI chatbot at Kyobo Bookstore that runs on-device – not the cloud. It’s based on smart LLMs and enables customers to search for books and receive personalized information.
• Asus leveraged Intel’s technology to create a technical-focused Q&A assistant for its NUC customers.

AI Assistant Builder Speeds New Age of AI Helpers

Perfecting AI assistants from scratch is a time-intensive process that takes weeks, if not months, along with a deep knowledge of software programming and AI know-how.

Just months after it was first proposed, AI Assistant Builder was actively being used by original equipment manufacturers of PCs and independent software vendors around the world. And more customers are lining up to partner with Intel as their AI PC platforms mature.

“These AI assistants are powered by large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and other components optimized for performance and accuracy when run on AI PCs based on Intel CPUs, GPUs and NPUs,” said Zhu.

“Besides vertically optimized LLMs, each vertical or domain has its own set of workflows and feature requirements. At Intel, we also partner with our customers to customize workflows and AI features tailored to each customer.”

Dr. Olena Zhu is a senior principal engineer and AI solution architect in Intel’s Client Computing Group. “We’re providing the industry the building blocks to create their own AI-centric content,” says Zhu. (Credit: Intel Corporation)

At CES 2025, Jim Johnson, senior vice president and interim leader of the Client Computing Group at Intel, unveils Intel AI Assistant Builder. Its specialized software framework allows for the creation of custom AI assistants that help with routine, everyday tasks. (Credit: Intel Corporation)

The Acer Swift 14 AI is a new AI PC from Acer that is powered by Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 2) and sports all-day battery life of up to 29 hours. (Credit: Acer Inc.)

AI Assistant Builder will run on any Intel-powered AI PC that meets specific hardware requirements: At a minimum, it requires a PC running on an Intel® Core™ Ultra Processor (Series 1) with 16 gigabytes of RAM and Integrated Intel® Graphics. (In September, Intel introduced Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 2) with a 3x increase in AI performance at up to 50% lower power than its predecessor.)

Zhu points out another key benefit of the software: It runs entirely on the local machine, with no cloud connectivity required to process queries (an Internet connection is needed initially to download the toolkit). Running AI assistants locally on the PC also assuages security concerns.

“By running AI assistants locally on their AI PCs versus depending on cloud-based instances, users benefit from peace of mind and are in complete control over the security of their personal data,” explained Zhu.

In the Hands of Major Customers

Zhu and her team were ahead of the curve in predicting the need for a quick and easy AI builder that would bring AI PCs to life: They first sketched out the early framework behind AI Assistant Builder in February 2024.

By June – just five months later – the team had a viable prototype ready for customers.

Intel provides the software free of charge to its top customers, along with engineering consultancy and technical resources.

A Smart Camera Solution in Just 3 Days

Acer built a POC for a camera-assisted online sales assistant in just three days with Intel AI Assistant Builder.

Leveraging Acer’s camera vision technology, the assistant can recognize objects during videoconferences and provide information about products in the video feed.

The assistant is able to learn product features through RAG mechanisms provided by Intel AI Assistant Builder. Acer’s customers can leverage this solution on its AI PCs with Intel Core Ultra processors. (The Acer Swift 14 AI is an all-new AI PC from Acer that is powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors (Series 2) and sports all-day battery life of up to 29 hours.)

“With Intel AI Assistant Builder, more developers are now able to create their own AI assistants. We’re excited about the opportunities this brings, especially when integrating Acer’s camera vision technology,” said Mark Yang, associate vice president of Compute Software Technology at Acer Inc.

“Acer will continue to build on its longstanding partnership with Intel and help customers enable these applications through both hardware and software solutions.”