Three things I expect to see at Dell Technologies World 2026, and one I don’t
These are my predictions for the big talking points at this year’s Dell Technologies World
Dell Technologies World 2026 kicks off next week, running from 18-21 May at the Venetian Convention Center in Las Vegas.
The event is Dell Technologies’ big annual get together and we can expect to see new product reveals, partnerships, and strategies. I’ll be reporting live from the ground – you can keep up with all the coverage here – but ahead of the event kicking off here are [tktk] things I expect to see at Dell Technologies World 2026 and [tktk] I don’t.
The event is Dell Technologies’ big annual get together and we can expect to see new product reveals, partnerships, and strategies. I’ll be reporting live from the ground – you can keep up with all the coverage here – but ahead of the event kicking off here are three things I expect to see at Dell Technologies World 2026 and one I don’t.
New enterprise infrastructure
Dell Technologies has already been making hay in the AI PC market, but we’ve seen less movement in its infrastructure business.
Last Dell Technologies World, there were a few new cybersecurity features added to PowerStore, Data Domain, and PowerScale, but that’s not the same as new hardware. In 2024, there were some updates to the company’s NAS offerings but again, this was quite limited.
In recent months, however, the company blog has been leaning hard into the idea that data center hardware is key to the success of enterprises’ AI strategies. In March, the company published a joint blog with Nvidia and Schneider Electric highlighting the AI features of its PowerEdge servers.
That same month, the company’s VP of corporate strategy, strategy growth, and activation, Mindy Cancila, published a blog highlighting the need for scalable server solutions, the possible cost savings of running AI inference on-prem, and how important direct-to-chip cooling will be in the coming years.
Conveniently, this is something Dell Technologies’ servers, storage appliances, and other enterprise hardware can offer, so expect to see some significant enterprise hardware announcements this year.
AI factories and AI platforms
Dell’s partnership with Nvidia on AI factories has been a cornerstone of announcements both in 2024 and 2025. I can almost guarantee AI factories will get a mention – not just because of the announcement made at Nvidia’s own GTC conference in March, but also because Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is listed as one of the featured speakers.
Of course, Nvidia isn’t the only chipmaker Dell works with and on 7 May the company announced an expanded Dell AI Platform with AMD, as well as support for AMD Instinct MI350P PCIe GPUs in PowerEdge XE7745 and R7725 servers. While it’s not a given, there’s a good chance this deal will get a mention, even if there are no other big AMD-led announcements.
Agents, agents, agents
When I spoke to Dell CTO John Roese at Dell Technologies World 2025 for the ITPro Podcast, I asked him what the topic of conversation would be in 2026. Straight away he answered “agents, agents, agents”.
He’s certainly right that AI agents have been the talk of the IT sphere in the 12 months since then, for better or worse. Mainly worse. Indeed, there’s already been a very public snafu where an AI agent deleted a startup’s entire production database, as well as all backups.
Dell Technologies, however, is seemingly still optimistic on agents. With just days to go until the start of Dell Technologies World – and as I was writing this article – the company released some research it had jointly commissioned from IDC with Nvidia on the subject of governments’ appetite for agentic AI adoption.
According to the research, 71% of government decision makers believe agentic AI will “accelerate AI adoption in government”. However, it also goes on to outline concerns around sovereignty, privacy, security, and skills
No new laptops
In January 2025, Dell Technologies retired the Dell XPS, Latitude, Inspiron, and Precision laptop ranges in favor of a more streamlined (and arguably more confusing) naming convention. New devices would be named either Dell, Dell Pro, or Dell Pro Max, depending on device specs and capabilities.
12 months later – almost to the day – the XPS range experienced a Lazarus moment, with the company’s COO Jeff Clarke resurrecting it on stage at CES 2026.
According to Clarke, the company had listened to its customers and taken the decision in reaction to the still present demand for the device range.
You can read the full write-up of that product launch from our reviews editor, Bobby Hellard, here, but as a result I think it’s unlikely we’re going to see any major announcements on the laptop front.
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