APAC leads global GenAI spending, moving towards more deployment

“It comes down to optimizing infrastructure cost, nurturing skilled AI talent and modernizing, simplifying and orchestrating IT infrastructure,” says Peter Marrs, President, Asia-Pacific Japan & Greater China at Dell Technologies.

Generative AI spending globally continues to be increasing despite the initial concerns on ROI. According to research by Dell Technologies, AI is expected to contribute over US$ 5 trillion to the Asian economy by 2030, with 38% of AI spending in the region to be focused on GenAI compared to 33% globally and 29% in North America.

The increase in spending clearly indicates that businesses in the region are ready to embrace GenAI capabilities in their organizations. In a media briefing during Dell Technologies World (DTW) in Las Vegas, Peter Marrs, President, Asia-Pacific Japan & Greater China at Dell Technologies revealed that more industries in the region are using GenAI.

Marrs highlighted that the healthcare, banking and finance, energy, retail and manufacturing industries witness the highest deployment of AI. For example, in the financial services industry, fraud detection, which has elements of traditional AI is now including GenAI capabilities.

Enabling these industries to develop and deploy more use cases is Dell’s partner ecosystem. Mars explained that Dell is currently working with local ISVs to help customers transform. This includes enabling ISVs as well as partners via the Dell AI Factory.

At DTW, Michael Dell stated that the Dell AI Factory has been adopted by over 3000 customers in just a year since its launch. The Dell AI Factory provides customers and partners with the ecosystem framework to build a long-term sustainable system. This includes enabling customers and partners to start by consuming small edge infrastructures and how to think about data, prepare it and get it ready for use cases.

With Dell announcing a partnership with Google Gemini for the Dell AI Factory, there is no doubt that it will be an open ecosystem. This way, models will not only become cheaper but also be more accessible to the market. And this is where the integration of the solutions is key.

“CIOs want to know how to tackle this. GenAI is not an IT conversation. It’s a business conversation that IT needs to enable. It all starts with use cases, and we are seeing more use cases emerge and address business processes that existed for years in a totally different manner. It’s exciting and the problem is not the tech. It’s more about the acceptance of the tech. This is why the ecosystem is critical,” commented Danny Elmarji Vice President, Presales, Asia-Pacific Japan & Greater China.

Considerations in AI deployment

For Marss, organizations are changing their mindset on how they need to prepare for AI in their business. Specifically, there are three areas that businesses are taking serious considerations when deploying AI.

First, the focus is on optimizing infrastructure cost. With the cloud now seemingly becoming increasingly pricey to run and deploy AI workloads, more organizations are considering deploying on-premises. This has also led to Dell releasing stronger on-premises infrastructure to support the growing need.

Second, it's nurturing AI talent. Businesses want to make sure they have sufficient talent when deploying use cases. Thankfully, advancements in AI is also enabling businesses to have more capabilities in deploying AI within their capabilities.

Third is focusing on modernizing, simplifying and orchestrating IT infrastructure. With on-premises capabilities mirroring those on the cloud, the shift is making more sense for organizations as they look to modernize and simplify their IT infrastructure.

“It comes down to optimizing infrastructure cost, nurturing skilled AI talent and modernizing, simplifying and orchestrating IT infrastructure. We are helping organizations understand the controls and how LLMs can work. We also want to have standardization when it comes to adopting AI. Customers should be able to combine Dell Technologies’ innovations where its integrated systems. We are brining value to the market and making it simple to consume,” explained Marss.

For Chris Kelly Senior Vice President, Data Center Solutions, Asia-Pacific Japan & Greater China, the adoption of AI is reflected through the customer’s journey as they shift from PoC to meaningful use cases that deliver tangible ROI, which is also being done in a meaningful way.

“We are delivering AI at scale, from the largest most complicated scaled use cases to start ups. You don’t have to spend a fortune to start. But if you don’t start now, you will fall behind,” commented Kelly.