Dell predicts surge in agentic & sovereign AI in APAC

Dell Technologies has set out a series of predictions for artificial intelligence adoption in Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China, highlighting rapid growth in agentic AI, tighter governance, and the rise of sovereign AI ecosystems across the region.

The outlook came from a regional briefing featuring John Roese, Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief AI Officer, and Peter Marrs, President for Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China.

Executives described a shift from experimentation towards scaled deployment of AI in production environments. They said customers were now focusing on measurable business outcomes.

Roese said the pace of change would reshape core operations in many sectors. He said the impact would go beyond individual applications and extend into organisational structures and technology architectures.

"The rapid acceleration of AI is set to profoundly reengineer the entire fabric of enterprise and industry, driving new ways of operating, building, and innovating at an unprecedented scale and pace," said Roese, Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief AI Officer, Dell Technologies.

Scaling real deployments

Marrs said conversations with customers had moved away from pilots and proofs of concept. He said organisations now sought large-scale deployments.

"Conversations are on very real adoption, and AI is creating a truly transformational opportunity," said Marrs, President, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China, Dell Technologies. "We are working with customers across the region to build AI at scale."

He cited Sandisk in Malaysia as one example. The company uses Dell technology for smart manufacturing and product design. The site has reached up to 95 per cent lights-out factory operation.

Marrs said demand for agentic AI was growing. He said customers wanted systems that could take on more complex, ongoing tasks rather than simple assistance.

He pointed to Zoho in India as a case where Dell is working on agentic AI adoption. Zoho is developing contextual, privacy-first and multimodal enterprise AI systems. These systems run on Dell infrastructure.

"AI has become more accessible for all companies in the region, and what we've been doing is successfully building foundations with customers to deploy AI at scale," said Marrs.

Agentic AI era

Roese said the industry was entering what he described as the autonomous agent era. In this phase, agentic AI systems move beyond tools and become operational managers for long-running processes.

He said companies would discover new uses as they progressed on this path. He also said the effect on human workflows would be broader than many expected.

"We expect that as people go on the agentic journey into 2026, they will be surprised by how much more agents do for them than they anticipated. Its very presence will bring value to make humans more efficient, and make the non-AI work, work better," he noted.

Roese also said enterprises needed to redesign what he called their AI factories. These environments combine data, models and infrastructure in a repeatable way.

He said companies needed to build resilience around these AI production systems. He also said cyber recovery, vaulting and data protection must link directly with AI infrastructure.

"Dell is a leader in this space, bringing the two worlds of AI factories as well as cyber recovery, resiliency, vaults, and data protection together for enterprises to stay in production," he said.

Governance and guardrails

Executives said governance would be a central theme in the next phase of AI expansion. They pointed to a growing mix of internal policies and external regulations.

Roese said the speed of AI development had introduced volatility. He said organisations now placed more weight on control, accountability and compliance.

"Last year, we predicted that 'Agentic' would be the word of 2025. This year, the word 'Governance' is going to play a much bigger role," Roese said. "The technology and its use cases are not going to be successful if you do not have discipline and governance around how you operate your AI strategy as either an enterprise, a region, or a country."

He said a clear structure was the most important factor for sustainable progress. He described governance as both a constraint and an enabler.

Roese emphasised that "the number one complexity of moving fast and moving forward is to establish a governance structure, a set of rules that people understand how they can follow, a way to prioritise what is important."

Sovereign AI momentum

The briefing also highlighted growth in sovereign AI initiatives. These cover national-level AI infrastructure, data policies and local ecosystems.

Marrs said governments across Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China were investing in domestic AI frameworks. He said enterprises in those markets were also building their own rules and platforms.

He said many organisations already had basic structures in place. He said the next phase involved refining and scaling those frameworks for broader innovation.

Marrs said sovereign AI was forming a distinct part of the AI economy. It influences data residency, compliance and local industry development.

He mentioned partnerships with Macquarie Data Centres in Australia and NAVER Cloud in South Korea. These projects focus on secure, local infrastructure. They support what Dell describes as trusted AI innovation.

Roese said the sovereign AI sector would be larger than many current forecasts suggested. He said every such initiative depended on underlying infrastructure and data platforms.

Regional ecosystem push

Marrs said regional AI progress depended on cooperation among technology firms, governments and academia. He said this collaboration supported both skill development and project delivery.

He pointed to Dell's APJ AI Innovation Hub. The hub links Dell technology, regional talent and partner organisations.

"By working with experts, government, and industry peers, we've made unbelievable headway in fostering skill development and advancing our collective expertise," said Marrs. "Together, we are accelerating Asia's leadership as an AI region, identifying key steps to bolster the region's growth. Dell is excited about how we're participating and helping with this transformation."