For the critical middle market, Microsoft and Dell want to make AI adoption less daunting

AI adoption has become a culture shift for enterprises, moving beyond technical implementation to fundamentally reordering how organizations work, compete and grow.

Few partnerships are better positioned to guide that shift than the one between the companies that have long defined the enterprise stack. Specifically, the partnership between Dell Technologies Inc. and Microsoft Corp. spans decades and now sits at the center of that transformation, with Copilot+ PCs built by Dell emerging as a key vehicle for helping commercial customers move from AI experimentation to production, according to Mary Ann Anderson (pictured, right), worldwide marketing director for the Dell partnership at Microsoft.

“The partnership cannot be stronger,” Anderson said. “Really, with the emergence of AI, with the agentic era, Windows is now front and center, and that partnership with Dell and Copilot+ PCs that are built by Dell is really important to the future, especially for our commercial customers. It’s really important to help customers understand how Microsoft and Dell can help them on that journey, because the time to start is now. If you haven’t started, you’re going to feel behind, and Microsoft and Dell and that partnership can really accelerate where your business is going.”

Anderson spoke with Gemma Allen (left) at Dell Technologies World 2026, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the AI culture shift, the Microsoft-Dell partnership and the role of Copilot+ PCs in enterprise AI readiness. (* Disclosure below.)

Copilot+ PCs lead key culture shift in the agentic era

For the commercial middle market, the AI journey is just beginning. While large enterprises with significant budgets have a clearer path, smaller organizations are still navigating where and how to begin their AI journey — and that is where the greatest opportunity for the Dell-Microsoft partnership lies, Anderson explained.

“It’s really more than technology,” she said. “It’s a culture change, and it’s something that companies are embracing at different rates, but making sure that [AI] is integral and part of that culture — getting your employees to experiment and do that in a way that is secure, where you have the tools, and that you can govern it so you know what’s going on. Then, moving from that experimentation to truly looking at, how can we optimize the workflow? How can we build this into our business?”

Security remains one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption across the customer base, Anderson noted. Companies fear that AI could infiltrate their data and systems if not deployed carefully — a concern that Microsoft’s long-standing commitment to security and governance is designed to address. Processing AI workloads on-device through Copilot+ PCs also provides a cost-efficient path forward, reducing reliance on cloud inference and lowering total cost of ownership, she added.

“Customers really understand tokenomics and the cost associated with AI is something that will help them in the future,” Anderson said. “[But we need to make] sure that they’re doing that in a secure way. Making sure they’re working with strong partners, Dell and Microsoft, will help them break through that and get to that other side to really have their employees taking advantage of all the benefits of AI, but you have to do it in a very thoughtful way.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell Technologies World 2026:

(* Disclosure: Microsoft sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Microsoft nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE