In this interview from Dell Technologies World 2026 in Las Vegas, Geraldine Tunnell, chief marketing officer of Dell Technologies, theCUBE's John Furrier and theCUBE + NYSE Wired's Gemma Allen to discuss Dell's evolution as an AI-native company and the balance of human expertise with technology driving enterprise transformation. Tunnell reflects on the standout moments of the event — from Michael Dell and NVIDIA's Jensen Huang sharing the stage to customer sessions featuring Eli Lilly, Ascension and Samsung — underscoring how organizations are thinking bigger about the problems AI can solve. She notes that becoming AI-native is no longer optional and highlights how customer buying journeys are shifting as AI tools reshape research and shortlisting processes, pushing marketers to think beyond campaigns toward machine-readable content strategies.
The conversation also explores the human side of AI adoption, where Tunnell draws on a conversation with Zak Brown, chief executive officer of McLaren Racing. Brown credited technology with helping lift the team from the bottom of the standings to back-to-back Constructors' Championships and a Drivers' Championship — while emphasizing that great drivers and strategists remain indispensable. Tunnell frames this as a direct parallel for enterprise AI: infrastructure provides the foundation, but humans must still make the strategic calls. She shares Dell's internal marketing philosophy of prioritizing progress over perfection while striving for excellence as the mindset enabling its own AI-native transition. From taking Dell Technologies World to 40-plus cities globally through Dell Technologies Forums to staying relentlessly close to customer needs, Tunnell outlines how Dell intends to keep pace with a market moving faster than anyone can predict.
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In this interview from Dell Technologies World 2026 in Las Vegas, Geraldine Tunnell, chief marketing officer of Dell Technologies, theCUBE's John Furrier and theCUBE + NYSE Wired's Gemma Allen to discuss Dell's evolution as an AI-native company and the balance of human expertise with technology driving enterprise transformation. Tunnell reflects on the standout moments of the event — from Michael Dell and NVIDIA's Jensen Huang sharing the stage to customer sessions featuring Eli Lilly, Ascension and Samsung — underscoring how organizations are thinking bigger about the problems AI can solve. She notes that becoming AI-native is no longer optional and highlights how customer buying journeys are shifting as AI tools reshape research and shortlisting processes, pushing marketers to think beyond campaigns toward machine-readable content strategies.
The conversation also explores the human side of AI adoption, where Tunnell draws on a conversation with Zak Brown, chief executive officer of McLaren Racing. Brown credited technology with helping lift the team from the bottom of the standings to back-to-back Constructors' Championships and a Drivers' Championship — while emphasizing that great drivers and strategists remain indispensable. Tunnell frames this as a direct parallel for enterprise AI: infrastructure provides the foundation, but humans must still make the strategic calls. She shares Dell's internal marketing philosophy of prioritizing progress over perfection while striving for excellence as the mindset enabling its own AI-native transition. From taking Dell Technologies World to 40-plus cities globally through Dell Technologies Forums to staying relentlessly close to customer needs, Tunnell outlines how Dell intends to keep pace with a market moving faster than anyone can predict.
>> Welcome back to theCUBE coverage here on the ground in Las Vegas. It's Dell Technology World 2026. I am joined by my co-host, John Furrier, and joining us now is a woman who really brought this whole moment together Gerri Tunnel, Chief Marketing Officer at Dell. Welcome, Gerri.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, it's great to be here. Thank you both for having me.
Gemma Allen
>> So I imagine a week like this, the buildup to this, the amount of sweat and tears that goes in from you and your team, Gerri, is something, right? Talk to us about some favorite moments so far.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Ooh. Well, there's so many favorite moments, and I think I was talking to you before, without a doubt a week like this, you lose your voice. But listen, it started off yesterday with Michael and Jensen. What a great moment with both of them and the customers on stage. As a marketer, I love hearing from places, Eli Lilly, Ascension, Samsung. It's just wonderful to see how they're using AI and beginning to think so big on problems that they can solve. And today, capped off with Jeff, who talked all about our portfolio and we had lots of fun stuff intermingled. I got to talk to Eli and Peyton Manning all about how they've navigated going from football to a media superstar and powerhouse. So, man, it's two days, but it feels like two weeks.
