During his initial keynote at the Intel Vision 2025 event, new CEO Lip-Bu Tan discussed the company’s past failures. He promised a more responsive, ‘engineering first’ approach moving forward. However, some find it hard to see how Tan’s vision diverges significantly from that of the last CEO, Pat Gelsinger.

Tan acknowledged that Intel had “fallen short of expectations” and needed to rectify previous mistakes. He mentioned the importance of retaining talent that had been lost over the years, stating, “We lost quite a bit of talent. That’s my top priority, to recruit some of the best talent in the industry to rejoin or join Intel.”

He argued that Intel needs to return to its roots as an engineering-first company, a sentiment that echoes Gelsinger’s installation as CEO when many were relieved to see an engineer at the helm instead of a marketer.

One of Tan’s key insights was a shift in product development to start with customer needs rather than design the hardware first, stating, “The world has changed, you have to flip that around.”

Tan reaffirmed Intel’s commitment to rolling out its next-gen Panther Lake laptop CPU while hinting at securing important customers for the company’s foundry services. He emphasized that identifying key partners will be crucial for Intel’s success moving forward.

As the tech industry advances rapidly, the big question remains: where’s the innovation? While Tan and Intel have much to prove, it remains to be seen how long stakeholders will be willing to wait for tangible results.