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- Dell is putting AI at the forefront of its growth strategy.
- AI will make workers' lives easier and more productive, Dell's corporate strategy SVP told BI.
- The pivot comes as Dell implements a restructuring that includes major layoffs.
Dell is one of the best-known brands in the tech industry. Since its launch in 1987, it has one of the widest offerings, covering PCs, storage, networking, and more.
However, AI is changing everything.
Vivek Mohindra, Dell's senior vice president of corporate strategy, told Business Insider that to keep up with the rapid pace of change and drive growth, the company has developed a new strategy centered on AI.
While it's been using "classic" AI in products such as the Dell Optimizer for more than a decade, the company recently introduced a series of AI-enhanced products and partnered with Nvidia to build an AI factory for Elon Musk's xAI.
However, Dell considers itself "customer zero," Mohindra said, meaning getting its own approach to AI right was critical.
In June 2023, management moved to determine the best way to implement AI across the business, with a plan refined by October followed by testing to ensure value from the new tools. They are now being rolled out.
"The question has been how can our unique operating model work much better with these AI tools," Mohindra said. "The pace at which we need to think of our products and offers needs to increase significantly."
How roles may change
Dell is applying AI to four core areas: product development (specifically software coding), content management, sales tools, and customer service.
Mohindra broke down how individual workers' day-to-day jobs would change, starting with the example of a Dell developer.
"When you're coding, you have the ability to have an assistant that can help you do the first revision of the code, or debugging. That frees up the developer to focus more on the higher value-added layers of it, in terms of thinking about the architecture, and it increases the actual amount of time they spend coding," he said.
Pointing to external research, he said that for a specific coding task, AI can increase productivity by 20% to 40%. Dell's targets for teams' output aligned with those levels.
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On the customer service side, Dell hops that AI will help its staff solve customers' problems more quickly.
"Through some of these tools, the customer service agents will have the customer's information handy at their fingertips," Mohindra said.
"Similarly, on content management, we are a large company with a large product portfolio," he continued. AI tools will give sales teams the ability to quickly compile the material needed to have conversations with customers.
These are the types of levers that Dell hopes will help it compete in the race to dominate the AI market.
AI and jobs
The unavoidable question is how many jobs AI could render redundant.
This month Dell announced a significant restructuring of its sales division to drive growth and support its transition into the AI era that includes significant layoffs.
"The destination is going to be worth it — it's about winning and winning big!" executives wrote in an internal memo to staff.
"What we've seen in all of these technology transitions, certain roles become less important, but other aspects of the roles become really, really important," Mohindra said when asked about the potential for workforce reductions in connection with Dell's AI strategy.
"60% of the jobs that exist today did not exist in 1940, and 85% of new roles right now didn't, literally because of technology development and technology changes," he said.
He said the focus was now on upskilling Dell staff to help them use AI tools: "It'll require continual re-skilling and learning, but I'm very optimistic that it'll actually make people's jobs easier and much more fulfilling as and when they embrace these technologies."
'More effective'
Workers are excited by the flexibility AI could give them and had embraced the new strategy, Mohindra said. "The receptivity has been very positive because it is just making our team members much more effective at their jobs," he said.
One Dell team leader in sales told BI that internal systems badly needed updating and that they were looking forward to being able to create PowerPoint presentations with AI.
Dell had held training sessions on AI fundamentals, the person said, requesting to remain anonymous as they were not permitted to speak to the press.
"But other than that, it's a shitshow," they added. "Every single meeting has the word AI in it, and it's just mind-numbingly repetitive. The use cases for AI right now are incredibly limited. It's definitely a buzzword that we're trying to make money off."
Do you work at Dell? Contact this reporter in confidence at pthompson@businessinsider.com