John Furrier
>> I think they get better ratings than the main ESPN channel because everyone wants to watch their channels.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> They do. You can't go back to watching regular football, I think, after you hear them. And they were just so lovely and talked about how they've navigated such a change and what they've learned through it. And it's a great corollary for all of our customers as they think about navigating such a big change like AI.
John Furrier
>> I thought Dave Morin's moment, Gerri, was really fantastic because it struck me on a personal level because I remember when I had my first PC, but I remember when the internet came out, he told this personal story where he says, "I was moved." And he say, "I could see the future." Talking about OpenClaw and his relationship to Dell, and it felt personal. And he wasn't talking about a personal computer. He was talking about the AI. He felt that and it motivated him. That, to me, was a very, very big one.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> And his first computer was a Dell, which we loved. And I loved how we talked about this moment felt as dramatic for him as that first time. The opportunity with all the different workloads and the things they're changing and doing it in a great partnership, it's exciting.
John Furrier
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> My first computer was a Dell, too, Gerri. I can tell you. So moments like this, they happen because of one thing and that is great customers, loyal supporters. Dell has done a phenomenal job over the years of building a very loyal and very dedicated customer base. It's an interesting time though in the market. A lot is changing and a lot is moving fast, and I'm sure the marketing narratives are also moving and changing fast. Talk to us about what you're hearing week on week from your customers in the field, especially as we think about this move from experimentation to deployment to realize value from AI.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Mm-hmm. Well, one of my favorite things is I'll steal a line from Jeff who knows it all, but he says, "Really, you've got to become an AI-native company right now." And I think that doesn't matter how big or how small you are, but how do you transform at this moment? And you hear that from customers. And one of the things I also love hearing about as a marketer especially is how their buying journey is changing with AI. So it's not just their internal workloads they're thinking about transforming, but they also have to think about their very own customers. How do they buy differently? Now, lots of journeys and purchases start directly with different AI tools, how they research, how they begin to think about it, shortlisting products and vendors. So for me, that's one of the really exciting things as a marketer, not just to think about how do we do things differently, but how also do we make sure our customers know how their buying kind of journeys are changing in this new world because it's all a brand new landscape to navigate.
John Furrier
>> I love that line that Jeff said. And Gemma, you said something earlier, meet people where they are. The other thing he mentioned was cool, I thought, was the partner relationships you guys have, not just customers speak their language and they want AI-native. That could be marketing campaign, that could be a go-to-market, a sales motion, a build process. But you guys have a lot of partners. You have co-build design partners, you got ecosystem partners, and he was saying you got to be AI-native in that relationship. That was even cool. I mean, to me, that's where it gets deeper.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> It does. Well, I even think about as a marketer how we change is we have to think about not only how do I market and have a great campaign and great experiences like this at Dell Technologies World, but then, how do I think about the content that I give to AI tools, right? How do I make sure there's machine-readable content? How do I think about all those and being able to be read by machines as well as great experiences with people?
John Furrier
>> You know, you guys have done a great job over the past three years engineering AI-native progression at all levels, marketing, product, everything. And the message here is that companies have to figure out how to do that. Michael says the gap's going to extend, do it now. So my question for you is from your standpoint, from your department and the marketing side, but also more broadly at Dell, what was that readiness like and what separates companies from being like ready, ready and to implement it? Because this is, I think, will be a case study. I won't use the word "transformation," but an engineering for the modern era.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, I will say it really starts by just kind of jumping in on full worth. In my marketing team, we have kind of a slogan that says, "Progress over perfection, but striving for excellence." So getting out there, trying new things, trying new tools, new workload. And I really think that that's the spirit that Michael himself embodies, an entrepreneur at heart and always want to make sure that if you're not transforming, you're not going in the right direction. He said it yesterday, but it's existential. You want to become an AI-native company because that's the important moment right now with customers.
