By Tara Gale, Client Solutions Lead, Dell Technologies Ireland
The world of work has evolved significantly in our digital age. New technologies have enabled greater connectivity and collaboration between employees whether coming together in-person or working remotely.
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) may have the most profound impact yet on the workplace as we know it. AI is a once-in-a-generation technology that provides significant potential to create more agile, flexible, and efficient workplaces in the future.
From enhancing productivity to fostering collaboration and enhancing the security of digital infrastructure, developing a modern workplace with new AI experiences will enhance the user experience today and set organisations up for success in the future.
An AI-enabled workforce
Most businesses in Northern Ireland already recognise the importance of embracing AI in preparing their organisation for the future. Research by IBEC reveals that nearly two in three Irish businesses believe that AI has the potential to enhance productivity and work conditions.
The race to prepare for an AI-enabled future is already well underway across many industries, with substantial investment in AI-related infrastructure. According to the IDC, total global investment in AI is expected to increase to $301.43 billion by 2026.
The potential impact of the technology is significant and wide-ranging across many industries and applications. AI is key to unlocking value within data and thus is becoming one of the most important tools for businesses of all sizes.
Among the workforce, AI has the capacity to automate many routine tasks, freeing up employees to focus on more strategic and value-added productivity. When you automate intelligently, team members can spend less time on repetitive, routine tasks and more on innovation, creative thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. For example, the use of generative AI (GenAI) tools to create written content or images from prompts can speed up the completion of time-intensive tasks like writing reports creating presentations and proposals, or emails. In the advertising industry, these tools are already being used to quickly develop high-quality assets that may only need minor editing from human designers before being rolled out in campaigns.
AI tools can also be used to enhance collaboration and communication across the workforce. For instance, AI-powered notetaking tools that transcribe and analyse meeting content can be used to ensure better understanding and information sharing across teams saving time on mundane tasks.
The Role of AI powered workstations
As organisations look to advance their AI capabilities, AI-powered workstations are set to be a crucial pillar in ensuring their workforce can harness the power of the technology at scale. The development and deployment of AI technologies on workstations offers significant strategic and operational benefits for businesses from greater flexibility to scaling and simplified implementation.
As the use of AI tools in the workplace rapidly grows and AI models increase in size and complexity, AI workstations can provide a highly scalable infrastructure solution that meets the evolving needs of organisations. Recently launched, Dell’s new range of AI-powered Precision desktop and laptop workstations provide enhanced support for the high level of data processing required to manage AI workloads in the modern workplace.
Each workstation is equipped with a neural processing unit, a specialised processor optimised for handling complex mathematical computations integral to artificial neural networks. This high performance is complemented by large storage and memory to enable the efficient handling of vast amounts of data and speed up the development cycle of AI models.
AI-powered workstations also provide increased flexibility for organisations in the development of AI models. High-end processors and powerful GPUs built into the workstations enable developers to rapidly prototype and fine-tune generative AI models locally in a cost-effective way.
By providing a fully integrated solution for the entire development process of AI models, from data preparation to model training and deployment, these workstations can ensure that your organisation is fully prepared for the future, whatever your use case.
Building a more secure work environment
As organisations face increasing levels of cyber threats, GenAI can be a powerful tool to strengthen cyber resilience in the workplace. GenAI can enhance detection and respond to anomalies and potential threats in real time. If malicious actors do gain access, it can isolate attackers and stop them from spreading further.
With flexible and remote working models becoming standard in many organisations and establishing themselves as a long-term working practice, GenAI can also help to address the endpoint security challenges associated with employees accessing company resources from different locations and devices. By continuously monitoring user behaviour and network activity, GenAI can strengthen the cybersecurity position of the organisation and adjust permissions based on risk assessments.
Preparing for change
AI is set to change the way we work, enhancing productivity and unlocking new opportunities for businesses. As organisations advance on their AI journey, it is important that they take a joined-up approach to the technology.
At Dell Technologies, we’re committed to helping organisations create AI-powered experiences in workplaces across Ireland. From running complex AI workloads on workstations to using day-to-day AI-powered applications on laptops, our extensive range of commercial AI workstations and laptops are tailor-designed to bring organisations and employee productivity into the AI era and unlock the full potential of the technology.
By taking action now, businesses and organisations can create a modern workplace shaped by new AI experiences.
