AMD sees an emerging class of PC users running AI models locally on powerful, AI-optimized machines—a new category poised to compete with Nvidia's DGX Spark.

Time will tell if the term takes off, but AMD wants to create a new product category called the "Agent Computer."

The chipmaker points out that while people mainly access chatbots and AI tools online, some also run AI agents locally on their own hardware, as evidenced by OpenClaw, an open-source project that runs on a laptop or mini PC. However, for the best performance, AMD says its latest AI Max processors, including the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, are ready to address the niche, but potentially growing market.

“Powerful agents need powerful compute, and that’s what AMD does. They need a new class of machine,” the company wrote in a blog post. "A personal computer runs your apps. An Agent Computer runs your agents so they can run the apps for you. That is the shift."

The blog post envisions a near future in which people run agents locally to help them complete a wide range of tasks throughout the day, acting as a dutiful assistant.

“Not every AI workload belongs in a hyperscaler’s data center,” AMD adds, alluding to online services such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. “People and businesses want control over their data, affordable AI they can use every day without limits, and the confidence that their AI works for them. That makes local, privacy-centric, always-on agentic compute a real and growing need for consumers, creators, developers, startups, and SMEs (small and medium enterprises).”