Gemma Allen
>> When we think about the word "existential," that's also getting a lot of headlines right now, especially when we think about the human element, the human-in-the-loop side of AI. And we know that there's so many folks here that have built a career in tech, have been in this industry a long time and there's like emotional ping-pong happening in people's heads, right? Am I ready? What's going to look like five years from now? How do you think about that from a marketing perspective, Gerri, especially managing, I suppose, expectation with opportunity, with even a bit of inertia that's still festers a little bit?
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, you have to do both. I always tell people it's not one or the other. You have to have great people and a great culture and great technology to do that. I got this week to talk with Zak Brown. He is actually the CEO of McLaren Racing, for any race fans. They won two Constructors' Championships and a Drivers' Championship last year. But I think what he talks about how technology is the basis of how he really took the team from the bottom of the stack to the top, but he also needs great drivers, great strategists. And that's really how I think a great analogy for how we think about AI, too. You need to have great technology, you've got to have your data secured, you've got to have all those right tools on top of it, but it's great people and humans that have to make the strategic calls, sometimes be in the driver's seat, and the combination is what's powerful.
Gemma Allen
>> We know that this is a time where everyone feels the need to say that they're ready, to say that they're ahead, to posture to a market that's, again, being led by a narrative. We also know that there are some folks in some spaces where there is still some work to do. How do you at Dell think about that from the perspective of a vendor strategy? Who's ready, who's not ready and what does that truly look like as you, again, try and stay at pace with this market?
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, I think staying at pace really is how do we just stay close to navigating it with our customers? I mean, Michael says it first, but like we've got big ears, and I think in this journey of AI, how do we work with them on the right solution for what they need? And that's all about, then, the great ecosystem of partners that we have, but getting the right solution for our customers, making sure it does what they need to do for their business. To me, as long as we're keeping that center and forefront, that's ultimately what keeps you ahead in the industry and we get to keep doing great things like we are now.
Gemma Allen
>> Great. Well, Gerri, talk to us a little bit about what the next few days still look like for you. I'm sure you have a busy week ahead yet, but also what's ahead for you and your team? What does the next year look like? When we're back here, hopefully in 2027, what can we expect?
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, there's nothing. It's all going so fast right now. I think people say you can't even think about the next couple weeks, the next couple months because every day you get to open up and learn something new that's going on in the technology field. I think what we're excited about, at least for the next couple days, is we've got some great kind of celebrations with our customers and team tonight. We've got Keith Urban tomorrow night on stage. I think then we actually take Dell Technologies World on the road. We've got Dell Technologies forums. We go to 40-plus different cities around the globe and do a smaller version of Dell Technologies World for people that want to stay more local. And so we'll do those for the rest of this year, and then as we start back the year, we'll be back in Vegas next year.
John Furrier
>> You might have to have bigger events given the product cycles we're seeing. I heard on stage you might have to do a Dell Tech World every three months.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> We do.
John Furrier
>> I mean-
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, we've got lots of-...
John Furrier
>> tsunami. ...
Geraldine Tunnell
>> .
Gemma Allen
>> Well, hopefully-
Geraldine Tunnell
>> We do....
Gemma Allen
>> Gerri, we might catch you in New York.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> I would love to.
Gemma Allen
>> I also-
Geraldine Tunnell
>> I would love to....
Gemma Allen
>> Gerri Tunnell, thank you-
John Furrier
>> Thank you....
Gemma Allen
>> so much for joining us on theCUBE.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Thank you so much. Great to be here.
Gemma Allen
>> I'm Gemma Allen here with theCUBE. We are live on the ground in Las Vegas covering Dell Technology World 2026. We have some great guests and some great conversations coming up. Stay tuned.
>> Welcome back to theCUBE coverage here on the ground in Las Vegas. It's Dell Technology World 2026. I am joined by my co-host, John Furrier, and joining us now is a woman who really brought this whole moment together Gerri Tunnel, Chief Marketing Officer at Dell. Welcome, Gerri.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, it's great to be here. Thank you both for having me.
