Doug Schmitt
CIO & President · Dell Technologies
Position Evolution
4 tracked across this operator's appearancesSame operator, on the record, on the same topic, at different points in time. Each delta below is anchored to verbatim transcript spans verified against source — no paraphrases. This is the alumni-graph moat: SemiAnalysis cannot reproduce this query because they don't have the speaker-stable corpus.
Agentic AI as next frontier
Hardenedconfidence 92%In the earlier appearance, Schmitt positions agentic AI as a future aspiration — something that 'is going to be incredible.' By the later interview, he reports active deployment across multiple internal platforms and introduces new operational concerns like orchestration layers and control towers. The move from forward-looking excitement to present-tense results and architectural specificity marks a clear hardening of position.
"I think agents and taking that autonomous self- learning of what we're doing and applying them now to the processes... Now we're going to have the agents to that put that autonomous self- learning on top of that going to be incredible."
Source on theCUBE ↗"We're leveraging agents. As you said, we talked about the evolution of Next Best Action or in product development or in the sales side, we're using agents in all of those areas to help us deliver, again, that outcome... agentic is absolutely real and we're seeing the results from it."
Source on theCUBE ↗Customer zero dual CIO-services role
Hardenedconfidence 88%In the earlier appearance, Schmitt frames customer zero as a one-directional advantage — Dell learns internally and deploys outward. By the later appearance, he explicitly describes it as a 'two-way street,' signaling a more mature, bidirectional model where customer learnings also feed back into Dell's internal practices. The elevated specificity and the new framing of mutual learning suggest growing conviction in the model's strategic value.
"We get to be customer zero from an IT perspective and leverage the services and learn that we're also then deploying and leveraging with our customers. That's really a value added of having those together."
Source on theCUBE ↗"It's really about taking our experiences on platform development with AI, how we're getting the results, the ROI for it. And then, leveraging that with and for our customers as well on the services side. And taking what we learned with our customers and bringing that back internally as well. It's a two- way street for learning, this customer zero."
Source on theCUBE ↗AI process re-imagination vs. automation
Hardenedconfidence 87%Earlier, Schmitt warns against layering AI on top of existing processes without deeper integration. In the later appearance, he sharpens this into an explicit cautionary framework, invoking the failed RPA era as a historical foil and coining a customer-facing mantra ('think big, implement small, move fast'). The argument is the same but has become a structured, repeatable advisory position rather than a passing observation.
"You also have to bring your AI and your data to the process. I don't think you can just put the AI on top of it and hope for something to be outcome."
Source on theCUBE ↗"I think that sometimes the concern or the danger could be looking at your processes today and just automating those, right? That was RPA back in the day... What it's about now with AI is re- imagining. You don't have to just look at the processes you're doing is what are we trying to do in terms of a transformation... it's not just about automating today's processes, it's about re- imagining, modernizing where you head."
Source on theCUBE ↗Narrowing AI use cases from experimentation
Hardenedconfidence 85%In the earlier interview, Schmitt references the 800-plus use cases as a backdrop for governance work done by consulting teams. In the later interview, he takes direct ownership of the rationalization story, naming specific platform categories (developer tooling, sales chat, Next Best Action) and articulating a clear decision framework. The shift from citing a number to explaining the strategic reduction process shows deepened public commitment to this narrative.
"Jeff talked about the 800 to 900 use cases, tremendous number. It was actually our consulting and professional service side that came in and put that structure, the AI governance and the structure in place."
Source on theCUBE ↗"We had somewhere, and we've talked about this before, around over 800. And what we started to do then is say, 'Hey, look, how do we get that down to a manageable few that really had scale across the company?' Think AI platforms. And when we stood back and looked at those 800, we said, 'Look, there's three or four that will really have impact across the company.'"
Source on theCUBE ↗All theCUBE appearances (4)
theCUBE + NYSE Wired: AI Factories - Data Centers of the Future | Doug Schmitt, Dell Technologies
GUEST · Dell Technologies · CIO & President
theCUBE + NYSE Wired: The AI Factory - Data Center of the Future | Doug Schmitt, Dell Technologies
GUEST · Dell Technologies · CIO & President
Dell Technologies World 2024 | Doug Schmitt | Dell Technologies & Scott Bils | Dell Professional Services
HOST · Dell Technologies · CIO & President
Dell Technologies World 2025 | Doug Schmitt & Scott Bils, Dell Technologies
GUEST · Dell Technologies · CIO, Dell Technologies and President