Mayuri Saikia on Dell's human-centric approach to marketing AI

Artificial intelligence has steadily moved from tech buzzword to everyday reality, and electronics companies are now racing to showcase AI capabilities in their marketing campaigns. Dell Technologies India has embraced this shift with its latest ‘Back to School’ campaign, taking a human approach to showcasing its AI-powered PCs. Mayuri Saikia, Director of Marketing (Consumer and Small Business) at Dell Technologies India, has observed that consumers are actively seeking out AI PCs.

This growing demand has inspired electronics brands like Dell to focus their messaging on making AI benefits tangible and relatable to everyday users. At the heart of the brand's campaign lies a simple question: do consumers truly understand what an AI PC enables them to do? 

To answer this, Dell collaborated with agency partner VML India to create seven short stories under the tagline ‘Discover More with AI.’ Each story reflects a genuine student moment, from a girl with extended battery life on a field trip to twins discovering facial recognition security features, and students using AI-powered note-taking during brainstorming sessions. 

The brand has identified seven common use-cases or moments in students' lives and connected them to the specific features and benefits of its AI-enabled laptops, according to Saikia.

She mentions that the campaign aims to demystifying technology, particularly for younger consumers navigating a world increasingly powered by AI. Rather than focusing on complex technical jargon, it has opted for storytelling that emphasises how its AI features solve everyday problems and enhance experiences. Saikia wants the brand’s AI products to add value, but as a true enabler. 

In this interaction, Saikia also talks about the objective behind its latest campaign, how the brand is positioning itself in an increasingly AI-centric world, its media mix and more.

Edited Excerpts:

Let’s start with the heart of the campaign. What was the core insight or trigger behind Dell’s latest ‘Back to School’ campaign? What are the campaigns about, and how did you decide on using real-world student-led stories to reflect the role of AI-powered PCs?

Let me start by stepping back and talking about Dell as a brand. At our core, we want to provide best-in-class experiences to our customers. That’s the foundation of everything we do: using technology to drive human progress.

With that customer-first mindset and our focus on innovation, we wanted to showcase how Dell’s AI-powered PCs can genuinely impact daily life. We’ve all been hearing a lot about AI, but the way people understand and use it can vary widely. So we asked ourselves: if someone is buying an AI PC, do they truly understand what it enables them to do? That became the core insight behind this campaign: to make the benefits of AI relatable and tangible, especially for students.

We identified seven common use cases or moments in students’ lives and connected them to the specific features and benefits of our AI-enabled laptops. This became the basis of our 'Back to School' and 'Back to College' campaigns. The idea was to show how these products can elevate productivity and enhance everyday experiences.

The campaign was conceptualised with our agency partner VML India. Together, we brainstormed everyday student moments and brought them to life through seven short stories, all tied together under the tagline ‘Discover More with AI’.

For instance, one story is about a girl going on a field trip. She forgets her tiffin and charging cable, but later realises she doesn’t need the cable because her Dell AI PC has a long battery life, enough to keep her unplugged for the entire trip.

Another one, called 'Faces', is about twin sisters. One tries to unlock her sister’s laptop, but fails because of the strong facial recognition and security features, something many of us with siblings can relate to.

Then there’s 'Poses', where a group of students takes a graduation picture, but one girl misses the jump. Thanks to easy AI-powered editing tools, she seamlessly adds herself in. It highlights how you don’t need to be a Photoshop expert anymore to make memories perfect.

There’s also 'Notes', where students are brainstorming ideas. While everyone is talking, the AI laptop takes notes automatically. This shows how Copilot+ and AI-generated captions can boost productivity without needing someone to manually type everything out.

Each of these stories is drawn from real life, moments all of us can relate to, and demonstrates how Dell’s AI PCs support and enhance them. 

There’s an increasing emphasis on AI features in technology advertisements. How are you positioning AI in your marketing as a core USP or an enhancement?

AI is becoming an integral part of our everyday lives, not just for students, but for all of us. When you use an AI-powered PC, your productivity naturally increases. Whether it’s taking notes during brainstorming sessions, editing photos effortlessly, or relying on extended battery life, these features make a real difference.

We’re positioning AI not just as a value-add, but as a true enabler. It’s still early days for many people in terms of understanding AI, but once they experience the benefits firsthand, they begin to see it almost like a dependable companion, one that helps them work smarter and faster.

Many brands talk about AI but struggle to make the benefits relatable. How do you decide if an AI feature is “marketing worthy”? How do you ensure your AI messaging is translated into real consumer value, especially in ads or retail experiences?

That’s exactly what we set out to address in our storytelling. AI can often feel abstract or filled with jargon, and we’ve seen that in the way it’s traditionally communicated. Even in our previous campaign during the festive season, we showed how AI could generate something as simple and fun as a recipe through prompts, making the concept more engaging and hands-on.

This time, our focus was on simplifying the idea of an AI PC. What is it really? How does it help in everyday life? That was our biggest challenge and goal: to demystify it.

