If they don't know what they're going to use it for, I'd focus on practical things most non-technical people use laptop for:

• Fair battery life to carry it around.
• Operating system that does auto-updates, needs little to no administration.
• SSD so the thing feels fast, and starts quickly. May not need a large storage capacity.
• Built-in webcam for video calls with relatives, etc.

The rest can be done on the software side:

• To browse safely, install security tools (antivirus, browser extensions like privacy badger) and verify auto-udate is on.
• Install an office suite (et Libre Office). Even if they don't write documents, they'll probably need to read them.
• If using Windows, tweaks settings to disable abnoxious things like ads, telemetry.
• Backup software. Ideally with automatic remote backups. Window's built-in backup sucks.