When Dell Technologies’ CTO John Roese expanded into the role of Chief AI Officer last year, one thing was clear: they were rallying behind a clear challenge to move fast or get left behind. They set a two-year deadline to do just that and they are on track.
What came next wasn’t hype or hundreds of organic pilots originated from all over the organization. It was purposeful rigor the likes of which has always guided Dell—a multipronged strategy in four clearly defined areas that focused on prioritizing people and processes with technology as the ultimate enabler. Dell delivered $10 billion in new revenue in its fiscal year 2025 with revenue growth of 8% while reducing costs by 4%. That’s a decoupling of the revenue and cost curves rarely seen from a Fortune 50 company.
I was inspired to highlight Dell’s success not because they’re a client (they’re not), but because they offer a compelling playbook for any enterprise embarking on their AI transformation journey.
The Dell way
Here are four nonnegotiables from Dell’s AI startegy that should be on your radar now:
1. Be crystal-clear on why you’re doing AI
There were no feel-good pilots. No AI for the sake of “innovation.” Dell defined early that AI must directly drive profit—through revenue, margins, cost reduction, or risk mitigation. It wasn’t about goodwill or buzz. It was about the P&L, unapologetically.
2. Focus only on what matters
Instead of chasing hundreds of AI projects they had on their list, they identified the parts of the business that truly drive value for them: supply chain, sales, engineering, and customer service. Every AI investment had to serve one of these pillars. According to a recent Stanford Artificial Intelligence Index Report, those four areas are critical levers organizations can use to harness AI to both save and make money. As Roese explained, “We wanted to apply AI against the most impactful processes in the core differentiators of the business to improve our productivity.”
3. Reengineer processes before layering AI
Pre-AI, Dell found the sales team spent a lot of their time navigating workflows and tools. They cleaned up their content, redesigned end-to-end processes, and then overlaid AI on top of it. It’s AI maturity.
4. Build AI systems that scale across the enterprise
Dell avoided the trap of isolated pilots. They chose platforms and frameworks that could serve multiple use cases across departments. AI wasn’t siloed. It was architected for broad, secure, and scalable integration. Whether you’re running a 500-person company or a Fortune 50, the lesson holds: if your AI can’t grow with your business, it’s just a science project.
AI at Scale, the Dell Way
Dell’s AI implementation serves as a core differentiator for them. Here are some high-level nuggets you can take from them to inspire your company’s own AI journey.
- Sales: AI-powered tools cut time spent prepping, giving reps meaningfully more time to be in front of customers.
- Customer Service: Dell-enabled AI to deliver answers with unprecedented accuracy through any interface to resolve customer issues rapidly.
- Supply Chain: AI made Dell’s world-class supply chain more agile, predictive and dynamic in a complex world.
- Engineering: Dell used AI to introduce additional scale to their engineering capability, increasing the capacity and efficiency of their existing team.
The New AI Blueprint for Enterprises
Dell’s transformation follows a method that any large organization can replicate:
- Clarify ROI—not goodwill, but bottom-line impact.
- Identify value pillars—where AI promises to move the needle most.
- Rebuild, then scale—Redesign broken processes before applying AI. Don’t let automation mask dysfunction. Then incorporate AI only onto those workflows that are optimized to amplify impact fast.
- Mandate integration & governance—no rogue AI islands allowed. Enterprises are complex and AI use can show up in a variety of places—from SaaS services to procurement and consulting. This is where comprehensive governance comes into play. Make sure you have an active AI use case review board who oversees governance, structure, approval, and prioritization anywhere AI will manifest in your business. No AI projects should proceed without moving through this holistic lens first.
The result? You unleash AI to become an impressive growth engine, enabling the decoupling of revenue from costs curves. Even as a provider of industry-leading AI infrastructure, Dell had to prioritize its people and processes first to drive meaningful transformation, proving that innovation begins with strong process and people foundations.
Why This Matters Now
We’re at an inflection point. Generative AI is not just another productivity tool. It’s a catalyst to rewire entire operating systems. While the headlines fixate on job anxiety or AGI, the real story is about industrial-scale reinvention. Dell quietly became a pioneer again: a 40-year-old company evolving into a living, breathing “AI-first” enterprise.
If you want generational growth, don’t chase every AI trend. Focus on the workflows that actually move your business forward. That’s how you drive ROI, bankroll transformation, and widen the gap between you and the pack.