Dell’s employees had 800 different gen AI ideas. Here’s how the PC maker winnowed the list to 8 January 22, 2025 |
Within a few weeks of OpenAI debuting its ChatGPT chatbot 2022, igniting the AI craze, employees at Dell Technologies had proposed 800 different ways their company could also harness artificial intelligence.
The brainstorming reflected leadership’s excitement—CEO Michael Dell is a big believer in AI—as well as an organic, enthusiastic response from the broader workforce. But several hundred ideas were far too many for the PC maker to act on. So the company winnowed the list, first to 132 use cases, and then further to eight priority projects.
A key executive, John Roese, Dell’s chief technology and chief AI officer, has taken on the job of decider-in-chief. Rather than give everyone free rein to develop AI within the company, he chooses which projects to pursue.
“You cannot do this by consensus and every business unit has its own agenda,” says Roese. “You have a finite amount of resources and you need to prioritize the most ROI-impactful projects.”
Four areas within Dell are allotted the most resources when it comes to AI: services, supply chain, engineering, and sales. Some of the projects that have already been deployed include a tool called “Next Best Action,” an AI assistant that helps Dell’s technical support team find information to answer customer questions, leading to a 10% reduction in the amount of time needed to close a case. Another example are AI coding assistants that help make Dell’s 20,000 engineers more productive. Meanwhile, a new generative AI search tool aims to trim the time needed for sales team members to prepare for a pitch and focus more on customer conversations.
“One thing we tell our customers is as you start your AI journey, the first question you should answer is, what makes you special?” asks Roese. “If you don’t know what your core source of differentiation is as a company, then you don’t know where you should apply AI.”
He says other departments, like HR and finance, haven’t gotten generative AI tools because deploying the technology in those divisions wouldn’t achieve the desired big return on investment. “You’ve got to have someone at the top who is willing to take the arrows and be the bad guy,” says Roese.
Potentially, however, Dell may tap the AI services of other companies. Over time, as workplace management vendors like SAP SuccessFactors or Workday add AI capabilities, Dell could license those features if the expected productivity gains they create are worth the cost.
Roese joined Dell 12 years ago as CTO of EMC Corporation, a leader in data storage that Dell acquired through a $67 billion merger in 2016. At the time, it was the largest tech deal ever.
As CTO of Dell, Roese says his priority is to ensure Dell is competitive on technology advancements including AI, quantum computing, and blockchain, but also doesn’t get distracted and invest in technology that would be a bad fit.
“If Dell wakes up one morning and is just flat footed because we missed a technology inflection, I should be fired,” says Roese.
One multi-year project Roese led was the expansion of the total addressable market that Dell could pursue. Dell, which generates nearly $90 billion in annual revenue and ranks 48 on the Fortune 500, already has a diverse business that includes selling computers, data storage devices and services, and software. But Roese has since sought new opportunities in the telecommunications sector, data management, cloud services, and AI. As a result, Roese says the total addressable market Dell is chasing is now worth $2 trillion, up from $600 billion before the five-year initiative kicked off.
On AI, the company’s revenue has gotten a lift from selling AI servers. Dell shipped $2.9 billion of them in the most recent third quarter and has a backlog of $4.5 billion in orders.
As for the future, the company has projected that its new AI PCs will help bolster overall demand for its products from enterprise customers.
Dell’s AI strategy has four components: “in, on, for, and with.” “In” involves AI that’s embedded in Dell’s products, like the company’s PCs; “on” is for storage, services, and networking platforms that run AI workloads; “for” is how Dell is applied internally for the company’s workforce; and “with” is the ecosystem created to support AI, including partnerships with AI vendors.
Roese says founder Michael Dell and chief operating officer Jeff Clarke have been very supportive of AI investments internally because of the focus on ROI. The decision about what to invest in is always based on whether it would support revenue growth, margin expansion, cost reduction, or offset a material risk to the business. The ROI question must be answered first before Dell even considers how advanced the tech is or determining whether to fund the project or to get the legal department’s sign off.
“We don’t want to waste time on projects that are not going to impact the business,” Roese.
John Kell
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CONTENT FROM AMD CPU Choice Matters Generative AI workloads require new infrastructure to meet increasing workload demands. Discover why AMD is the right CPU to choose in this IDC paper. Learn More
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AI hype isn’t enough to dramatically lift PC shipments. The arrival of AI-optimized PCs hasn’t really inspired IT leaders to spend more on computers. Worldwide shipments of desktop and laptop computers grew only 1.3% in 2024, according to a new report by research firm Gartner. While AI PCs did contribute to the slight uptick, along with businesses upgrading to Windows 11, Gartner senior director analyst Ranjit Atwal told CIO Dive that “most organizations don’t currently see the value of an AI PC. The issue is having to pay a premium.” And the contrast between AI and non-AI PCs may soon be irrelevant, as Gartner projects AI-optimized PCs will account for more than half of total laptop shipments in 2025.
