CDW CEO: AI Complexity Is Driving Demand For Infrastructure, Security And Services

‘AI increases our relevance because it increases complexity. And 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,’ says CDW Chair and CEO Christine Leahy.

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

In her prepared remarks Wednesday for CDW’s second fiscal quarter 2026, Leahy tied the company’s record quarterly net sales, gross profit, and non-GAAP earnings per share to continued customer investment in infrastructure modernization, cloud, security, and AI readiness. Vernon Hills, Ill.-based CDW, ranked No. 5 on CRN’s 2026 Solution Provider 500, reported net sales for the quarter of $6.6 billion, up 10 percent over the same period last year.

The biggest AI infrastructure moves are coming first from CDW’s largest customers, Leahy said, echoing prior 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 recognize 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, organizations 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,” Leahy said. “AI increases our relevance because it increases complexity. And 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 modernization, cloud initiatives and AI readiness. Healthcare customers drove demand tied to AI-enabled claims management and clinical documentation. Across CDW’s full-stack offering, modernization, AI readiness and resilience helped push hardware revenue up 10 percent, with server, storage and networking all delivering healthy double-digit growth.

Cloud and security also benefited from the AI push. Leahy said customers are modernizing applications, evaluating AI and optimizing 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 question-and-answer period what kind of impact she expects CDW to see from continuing customer adoption of AI, she replied that, while the company sees AI pick up most strongly first in the enterprise space, it is also seeing broadening acceptance 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 in 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. So it’s really a full-stack approach to the technology movement.”

Customers at the same time are working hard now on the return on investment and being more deliberate and thoughtful about the analysis around AI, Leahy said.

“Which, of course, plays to our strength with the variety of services and analysis and the solutions that we bring to bear,” she said. “What we are seeing is real focus on those use cases that move the needle in the various industries. … We really are starting to see use cases come to bear in ways that are going to scale more quickly than they have in the past, in our view. I’d simply say it’s a full-stack opportunity for us. We think 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.”

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

“So across the full portfolio,” she said. “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 optimization and ongoing operations. Services is in every single component of those requirements.”

When asked whether CDW is seeing increased interest on the part of frontier model companies looking for exposure to her company’s customer base, Leahy said that CDW has been making great progress in engaging with the 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. So we have seen terrific progress in partner programs, in relationships, and building investment from them, etc., to bring their capabilities to the market. Particularly mid-market is a significant focus from a scale opportunity perspective. Our vertical segment is also a very significantly attractive customer end market for the AI labs.”