With AI now a common sight in businesses across the world, the focus now switches to getting the most impact and use from the technology.
At the recent Dell Technologies World 2025, this idea was prominent, with the company keen to demonstrate how it is helping customers of all sizes across various industries get the most out of AI.
To find out how tangible the effects of AI can really be, I sat down with some key Dell spokespeople at the event to dig deeper.
“Turned everything on its head”
One of the biggest announcements at Dell Technologies World 2025 concerned the expansion of Dell’s AI Factory platform, built with Nvidia, which has received some significant updates.
Initially launched at Dell Technologies World 2024, this new Dell AI Factory with Nvidia 2.0 encompasses client devices, servers, storage, data protection and networking, alongside the similarly newly-announced Dell Managed Services for the Dell AI Factory with Nvidia platform, which looks to simplify AI operations with the management of the full Nvidia AI stack.
Such announcements understandably put Dell in a position of great confidence, as Scott Bils, Vice President – Professional Services, notes, “Our goal has always been to provide end to end services to support customers on their AI transformation journey.”
“The whole objective is really, via services, to provide that easy button for customers, whether it’s to develop their initial use case strategy and prioritization, implement their use case, or managing the environment on an ongoing basis,” says Bils, “everything we’re doing is focused on meeting the customer where they’re at in their AI journey, and enabling and providing that easy button for on-prem enterprise AI.”
“AI factories can be all sizes, and there’s a big role the AI PC will play in this journey for customers,” adds Varun Chhabra, SVP, Product Marketing, noting that as some smaller businesses become entirely centered around AI, this transforms the whole professional services pyramid for Dell.
“It’s turned everything on its head a little bit,” he says.
“An existential opportunity”
In his keynote at the event, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell noted how around 3,000 customers are using the Dell AI Factory platform, and Chhabra highlights that all of these are at a different stage in their journeys, so Dell’s need to stay at the forefront of the technology.
“Dare I say, this is an existential opportunity,” he laughs , “you’ve got to get it right…if you’ve not started yet, you’re late.”
“Many of the enterprises we see have taken the first steps…where it gets exciting is where they take the next step to figure out how to really drive fundamental business transformation using AI,” Bils adds.
The AI Factory is a multi-faceted platform, and I ask Bils and Chabra how easy a sell it is to businesses at the early stages of their AI journey.
Chhabra notes it is often more about business value and use cases, so Dell’s public work on how AI can be used to benefit organizations is vital.
“We’re honest and transparent about this,” he notes, “we really take the time to talk to customers about what they need to do, why they’re unique.”
“It’s not just going in and having a general conversation,” Bils notes, “there’s lots of different sizes and scales, we can offer configurations for all kinds of organizations.”
“Customers know they need the help, the technology, and are actively looking for the help from service providers…as they navigate their AI journeys” he adds.
I ask the pair how prepared their customers are to deal with the potential overload offered by a system such as the Dell AI Factory – are smaller businesses in particular ready for this?
“Some are pretty far down the line,” Chhabra notes, but a lot of customers are in early explorations – and the question for them is not so much what can Dell do for them, I think it’s even more basic – there’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm within organizations for AI, and no shortage of ideas of what AI can do for organizations – but the question is which of these hundreds of ideas do I move forward with?”
He adds this position of Dell being a trusted advisor means customers find value in both the company’s existing AI journey, but also the mistakes it made – “helping solve the next generation of issues,” Bils notes – including passing on the learnings Dell gains from working with major companies such as xAI on to smaller firms.
“We do eat our own dog food,” Chhabra laughs, “there’s been a massive internal focus on using AI to make our team members productive across disciplines, to make our customers more successful, and give them a better experience.”
Working with a company the size and scale of Nvidia on the AI Factory is also a major advantage for Dell, and I ask how important having those kinds of partners is.
“It’s there because we made a lot of effort,” Chhabra notes, “we’ve always been a company that prides itself for building an open ecosystem on customer’s behalf…and our goal is always to enable that.”
