Episode summary
What Makes a Company Exponential in the Age of AI? — With Anthony Pappas
Big Technology Podcast
· · 44 min · Guests: Anthony Pappas
Summary
Anthony Pappas argues that AI makes a company “exponential” only when it changes the whole operating model, not when it is bolted onto existing workflows. For DXC Technology, that means speed, quality, and scale, with processes rebuilt so teams spend less time searching for information and more time using it. He says the real shift is moving from a system where people work through software to one where AI helps them ask complex questions across many systems and get answers quickly.
He says DXC applied that idea first in marketing, where the team had to rebrand the company, generate demand, and connect activity to revenue. Using a governed, production-grade setup across tools like Claude, AWS, Copilot, ChatGPT, and internal layers, the team built its own dashboard and content engine rather than waiting for outside software. Pappas says that in about 9 months the team reorganized around AI, tracked net-new leads to total contract value, and saved $15 million.
He also says the key discipline is token economics: the team uses a calculator to estimate AI costs before running workloads, choosing cheaper models for drafts and more expensive ones only when the output is worth it. Looking ahead, he thinks existing enterprise systems like CRM and analytics will remain, but the valuable layer will be the custom AI interface built on top of them.
Key takeaways
- Pappas says an exponential enterprise is defined by speed, quality, and scale, not by simply adding AI pilots.
- DXC’s marketing team used AI to rebuild its workflow and says it tracked more than a billion dollars in net-new leads on a quarterly basis.
- Pappas says the company saved $15 million by reducing outside dependencies and building internal tools.
- He says DXC controls token spend with a calculator that estimates costs before running models or agents.
- Pappas thinks existing enterprise systems will stay, but the AI layer above them will become more customized to each company.
Notable quotes
“speed, quality, and scale. That's really what makes an enterprise truly exponential”
“we spend 80% of our time seeking and finding information and 20 maybe 20 or even less 10% of our time actually doing something with it”
“my outcome dramatically changed and I'll use your words um of this knowledge economy”
“we built our own token calculator based on the models that we use”
“I also saved $15 million right out of the gate”
How the episode opens
In the age of AI, what makes a company exponential? Let's talk about it with Anthony Papus, the chief marketing officer of DXE Technology in a conversation brought to you by DXE Technology. Anthony, great to see you. Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Alex. I appreciate you having me here right now.
Yeah. No, it's great to be here with you. And u for the audience, this is going to kick off a series of videos that we're doing here on the channel that are going to focus on uh big technologies guide to AI.
So, we're going to do this in partnership with DXE. We're going to talk about lots of interesting things, including enterprise agents and plenty more. Cyber security is another one of our segments.
And so, these will continue to drop on the feed through the year. Uh, and Anthony, um, would just love to hear your perspective. You know, you're you, um, at DXC, you talk about the exponential enterprise, right?
And it is interesting because the technology seems to be moving in an exponential, right? There's no doubt about that. uh the technology is moving fast and the innovations are happening faster than many of us could pay attention to.
Um but doesn't mean companies necessarily will track with uh the pace of change. So your company thinks a lot about what makes an enterprise exponential. Um so what does that look like in practice?
It's it's a really interesting time. Um it's an exciting time for us in technology, but it's also if you're a fan and and you've watched the evolutions, it's it's um unprecedented to be honest. And I think you hit the nail on the head. The technology can move at pace, but really enterprises need to evolve and and and move at pace.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai agents
- token cost control
- building vs buying ai tools
- marketing operations transformation
- measurable business results
Companies and tickers mentioned
- DXC
- DXC Technology
Watch the episode
Watch “What Makes a Company Exponential in the Age of AI? — With Anthony Pappas” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Big Technology Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to Alex Kantrowitz. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
