AI & Emerging Technologies

CDW helps customers adopt AI and emerging technologies in practical, scalable, and responsible ways. Rather than taking a point solution approach, we align technology decisions to business outcomes, operational readiness, and long-term value. As the technology ecosystems our customers depend on grow increasingly complex, we guide customers from exploration to real-world deployments that drive impact.

We work closely with our technology partners to offer solutions that reflect the current state of AI, as well as source emerging technologies from trusted partners that show promise. We also are constantly evaluating new partners and guiding customers through the process of exploring early-stage innovations using guardrails that minimize risk.

Outside of AI, we develop ongoing emerging technology competency and adoption. Our teams actively work in fields where we see future customer impact, including quantum-resistant security, edge and distributed architectures, advanced connectivity, next generation computing models, and more.

CDW believes responsible AI adoption begins with clear principles and shared accountability. This approach is designed to protect confidential and sensitive data, maintain ethical standards aligned to The CDW Way Code, and strengthen our reputation for innovation and trustworthiness.

We help customers address AI-related security, privacy, compliance, and ethical risks through a structured approach that covers the full AI lifecycle from strategy and data readiness to integration, implementation, operations, and ongoing monitoring and management. Our approach includes:

Workshops and Strategy: Driving business alignment, acceptable-use frameworks, enterprise priorities, and practical adoption roadmaps.
AI Security and Governance: Solutions designed to enable customers to deploy and manage AI in a secure and compliant manner.
AI Data Center Infrastructure: Offering proven reference architectures for AI data center buildouts featuring AI-grade servers, storage, and networking.
Public Cloud AI Infrastructure: Fast starts, bundled use cases, and clear pathways to scale give our customers easy ways to get started with AI on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
AI-Ready Data: Helping customers validate, prepare, and govern the data that will flow through their AI models and applications.
AI Engineering: Designing and delivering custom AI applications and agentic automation.

Throughout our approach, we guide customers on responsible, secure, and compliant execution of their AI roadmaps, aligning desired business outcomes with achievable technology roadmaps. With these capabilities, CDW provides customers with flexible, resilient deployment models that balance cost, security, and performance.

Looking ahead, we are anchoring opportunities within AI and emerging technology in five major trends:

AI Everywhere:
Helping customers move from experimentation to real world solutions.

Outcome-Driven Solutions:
Delivering solutions that perform in customers’ environments and support business goals.

Cloud and Edge Convergence:
Optimizing hybrid architectures based on performance.

Managed Services Growth:
Creating long-term engagement and deeper insight for customers across the full lifecycle.

Cyber Resilience:
Focusing on continuity, recovery, and trust to boost innovation and decrease risk.

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Breakaway games

BreakAway Games, a healthcare simulation company, needed to enhance its virtual patient training system to make simulated patients behave more realistically and unpredictably, moving beyond textbook-perfect interactions. CDW built an AI solution to create more lifelike virtual patients, enabling rapid customization for specific curriculum requirements while eliminating the cost and scheduling burden of using patient actors. By designing the solution around actual healthcare training needs, we delivered a platform available 24/7 that better prepares medical students, nurses, and healthcare professionals for real-world patient interactions.

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