APJ region accelerates AI adoption as Dell rolls out new innovations

Artificial intelligence is moving at an incredibly fast speed in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, according to senior Dell Technologies executives who spoke at a media roundtable during the Dell Tech World conference in Las Vegas.

As AI use cases proliferate and investment ramps up, the region is fast emerging as a global leader, both in adoption and ambition.

"Asia Pacific is leading the way in generative AI spending, with 38% of AI investment in the region now focused on Gen AI, compared to just 33% in the rest of the world," said Peter Marrs, President of Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China at Dell.

"Even North America sits at 29%," he added, highlighting the region's rapid pace.

Dell is positioning itself at the heart of this growth through its AI Factory and a growing ecosystem of technology partners, universities and governments.

"There's not an industry that's untouched by AI, but financial services, healthcare, energy, retail and manufacturing really stand out. We're at the forefront of helping customers across these sectors," he added.

Transforming business through AI factories

The Dell AI Factory, a framework designed to help organisations scale AI, has quickly gained traction. "It's been a year since we announced it, and we've moved from having tens or hundreds of customers globally to thousands," said Chris Kelly, Senior Vice President of Data Center Solutions APJC at Dell.

"Not only are more customers deploying it, but they're achieving real, tangible ROI."

According to Danny Elmarji, Vice President of Presales APJC at Dell, the AI Factory has resonated because it provides a practical pathway for organisations to adopt AI at scale.

"CIOs are trying to understand how to tackle AI inside their business. Unlike past technology shifts, this is fundamentally a business-driven initiative," he explained.

Elmarji pointed to significant momentum in financial services, where generative AI is being used to recommend customer actions, automate fraud detection and transform digital banking experiences.

In manufacturing, AI is powering digital twin capabilities and revolutionising fault detection, while in healthcare, early detection tools and enhanced electronic medical records are improving patient outcomes.

AI is also driving change in retail, with computer vision enabling smarter inventory management, and in education, where Dell is working with universities to personalise learning and foster innovation. "We're building connections between the IT world, research and industry," Kelly noted.

"It's about moving beyond pilot projects and making AI meaningful for everyday users."

From modular data centres to sovereign AI

The roundtable also showcased a unique customer partnership with South Korean AI education platform Elice.

CEO Jae Won Kim described how Elice faced soaring costs when trying to provide deep learning environments for students and businesses. "We had to reduce GPU cloud fees by more than 90%," he said.

The solution was a portable modular data centre powered by Dell servers, now used for everything from AI digital textbooks for five million students to sovereign AI workloads that comply with government requirements.

"There's very limited data centre capacity in Korea for high-density AI workloads," Kim explained.

"The modular data centre lets us host hundreds of GPUs, with liquid cooling for the latest chips. It's not just about education anymore – we're talking about a hybrid solution that could be deployed in Japan, Australia or anywhere data centre construction lags demand."

Marrs praised the partnership, saying, "You really thought big, and you went and made it happen." Kim's advice for others: "AI is not going away. It's better to start early. If you're worried about investment, modular is the best way to start small and start fast."

Innovation and ecosystem challenges

Dell's announcements at the conference included a raft of new infrastructure solutions designed to cut energy costs, boost data centre efficiency and accelerate AI deployments of any size.

The company's latest cooling technology can reduce energy costs by up to 60%, while new servers with AMD and NVIDIA chips promise up to 35 times greater AI inferencing performance than previous generations.

Yet, challenges remain. "The biggest hurdles are people and ecosystem," Marrs acknowledged.

"We need to educate the next generation of AI talent and work with governments to create the right regulatory and compliance frameworks." Kelly added, "Access to data centre space, power and cooling is going to be crucial. Requirements are moving so fast that what seemed high density a year ago now looks standard."

To address these gaps, Dell is nurturing partnerships with universities, local ISVs and industry bodies, running hundreds of AI innovation days and investing in hands-on labs. "We're enabling partners to experiment in safe environments and bring AI to life," said Elmarji.

Dell executives are optimistic but realistic about the scale of change.

"We're delivering AI at scale in the largest and most complex use cases, but also helping small startups get started," Kelly said. "You don't have to spend a fortune – start small and grow. If you don't act now, you're falling behind."

For Kim, the journey with Dell is just beginning. "It was a huge investment for us, basically a startup. We poured all our money into GPUs. But I think it will be a good journey," he said.