Lenovo's AI Stick is a great piece of innovation, shame that you need a Thunderbolt port to make it work

(Image credit: Lenovo)

Lenovo's AI Stick connects to non-NPU PCs, adding AI-powered abilities
Showcased at MWC 2025, pricing and availability remain unknown
The device is compact, around 9cm long, and requires a Thunderbolt port

If you want to benefit from on-device AI capabilities but aren’t currently in the market for one of the many fancy new laptops with built-in NPUs, Lenovo is working on a couple of intriguing solutions.

The first of these is the AI Display, which is a screen that has a built-in discrete NPU that not only adds intelligent features to the monitor but can also add AI functionality to non-AI laptops or desktops. The other is the AI Stick, a small brick-like device that connects to any non-NPU-equipped PC.

Both of these concepts were showcased at MWC 2025, and while there’s no word on pricing or availability for either device yet, I can’t imagine Lenovo will want to hang around too long before launching them.

Thunderbolt required

Although we don’t know the dimensions of the AI Stick, based on the render that Lenovo has shared with a USB-C cable plugged into it, it looks to be about 9cm long - so pretty tiny.

Lenovo says of the AI Stick that it will give “users with a non-NPU-equipped PC access to advanced AI features such as local Large Language Models (LLM) and AI-enhanced graphics apps on their device.”

The company goes on to explain that the device “contains a 32-TOPS NPU that connects to a PC via a USB-C Thunderbolt port to allow the PC to use Lenovo AI Now functionalities and can also be plugged into a wall socket to unleash maximum performance for demanding AI tasks.”

Lenovo AI Now is the PC maker’s personal assistant designed to boost productivity and automate tasks on the company's various AI-powered devices.

While the AI Stick, like the AI Display, is a great idea, it’s one that’s sadly limited by the fact that any PC you use it on will need a Thunderbolt port. If you were hoping to give AI smarts to that older laptop or desktop, it looks like you’re going to be out of luck.

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Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.