Capital One vendor outage impacts some banks. Capital One bank was stung by technical issues after a vendor, Fidelity Information Services, said a local power outage in Florida had affected a data center critical for running some of its software applications. For days, the outage blocked some of the bank’s customers from accessing their deposits, payments, and financial transfers. By Sunday, Capital One said it had fixed the problem. Last week, a separate but less severe outage briefly stung Citigroup, impacting the banking giant’s mobile app and creating some issues with fraud alerts. The company hasn’t disclosed what caused the problem.
HPE probing data breach by a hacker who often targets tech companies. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise is investigating the incident. The hacker, who uses the alias “IntelBroker,” claims to have stolen data from the IT company after previously touting breaches at AMD, Cisco, and Nokia. HPE, in a statement to TechCrunch, said it had experienced no operational impact to the business and that there was no evidence that customer information was involved. The news came roughly a year after HPE was stung with a cyberattack by Russia-backed Midnight Blizzard, which had gained access to the company’s cloud-based email system.
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C-suite leaders say AI agents are a priority for AI transformation. A global survey found that 67% of corporate leaders are considering deploying autonomous AI agents to boost employee productivity, improve workplace collaboration, and help manage cyber risks. Consulting firm BCG’s study also showed that 64% of executives expect that these AI agents and humans will work side by side, though 70% of companies have trained less than one out of every four workers on using AI and generative AI tools. The findings are based on responses from 1,803 C-suite executives.
Surveys have consistently shown that C-suite leaders are training themselves on AI but that their workforce isn’t as engaged. AI upskilling in 2024 did improve “dramatically” from 2023’s levels, BCG managing director and senior partner Vlad Lukic tells Fortune. But he added that it's “still not even 50% of the workforce. There’s catch up to be done there.” AI agents, Lukic says, can enable employers to access different data sources and incorporate fresh AI tools into new workflows. But, “you don't really get the benefits unless you reshape the workflow end to end,” he added.
 Courtesy of BCG
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Hiring:
- Coca-Cola is seeking a director of IT/OT, based in Atlanta. Posted salary range: $149K-$173K/year.
- Koobz is seeking a CTO, based in Ventura, Calif. Posted salary range: $100K-$200K/year.
- Beazley is seeking a head of technology, based in West Hartford, Conn. Posted salary range: $140K-$190K/year.
- Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is seeking a vice president and head of IT, based in Boston. Posted salary range: $307K-$357.7K/year.
Hired:
- D2L appointed Andrew Datars as CTO, joining the educational software provider to lead the tech, engineering, and development teams. Datars was most recently EVP of engineering at PointClickCare, a SaaS-based healthcare technology company, and also held leadership roles at Oracle, Microsoft, and Research in Motion.
- Orbex announced Andy Bradford as CTO, a hire ahead of the U.K.-based aerospace company’s planned inaugural rocket launch later into orbit in 2025. Bradford joins Orbex from UK Launch Services, a commercial space consultancy, where he was CEO and cofounder. Bradford also previously held leadership roles at aviation component manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology.
- LinkedIn appointed Deepak Agarwal as chief AI officer, rejoining the business-focused social media platform from Pinterest, where he had served in the same role since 2020. Agarwal previously worked at LinkedIn for eight years, including leading a team of more than 500 when VP of engineering for the company’s AI program. He was also previously a director of research at Yahoo.
- Headway named Arnaud Ferreri as CTO, joining the digital healthcare startup after spending a decade at Instacart, where he was most recently VP of engineering. At Headway, Ferreri will lead the engineering organization and oversee the company’s tech strategy.
- PlanSource named Mike Ehlers as CTO, overseeing the IT and engineering teams at the employee benefits administration software provider. Prior to joining PlanSource, Ehlers was VP of engineering at Benefitfocus and also held leadership roles at Paylocity, Xerox, and Aon Hewitt.
- True appointed Rob Brooks as CTO, joining the software provider after most recently serving as VP of engineering at Global Payments. Brooks was also previously VP of engineering at Nielsen and Visual IQ and held leadership roles at Nuance Communications and ACI Worldwide.
- ActivateStaff named Chris Loope as CTO, joining the mobile-based staffing management tool to spearhead technological initiatives and integrate AI into the platform’s solutions. Previously, Loope held leadership roles, including CIO at staffing companies including BGSF and EmployBridge.
- Park Place Technologies, an IT company that helps clients optimize their data centers, appointed Justin Bingham as chief information security officer. He will manage risk, ensure compliance, and oversee security strategies. Bingham has previously held leadership roles at General Electric, General Motors, and KLA.
- Revyrie announced Charles Sims as CTO, joining the consultancy company after previously serving as CTO for United Talent Agency and the Los Angeles Clippers.
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