Take battery life, for instance. It’s one thing to say the device lasts longer, but how does that actually help you? We tried to answer that in relatable scenarios. For example, imagine children going camping. When they’re in a tent, there are no plug points, no charging cables around. Kids stay up watching movies, playing games, and in that situation, the long battery life of an AI PC becomes incredibly valuable. It means the device will last through the night without worry.

We also showed other practical use cases where features like AI-optimised battery life, security, and smart note-taking come into play. All these were communicated through simple, everyday stories that consumers can easily understand.

That was our biggest objective: to make sure people not only hear about the features but feel how those features fit into their real lives. Once you see the videos, you’ll notice how accessible the stories are. AI isn’t some complex, intimidating technology. It’s something that makes your daily tasks, like editing photos or videos, much simpler. And that’s exactly the message we aimed to get across.

Are there any changes in consumer behaviour or buying patterns you’ve noticed in the last academic cycle that surprised or intrigued your team?

Earlier, our focus was more on showcasing what AI could do, like generating recipes or creating images. But this time around, we’ve shifted the narrative to highlight the specific features of our AI PCs, not just AI in general, but how the features embedded in our devices truly make a difference.

What we’re noticing now is that consumers are actively seeking out AI PCs. While I may not have exact numbers to share at the moment, the trend is definitely emerging. People are beginning to understand the value of an AI PC and are starting to make purchasing decisions accordingly.

It’s still early days, of course, and this shift will take some time to fully take shape. But the momentum is building, and we can clearly see that interest in AI PCs is gaining ground.

How are you looking to evolve Dell’s market positioning in India in 2025, especially as consumer expectations from PCs are rapidly evolving with AI becoming mainstream?

We’re constantly tracking consumer behaviour. Our approach varies depending on the time of year and who our target audience is at that moment. While we always have ongoing communication around products and offers, because someone is always actively searching, we also ensure that the right information is easily accessible to help them make informed decisions.

In our latest campaign, we've adapted to shifting content consumption patterns. Today, whether it’s school or college students, young professionals, or even adults, everyone prefers short-form content. People are engaging more with 6, 10, or 20-second videos. So, instead of packing multiple features into a single video, we’ve focused each short video on just one feature and its benefit. That makes it simpler and more impactful for the viewer.

We rely heavily on data, insights, and brainstorming to shape both our messaging and how we reach consumers. That’s why, for now, our campaign strategy is focused on storytelling through short formats, emphasising one clear benefit at a time.

Of course, the landscape is very dynamic, so it’s hard to lay out a full-year plan. But for the coming months, this is the direction we’re taking.

What does your media mix look like? Are there any new platforms or emerging touchpoints you’re planning to explore?

We’re going heavy on digital for this campaign. It will run across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and OTT channels. You’ll also see the communication on-ground at our Dell Exclusive Stores and multi-brand retail outlets.

This is designed as a true omnichannel campaign. Our goal is to offer a seamless experience, whether a customer sees the communication online or in-store, they’ll be able to easily find the same product, the same offer. They can choose to buy it on Dell.com, visit a Dell Exclusive Store, or head to any of our large-format or multi-brand retail partners. The messaging and availability will be consistent across all touchpoints.

While the focus right now is digital, we are also exploring ways to integrate traditional media in the coming months. That part is still a work in progress.

In a landscape with shrinking attention spans, how does Dell plan to retain youth mindshare year-round, beyond traditional spikes like the academic calendar?

We’ve introduced initiatives like Gaming Fridays, which run online throughout the year. When we talk about the youth segment, a significant portion of them are gamers, some are amateurs, some are more serious, but most of them enjoy gaming in some form. Gaming Fridays are hosted on YouTube with gaming influencers, creating a space where the community can learn, engage, and play together.

In addition to that, we also have Gaming Saturdays at select Dell Exclusive Stores, especially those with dedicated gaming zones or enough space to host events. Students register, visit the store, and participate in live gaming sessions with influencers. It’s all about building community, bringing people together to play, interact, and most importantly, experience our products in action.

This initiative runs year-round, helping us stay consistently connected with students and gamers. Beyond this, our Student Purchase Program on Dell.com is also available throughout the year, offering students attractive deals anytime, not just during the back-to-school or back-to-college seasons. Of course, during those peak times, we do create more compelling offers to make purchasing easier, but our engagement with students remains continuous.

Finally, what’s one thing you think marketers often overlook when trying to connect with consumers?

From my perspective, it all starts with a consumer-first approach. If you truly put the consumer at the centre, everything else tends to fall into place.

But that only works when it’s backed by the right insights. It’s crucial to understand your audience inside out, their behaviour, the kind of content they consume, the products they’re looking for, the offers that appeal to them, and the platforms where they can be reached. Today, we’re fortunate to have access to a wealth of data that can guide these decisions.

Whether you’re targeting consumers or businesses, data helps you identify not just how to reach them, but also where and when to connect in the most effective way.

Given limited budgets and tight timelines, it becomes all the more important to maximise impact. And in today’s world, effective marketing is really all about how well you leverage data.

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