Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Subscribe
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Subscribe
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Big Data and Analytics

    AI, Data Analytics Essential for Business Survival, Michael Dell Says

    Written by

    Jeffrey Burt
    Published April 30, 2018
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      LAS VEGAS—There has been a lot of buzz over the past few years about the need for companies to change the way they do business to address a rapidly evolving landscape driven by the massive amounts of data that is being generated by the billions of connected devices, the rise of cloud computing and emerging technologies such as analytics and artificial intelligence.

      The trend toward digitization will only continue, and businesses are going to have to adapt or fall by the wayside, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell said April 30 during the opening keynote of the Dell Technologies World show here.

      However, even as most businesses understand the need to pursue a strategy of digital transformation, many are unclear about the benefits of adopting such technologies as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in their operations.

      A recent survey of customers by Dell showed mixed results on such questions, Dell said. Half of those participating in the Realizing 2030 survey said that such technologies will free up employee time, an indication that the half didn’t believe that. In addition, 49 percent said their employees could be more productive through greater collaboration. However, 43 percent don’t know whether they’ll be able to compete over the next decade and 57 percent are struggling to keep up with the pace of change.

      But, 82 percent said they expected their companies to be primarily software-defined within five years.

      “There’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s happening, but there’s an appetite” for the benefits that these emerging technologies can deliver, he told a crowd of about 14,000 conference attendees.

      In a talk that was more a high-level view of where Dell and the industry are headed than a detailed dive into new products and services, Dell talked about the inevitability of greater digitization and automation and how Dell Technologies—and in particular, the seven businesses that make up the company—provides the broadest range of offerings that are focused on helping businesses thrive in an increasingly distributed and highly automated hybrid- and multi-cloud world.

      “Every customer that I meet is reimagining how they use technology in all aspects of their business,” Dell said, driven primarily by the need to better and more quickly collect, store, process and analyze the huge amounts of data that is being created. “To be competitive in the future, you’ve got to use software and data and AI, he said. “Data makes products and services better, which translates into more customers, which produces more data—and the cycle continues.”

      Dell teases product news

      During the address, Dell teased news from a number of the company’s businesses, including Dell EMC, VMware and Pivotal, that is expected to come out on the second day of the show May 1 that will touch on a number of Dell Technologies businesses and emerging technologies.

      The company earlier this month announced new offerings in its PC business. However, at the center of the changes going on in the IT industry is data, and AI is the technology that promises to unlock the potential value inside the data. Businesses are going to need to embrace AI for their data if they want to survive.

      “If you’re not using AI with your data, you could be out of business real soon,” he said during question-and-answer session with journalists and analysts after the keynote. He noted that inside Dell itself there are hundreds of projects that leverage AI, some of which are showing up in products and others that are making operations inside Dell work even better.

      The amount data will continue to grow, Dell said. He noted that an average city by 2020 will produce 200PB of new data per day, and “99 percent of that data is not coming from people, but from things. Everything that has electrons pulsing through it is becoming intelligent.”

      As more systems and devices are connected and infused with intelligence, the amount of data will grow. AI will be crucial in enabling companies to analyze all this data to make decisions that will make them more efficient and to better serve their customers, Dell asserted.

      Despite the challenges that emerge from Dell’s Realizing 2030 survey, there are businesses that are using AI and its various components—such as machine learning, deep learning and neural networks—to give them a competitive advantage, and the vendor is seeing the impact on its own business, Dell said.

      Dell sees massive growth in corporate AI use

      “What I’m seeing is an absolute explosion for use of AI,” he said during the session after the keynote. “The idea here is you’re taking all this data and learning an inference to draw better conclusions from the data. We’ve seen a rapid acceleration in our server business last quarter and this quarter. When you dig into why this is happening, you’re seeing AI as a big use case.”

      The CEO also pushed back at those in the industry, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who have sounded warnings about the dangers of AI and the need to tightly regulate the technology to ensure that it’s used safely. Dell downplayed fears of what he called a ”robopocalypse,” saying he instead is optimistic about the future of AI. The technology promises to vastly improve people’s lives and the world can’t turn away from it, he said.

      “AI is very powerful,” he said. “Bad stuff could happen, but it’s our job to prevent all that. If you try to hold something back that’s really powerful and good fundamentally, that’s just not going to work. I am much more optimistic, Dell said. “There’s going to be bad people who [use AI with evil intent], but we’ve got to figure out how to stop them.”

      All of this change in the IT industry is happening at a time when Dell and other company executives are trying to map the company’s future. Dell is 16 months past its massive $60 billion-plus acquisition of EMC—which itself came just three years after Dell took his company private in a $24.9 billion deal—all of which saddled the company with about $40 billion in debt.

      In answering questions from journalists, Dell said nothing has changed in the options being explored—such as having VMware buy Dell in a reverse merger or taking Dell Technologies public and keeping things as they are. He also said the company is paying down debt on schedule and is ahead of revenue projections made before the EMC acquisition.

      Jeffrey Burt
      Jeffrey Burt

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.