Sam Burd, Chief Strategy Officer, Dell Technologies

Noting India’s aggressive push towards becoming the AI leader of the world, Sam Burd, Dell Technologies’ Global Chief Strategy Officer said the company is “super excited” to work with the government and enterprise partners in the area.Looking back at India’s enterprise ambitions since the Y2K era, the country has travelled a long way as a market, Burd said in an exclusive interaction with businessline.“We’ve always looked at the enterprise space in India. India did a lot of, what you could call back office things for the world. Now, we see India pushing very aggressively to be AI leader for the world. That to us is super exciting,” said Burd.Sharing his own experience with India, Burd stated the country has changed significantly and continues to change significantly, moving towards innovation and using technology in businesses.“I always enjoy talking to customers in India because they’re experimenting and innovating and bringing new approaches and we’re working with those companies to get them enabled with all of our technology, including what we can do on the AI side for those companies,” he said.The company has been talking about opportunities in the country for a long time, part of which led to the creation of the AI blueprint in India. According to Burd, the company sees great global offerings in India for its customers.Currently, India along with other countries is also working on its data sovereignty regulations. During the Dell Tech World event, Michael Dell, Company CEO, said the discussion has moved from a policy debate to an operating model. When asked about customer awareness in terms of this transition, Burd asked customers to take a hybrid approach to data security rather than solely focusing on region and control.“People are waking up to [the fact that] location and control is not by itself an answer. It’s thinking about the different layers, the types of data you have and making sure you architect that solution,” said Burd.The Strategy Officer pushed for a hybrid approach, focusing on the location and control capabilities for various categories of data like mission critical data as conversations with companies indicate a rethink in temrs of their IT and technology architecture for an AI world.“That’s really different from the world we were in three years ago or five years ago,” said Burd.Published on May 31, 2026