@wv
I don't think people (companies) blindly believe, but they actively play the game.
Microsoft says "hey, Win 10 will go EOL and you will also need to use our Copilot Plus to make sure you don't miss the opportunity of AI"
PC manufacturers pick the info and think it's great to hype their investors (which are angry because margins are eroding). They will later call Gartner/Forrester/whoever and ask them to do a market research validating this expectation.
Gartner/Forrester would call their pool of companies saying: "Hey, have you heard about the potential of Copilot for AI? Are you planning to invest in IT to keep the pace and not lag behind".
Any C-level would say yes, because nobody wants to give the impression to lag behind.
G/F would later call Dell/HP/Lenovo saying: "Hey, the studies I made show that companies are willing to refresh their IT devices to use AI. Do you want to buy the market research?"
PC manufacturer buys the research, then go to investors and say: "hey, do you see? It's not just our expectations, Gartner/Forrester say that too".
It's a big vicious circle, where you start from dreams (big refresh) and set up your questions to companies to get the desired outcome.