By Dylan Bettencourt
- Dell’s Adrian McDonald says powerful new AI could make it possible for one person to build and run a company worth R1.7-billion.
- He says South Africa could produce the first solo-run AI business as Dell’s own AI tools boost sales and cut costs.
Artificial intelligence could soon make it possible for one person to run a company worth R1.7-billion and it might happen in South Africa.
That’s the bold prediction from Dell Technologies EMEA president Adrian McDonald, who spoke at the Dell Technologies Forum in Johannesburg.
“Could it be in South Africa that we have the first one-person $100-million corporation? Why not?” McDonald asked.
He said agentic AI, systems that can think and act for themselves, is already doing full jobs in fields like finance and software.
AI tools now handle coding, customer service and even business strategy, while cheaper, faster computers make it possible to run these tools on ordinary devices.
“You can bring the AI to the data,” McDonald said. “Once you do that, you can enable a different business model.”
He said Dell itself has changed since adopting AI, boosting sales by 19% and cutting costs by 4% in the last quarter.
The company started with 800 AI ideas and narrowed them to 50 with clear financial benefits.
McDonald said the biggest challenge for businesses is cleaning and preparing their data for AI use, a step that can take months.
Even so, he believes South Africa has the talent and potential to lead the next wave of AI innovation.
Pictured above: Dell Technologies EMEA president Adrian McDonald.
Image source: Adrian McDonald/X