Gemma Allen
>> So I imagine a week like this, the buildup to this, the amount of sweat and tears that goes in from you and your team, Gerri, is something, right? Talk to us about some favorite moments so far.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Ooh. Well, there's so many favorite moments, and I think I was talking to you before, without a doubt a week like this, you lose your voice. But listen, it started off yesterday with Michael and Jensen. What a great moment with both of them and the customers on stage. As a marketer, I love hearing from places, Eli Lilly, Ascension, Samsung. It's just wonderful to see how they're using AI and beginning to think so big on problems that they can solve. And today, capped off with Jeff, who talked all about our portfolio and we had lots of fun stuff intermingled. I got to talk to Eli and Peyton Manning all about how they've navigated going from football to a media superstar and powerhouse. So, man, it's two days, but it feels like two weeks.
John Furrier
>> I think they get better ratings than the main ESPN channel because everyone wants to watch their channels.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> They do. You can't go back to watching regular football, I think, after you hear them. And they were just so lovely and talked about how they've navigated such a change and what they've learned through it. And it's a great corollary for all of our customers as they think about navigating such a big change like AI.
John Furrier
>> I thought Dave Morin's moment, Gerri, was really fantastic because it struck me on a personal level because I remember when I had my first PC, but I remember when the internet came out, he told this personal story where he says, "I was moved." And he say, "I could see the future." Talking about OpenClaw and his relationship to Dell, and it felt personal. And he wasn't talking about a personal computer. He was talking about the AI. He felt that and it motivated him. That, to me, was a very, very big one.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> And his first computer was a Dell, which we loved. And I loved how we talked about this moment felt as dramatic for him as that first time. The opportunity with all the different workloads and the things they're changing and doing it in a great partnership, it's exciting.
John Furrier
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> My first computer was a Dell, too, Gerri. I can tell you. So moments like this, they happen because of one thing and that is great customers, loyal supporters. Dell has done a phenomenal job over the years of building a very loyal and very dedicated customer base. It's an interesting time though in the market. A lot is changing and a lot is moving fast, and I'm sure the marketing narratives are also moving and changing fast. Talk to us about what you're hearing week on week from your customers in the field, especially as we think about this move from experimentation to deployment to realize value from AI.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Mm-hmm. Well, one of my favorite things is I'll steal a line from Jeff who knows it all, but he says, "Really, you've got to become an AI-native company right now." And I think that doesn't matter how big or how small you are, but how do you transform at this moment? And you hear that from customers. And one of the things I also love hearing about as a marketer especially is how their buying journey is changing with AI. So it's not just their internal workloads they're thinking about transforming, but they also have to think about their very own customers. How do they buy differently? Now, lots of journeys and purchases start directly with different AI tools, how they research, how they begin to think about it, shortlisting products and vendors. So for me, that's one of the really exciting things as a marketer, not just to think about how do we do things differently, but how also do we make sure our customers know how their buying kind of journeys are changing in this new world because it's all a brand new landscape to navigate.
John Furrier
>> I love that line that Jeff said. And Gemma, you said something earlier, meet people where they are. The other thing he mentioned was cool, I thought, was the partner relationships you guys have, not just customers speak their language and they want AI-native. That could be marketing campaign, that could be a go-to-market, a sales motion, a build process. But you guys have a lot of partners. You have co-build design partners, you got ecosystem partners, and he was saying you got to be AI-native in that relationship. That was even cool. I mean, to me, that's where it gets deeper.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> It does. Well, I even think about as a marketer how we change is we have to think about not only how do I market and have a great campaign and great experiences like this at Dell Technologies World, but then, how do I think about the content that I give to AI tools, right? How do I make sure there's machine-readable content? How do I think about all those and being able to be read by machines as well as great experiences with people?
John Furrier
>> You know, you guys have done a great job over the past three years engineering AI-native progression at all levels, marketing, product, everything. And the message here is that companies have to figure out how to do that. Michael says the gap's going to extend, do it now. So my question for you is from your standpoint, from your department and the marketing side, but also more broadly at Dell, what was that readiness like and what separates companies from being like ready, ready and to implement it? Because this is, I think, will be a case study. I won't use the word "transformation," but an engineering for the modern era.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, I will say it really starts by just kind of jumping in on full worth. In my marketing team, we have kind of a slogan that says, "Progress over perfection, but striving for excellence." So getting out there, trying new things, trying new tools, new workload. And I really think that that's the spirit that Michael himself embodies, an entrepreneur at heart and always want to make sure that if you're not transforming, you're not going in the right direction. He said it yesterday, but it's existential. You want to become an AI-native company because that's the important moment right now with customers.
