CDW CEO: AI complexity is driving demand for infrastructure, security and services

“As customers move from AI experimentation to pilots to implementation to scaling, we are capturing opportunities today across infrastructure, security, data integration, and ongoing lifecycle support,” said Christine Leahy

CDW chair and CEO Christine Leahy said AI is reshaping customer demand, turning AI readiness, security and governance into major growth opportunities as organisations move beyond pilots and confront the complexity of deploying AI at scale.

In her prepared remarks Wednesday for CDW’s Q2 FY26, Leahy tied the company’s record quarterly net sales, gross profit and non-GAAP earnings per share to continued customer investment in infrastructure modernisation, cloud, security and AI readiness.

The organisation reported net sales for the quarter of $6.6bn (£4.9bn), up ten per cent over the same period last year.

The biggest AI infrastructure moves are coming first from CDW’s largest customers, Leahy said, echoing previous technology shifts in which hardware investment leads before services, software and lifecycle opportunities scale more broadly.

“As AI adds complexity across the technology landscape, that need has never been greater,” Leahy said.

“Customers increasingly recognise that AI is not a point solution. It’s an architectural challenge. AI workloads span on-premises, public cloud, edge and hybrid environments. And as AI scales, organisations must integrate complex technology environments while managing security, governance and risk.”

Leahy positioned CDW as the orchestrator customers need to pull those pieces together.

“The strategic implication is straightforward,

“AI increases our relevance because it increases complexity.

“As customers move from AI experimentation to pilots to implementation to scaling, we are capturing opportunities today across infrastructure, security, data integration and ongoing lifecycle support.”

AI-related demand showed up across CDW’s business in the quarter.

Corporate customers invested in infrastructure modernisation, cloud initiatives and AI readiness.

Healthcare customers drove demand tied to AI-enabled claims management and clinical documentation.

Across CDW’s full-stack offering, modernisation, AI readiness and resilience helped push hardware revenue up ten per cent, with server, storage and networking all delivering healthy double-digit growth.

Cloud and security also benefited from the AI push.

Leahy said customers are modernising applications, evaluating AI and optimising hybrid environments.

Security posted double-digit revenue and gross profit growth as customers worked to protect increasingly advanced architectures and strengthen governance and compliance.

When Leahy was asked during the Q&A session what kind of impact she expects CDW to see from ongoing customer adoption of AI, she replied that while the company sees AI gaining traction most strongly in the enterprise segment, it is also seeing broader adoption across all industries and customer segments.

“We’re at the point where we are taking use cases that are proven and working in various industries and scaling them into repeatable offerings for customers,” she said.

“In terms of what it’s doing to our business, look, we’re not sharing dollars per se, but we perceive that AI is part and parcel of most of what we’re selling, from the hardware itself to the software implementation, and certainly in the services that we’re bringing to bear.

“It’s really a full-stack approach to the technology movement.”

Customers are also working hard on measuring return on investment and taking a more deliberate and thoughtful approach to AI analysis, Leahy said.

“We’re incredibly well positioned because CDW has never been about one technology or one part of the stack. It’s been about bringing those things together so that they work together, and AI is a great opportunity for us to do this,” she added.

When asked how services around AI will impact CDW’s business, Leahy said her company is seeing significant demand around infrastructure, cloud, security and data foundations.

“When you think about the adoption curve, which is going to be multi-year and not a single product, that requires readiness, it requires deployment, it requires integration, it requires optimisation and ongoing operations. Services is in every single component of those requirements.”

When asked whether CDW is seeing increased interest from frontier model companies looking for exposure to its customer base, Leahy said CDW has been making strong progress engaging with AI labs.

“We’ve been through this cycle before where new partners come on board, and they have to sort through the value of the channel,” she said.

“I would say that the AI labs have found very quickly that the channel is a friend, and it’s a great route to market for them.

“We have seen terrific progress in partner programmes, relationships and investment from them to bring their capabilities to market.

“Particularly the mid-market is a significant opportunity from a scale perspective. Our vertical segment is also a very attractive end market for the AI labs.”

This article originally appeared on CRN UK sister website CRN.