Dell says data is the differentiator in the age of agentic AI

There's a fundamental question that everyone should be asking even as Michael Dell declared 'the age of agentic AI is here', and that is 'how do we achieve a competitive edge if AI is available to all'. Some might say prompting is at least part of the answer. Others will say 'take a few steps back', and Dell is among them, citing data as the crucial differentiator.

But before we get to that, Dell provided some context into the pace of AI development. "Since ChatGPT in 2022 we've gone from a chat bot that could write a decent essay to self-improving AI agents that write code, run workflows, and operate around the clock," he said.

"The barrier between imagination and execution is collapsing, unlocking human creativity on a scale we've never seen before. For organizations, AI is no longer a feature, it's becoming the operating model for the modern enterprise. Abundant intelligence is here. The models are smarter than all of us, and they're improving exponentially. Intelligence is becoming infrastructure," he said.

While comparisons with the growth and impact of the internet are somewhat common, Dell reckoned AI is more foundational still. "Just as electricity transformed the world when it left the power plant, AI will transform the world when it leaves the screen," he said.

However, it starts with a principle as old as the industry itself: garbage in, garbage out.

"Agentic AI is only as good as the data that it can trust, access and act on. If your data is siloed, your agents are blind," said Dell.

"Everyone has access to the same models. The differentiator is your data, the unique, proprietary, hard-won knowledge inside your business [and] the agents are hungry for your data."

Dell Technologies is addressing every aspect of data from a hardware (and supporting/enabling software and services) perspective. Among recent developments from the company Dell founded in 1984 are those focused on the deskside through to the server/compute/networking and enterprise storage side, and crucially said Dell, the partnerships side too (he described a slide with multiple high profile partners as his most-used and favourite).

Specific announcements include:

• Advancements to Dell AI Factory with Nvidia (and earning a ringing endorsement from Jensen Huang himself, who closed a keynote address with a simple 'Buy Dell' after signing a PowerEdge server). Launched in 2024, AI Factory has gone on to earn 5,000 customers.
• Dell Deskside Agentic AI powered Dell workstations and NVIDIA NemoClaw, for building and running local autonomous agents Suitable for software engineering, academic research and regulated industries, and avoiding token cost blowouts.
• Dell AI Data Platform orchestration and search capabilities enhancements for improved unstructured data management and governance, along with accelerate SQL analytics for Nvidia platforms.
• Dell ObjectScale X7700 ultra-dense appliances offering up to 45% more HDD capacity.
• Dell PowerRack integrated systems for accelerated AI and HPC workloads at enterprise scale.
• Adding PowerFlex to Dell Exascale Storage, completing a unified rack architecture for Dell PowerRack that supports block (PowerFlex), file (PowerScale, Lightning File System), and object (ObjectScale) for AI, HPC and enterprise workloads.
• Dell Pro Precision 7 R1 workstation in a 1U form factor with Nvidia RTX PRO Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition GPUs and up to 64TB of storage.
• New releases of the Dell Integrated Rack Controller and Dell OpenManage Enterprise with a unified control plane for integrated compute, remote device connectivity and orchestration.
• Dell PowerStore Elite storage with 6:1 data reduction guarantee.

There's good reason for Dell's (the man and the company) enthusiasm for partnerships, and they are extensive and probably best embodied by the clearly warm relationship between Dell and Huang. To this point, the company's AI Ecosystem Program gives AI software providers a structured path to validate solutions on Dell AI Factory infrastructure, reducing risk paths to production-scale AI, faster POC-to-production and the ability to run AI solutions where data lives.

Those partnerships are a veritable who's who of AI leaders and frontier models and include the likes of Google, OpenAI, Palantir, SpaceXAI and many more.

What Dell Technologies' considerable solutions estate means in the broader context is clear: if it isn't already comprehensive across the enterprise, AI very soon will be. "The companies redesigning their work around AI are going to compound advantages faster than at any time in history," said Dell.

That means a careful look at component and every application. And, most certainly, at the most basic of the foundations underpinning effective AI, data. From Dell Technology perspective, "We are engineering accelerated architectures to work together as one system, agentic and autonomous."