Gemma Allen
>> When we think about the word "existential," that's also getting a lot of headlines right now, especially when we think about the human element, the human-in-the-loop side of AI. And we know that there's so many folks here that have built a career in tech, have been in this industry a long time and there's like emotional ping-pong happening in people's heads, right? Am I ready? What's going to look like five years from now? How do you think about that from a marketing perspective, Gerri, especially managing, I suppose, expectation with opportunity, with even a bit of inertia that's still festers a little bit?
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, you have to do both. I always tell people it's not one or the other. You have to have great people and a great culture and great technology to do that. I got this week to talk with Zak Brown. He is actually the CEO of McLaren Racing, for any race fans. They won two Constructors' Championships and a Drivers' Championship last year. But I think what he talks about how technology is the basis of how he really took the team from the bottom of the stack to the top, but he also needs great drivers, great strategists. And that's really how I think a great analogy for how we think about AI, too. You need to have great technology, you've got to have your data secured, you've got to have all those right tools on top of it, but it's great people and humans that have to make the strategic calls, sometimes be in the driver's seat, and the combination is what's powerful.
Gemma Allen
>> We know that this is a time where everyone feels the need to say that they're ready, to say that they're ahead, to posture to a market that's, again, being led by a narrative. We also know that there are some folks in some spaces where there is still some work to do. How do you at Dell think about that from the perspective of a vendor strategy? Who's ready, who's not ready and what does that truly look like as you, again, try and stay at pace with this market?
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, I think staying at pace really is how do we just stay close to navigating it with our customers? I mean, Michael says it first, but like we've got big ears, and I think in this journey of AI, how do we work with them on the right solution for what they need? And that's all about, then, the great ecosystem of partners that we have, but getting the right solution for our customers, making sure it does what they need to do for their business. To me, as long as we're keeping that center and forefront, that's ultimately what keeps you ahead in the industry and we get to keep doing great things like we are now.
Gemma Allen
>> Great. Well, Gerri, talk to us a little bit about what the next few days still look like for you. I'm sure you have a busy week ahead yet, but also what's ahead for you and your team? What does the next year look like? When we're back here, hopefully in 2027, what can we expect?
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, there's nothing. It's all going so fast right now. I think people say you can't even think about the next couple weeks, the next couple months because every day you get to open up and learn something new that's going on in the technology field. I think what we're excited about, at least for the next couple days, is we've got some great kind of celebrations with our customers and team tonight. We've got Keith Urban tomorrow night on stage. I think then we actually take Dell Technologies World on the road. We've got Dell Technologies forums. We go to 40-plus different cities around the globe and do a smaller version of Dell Technologies World for people that want to stay more local. And so we'll do those for the rest of this year, and then as we start back the year, we'll be back in Vegas next year.
John Furrier
>> You might have to have bigger events given the product cycles we're seeing. I heard on stage you might have to do a Dell Tech World every three months.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> We do.
John Furrier
>> I mean-
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Well, we've got lots of-...
John Furrier
>> tsunami. ...
Geraldine Tunnell
>> .
Gemma Allen
>> Well, hopefully-
Geraldine Tunnell
>> We do....
Gemma Allen
>> Gerri, we might catch you in New York.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> I would love to.
Gemma Allen
>> I also-
Geraldine Tunnell
>> I would love to....
Gemma Allen
>> Gerri Tunnell, thank you-
John Furrier
>> Thank you....
Gemma Allen
>> so much for joining us on theCUBE.
Geraldine Tunnell
>> Thank you so much. Great to be here.
Gemma Allen
>> I'm Gemma Allen here with theCUBE. We are live on the ground in Las Vegas covering Dell Technology World 2026. We have some great guests and some great conversations coming up. Stay tuned.
Gemma Allen
Geraldine Tunnell
John Furrier