Dell Technologies Forum 2026 will take place at Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Johannesburg on 3 November, bringing together business and technology leaders to examine how organisations can scale artificial intelligence, modernise technology infrastructure and build more resilient digital environments.
The Forum comes as AI moves rapidly from experimentation into mainstream enterprise strategy. IDC forecasts that AI spending across EMEA will reach $319 billion in 2026, growing 19.2% year on year and more than three times faster than overall IT spending.
For South African organisations, this shift is creating new demands around infrastructure, data, security, governance and workplace technology as businesses look to move AI projects from pilot programmes into production.
Marc Layne, sales director of Dell Technologies South Africa, says the focus is increasingly moving from what AI can do to what organisations need in place to deploy it effectively.
“AI adoption has entered a new phase. For organisations in South Africa, the priority is no longer exploring what AI could make possible, but making sure the infrastructure, data, devices, security and governance foundations are ready to support it at scale.
“As AI becomes more deeply embedded in business operations, organisations also need to think carefully about how they maintain control over their data, strengthen cyber resilience and modernise their technology environments without adding unnecessary complexity.”
A key theme at Dell Technologies Forum Johannesburg will be scaling AI in real-world business environments, including the infrastructure and data architectures required to support increasingly demanding AI and analytics workloads.
The Forum will also examine sovereign AI and trusted data, an area becoming increasingly important as organisations consider where their data is stored, how it is governed and how AI systems can be deployed while meeting privacy, security and regulatory requirements.
Cyber resilience will form another part of the discussion, with organisations facing growing pressure to ensure data protection, recovery, security and governance are built into technology environments from the outset rather than added later.
The changing workplace will also feature prominently, including the role of AI PCs, intelligent devices and modern endpoints in supporting productivity, collaboration and security.
Layne says these technology decisions will increasingly influence how effectively organisations can translate AI investment into practical business value.
“The organisations that benefit most from AI will not necessarily be those that experiment with the most tools. They will be those that build the right foundations to use AI securely, responsibly and at scale while keeping technology investment aligned with business outcomes.”
Dell Technologies Forum Johannesburg will include presentations from Dell Technologies executives and specialists, customer discussions, live technology demonstrations and sessions examining developments across AI, infrastructure, data, cybersecurity and the modern workplace. Those interested in attending can now register for Dell Technologies Forum Johannesburg 2026, taking place on 3 November.