Dell’s CFO leverages AI agents to manage his finance team—and has helped the company’s AI business grow from $0 to $25 billion

(SeaPRwire) –   Just a few years ago, Dell seemed like a company destined for the pages of business history. Its stock lost nearly a third of its value in 2022, and it was challenging to envision where the once-iconic PC manufacturer would fit in a post-PC world. Then, something remarkable occurred. Over two years, Dell quietly built a $25 billion AI infrastructure business from the ground up, achieved record total company revenues of $113.5 billion, and is now guiding Wall Street toward $50 billion in AI server sales for next year alone.

Recently visited Dell’s CFO in New York to learn more about how the company accomplished something few firms of its size have managed: reinventing itself in real time. David Kennedy, a 27-year Dell veteran, was confirmed as CFO in November 2025 after serving as interim. In a conference room overlooking the bustle of 34th Street, Kennedy walked me through the recent record performance of the Round Rock, Texas-based giant (ranked No. 44 on the 500).

“Looking at the 12 months we’ve just completed, we had $34 billion in AI-optimized server orders in the fourth quarter, bringing our full-year total to $64 billion, and we ended the year with a $43 billion backlog,” Kennedy said. Fourth-quarter AI server revenue alone surged 342% to $9 billion. “What’s truly exciting is that our pipeline of opportunities for the next five quarters has never been stronger.”

For fiscal 2027, Dell has projected $50 billion in AI-optimized server revenue, marking 103% year-over-year growth. Kennedy attributed this demand to global interest across neo-clouds, sovereign AI deployments, and Dell’s enterprise customer base. “The fear of falling behind,” he said, “is becoming more intense.”

Bank of America analysts recently raised their forecasts for Dell’s AI servers, increasing their current-quarter estimate to around $15 billion and their full-year projection to roughly $60 billion, citing stronger-than-anticipated demand. Morningstar also boosted its fair value estimate, noting that sustained AI demand will be critical for long-term growth.

If there’s a shadow over this otherwise bright outlook, it’s supply. Kennedy was straightforward: the ecosystem simply lacks enough components to fully meet AI infrastructure demand. “I’d still welcome more supply,” he said.

But Kennedy argues that Dell’s decades-long supplier relationships give it an advantage over competitors in securing available components. Unlike some peers, Dell provided full-year fiscal 2027 guidance—a signal, Kennedy noted, that the company has supply commitments to support it.

On the topic of AI server profitability, which has concerned some investors, Kennedy was unperturbed. Dell targets mid-single-digit operating margins for its AI infrastructure business, a figure it has consistently maintained. “Mid-single digits on $50 billion,” he said, “amounts to a substantial sum.”

Central to Dell’s strategy is what Kennedy terms an “AI factory”—an end-to-end infrastructure stack centered on data. This includes GPU-powered servers developed with Nvidia, a large-scale storage business, and networking systems.

“It all revolves around data,” Kennedy said. “How do you manage it, store it, utilize it, deploy it?” He noted that Dell’s ability to build, deploy, and service systems with 99.9%-plus uptime has helped differentiate the company and strengthen customer relationships.

The company now has over 4,000 enterprise AI factories deployed with customers, including more than 750 added in the fourth quarter alone.

Inside the finance function: Agentic AI

Dell has spent the past two years modernizing and standardizing its systems to prepare for broader AI adoption. This foundation is now enabling the company to scale agentic AI internally, Kennedy said.

This operational expense discipline has been accompanied by workforce reductions. Dell’s total headcount dropped by roughly 10%, or about 11,000 employees, in fiscal 2026, according to its 10-K filing—the third consecutive year of similar declines. The company spent $569 million on severance in the most recent fiscal year. Dell stated in its 10-K that fiscal 2026 headcount reductions stemmed from employee reorganizations, limits on external hiring, and other cost-alignment measures tied to its business modernization efforts. “Despite these difficult decisions, we remain focused on empowering our employees and attracting, developing, and retaining talent,” the company said.

Regarding agentic AI, Kennedy has focused on the finance function. “I’ve started deploying agents to handle reconciliations and accounting journal entries,” he said. “We’ve launched digital twins in our supply chain and services organizations. We have our own internal sales chat CRM model, which has freed up multiple hours per week for our sales teams.”

Kennedy has taken personal steps further—incubating a team of data scientists within his finance function and developing proprietary agents under Dell’s internal governance framework. He uses AI to streamline his calendar, automate emails, and drill down into forecast data by country and segment.

His view on the workforce impact is that AI shifts effort toward higher-value work. “Accountability remains unchanged,” he said, pointing to relationships with auditors and regulators. “AI just helps in making faster, quicker decisions.”

He also stressed the importance of data quality and effective prompting: “Your results are only as good as your data, so you must ensure it’s clean. Then, you need to direct the agent in the right format—because an agent is ready to work 24/7.”