Dell Job Cuts Announced—Sales Teams Take the Hit as AI Plans Grow

Job cuts at Dell Technologies Inc. are moving forward and the company’s sales team has taken the biggest hit. The company is becoming “leaner,” which means that Dell’s workforce reduction plans are going to affect a significant number of employees. Some sources have put the Dell layoff numbers to be as high as 12,500 employees but that detail has not been confirmed by the company. 

The job cuts at Dell have been linked to the company’s plans to invest more heavily in AI as the updated technology has played a great part in the company’s resurgence in the tech industry.

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Learning More about Dell’s Job Cuts—The Details Are Slim 

Information about the Dell job cuts came to light after employees at the company received a memo from Bill Scannell, president of global sales and customer operations, and John Byrne, president of Dell Tech Select. The employees were informed that the sales teams were “getting leaner” with the intention of “streamlining layers of management and reprioritizing” where resources are invested. The company is on a journey towards modernizing its resources, and that inevitably means increasing investments in AI.

The tech giant currently has over 120,000 full-time employees on their payroll. If Dell lays off around 12,500 employees, it would make a significant dent in their workforce. On the flip side, it would provide them with additional monetary resources to re-channel into other areas of the organization. 

Business Insider reported that the Dell job cuts in sales teams have already begun. According to their sources, Dell’s workforce reduction plans could cut down their numbers to under 100,000 workers, which would be a very significant shift for the company. Dell laid off around 13,000 jobs just last year, so the number of cuts we see this time may be similar.

“As we simplify, standardize and focus — and become a more modern organization — we’ll extend our lead as the world’s best go-to-market sales team. We have a winning strategy to propel our growth. It’s a journey, and we’ll adjust as we go.”

According to the memo, the Consumer and Small Business (CSB) and Client Solution Group (CSG) are being consolidated into the Global sales team as part of this restructuring. Despite the optimistic tone of the memo, Dell’s job cuts will be anything but breezy as affected workers begin to look for new sources of employment and those left on the team watch their colleagues go. 

More on Dell’s AI-Motivated Restructuring Efforts

The company provided a general outline of what they mean when they talk about modernizing the teams and how AI plays into getting their growth started. The memo highlighted the massive opportunity that has presented itself with emerging sectors like AI, indicating that it is time to capitalize on the shifting winds of the market. Their customer expectations and buyer landscape have evolved with the market, and Dell has identified AI-centered restructuring efforts as necessary to meet their goals.

With a new AI Select Sales team to join the AI Solution Sales team, the company intends to narrow down the exact elements of its strategy and begin work on making the most of emerging trends. Dell’s AI layoffs are not unique as we’ve seen other organizations free up resources to explore how they can intertwine their services with AI. Intuit, for example, recently eliminated underperforming employees and overlapping roles in favor of its AI initiatives. Similarly, Intel has fallen behind in the AI chip race, and its recent layoff announcement matches the scale of the alleged 12,500 job cuts we’re expecting from Dell. 

Dell’s job cuts among the sales teams is an interesting strategy and it does make sense that the company is avoiding targeting any core departments until they determine what service lines and roles they want to retain in the AI-powered future. 

Job cuts are becoming increasingly common but it has to be acknowledged that the workforce isn’t coming equipped with a deep knowledge of AI. New graduates still feel unprepared for the transition to AI work and companies might benefit from building expertise on AI internally instead of spending resources on locating AI experts who perfectly align with their goals. 

Companies like Ikea are taking up AI literacy initiatives for their workforce, and while that does not necessarily help with ambitions like Dell’s—to rework the company’s targets, strategies, and goals—these initiatives are still worth consideration for the long run. 

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