Dell Deskside Agentic AI Brings Secure Autonomous Agents to the Enterprise Desktop

Unlike cloud‑only AI deployments, the system is designed to operate directly on deskside workstations, allowing teams to develop, test, and run AI agents close to the data and applications they use every day.

The platform is capable of handling a wide range of AI models—reportedly from tens of billions to up to around one trillion parameters—on high‑performance workstation hardware connected to the broader Dell AI infrastructure stack.

In practical terms, this allows organizations to:

• Develop and test AI agents locally
• Run automated workflows against internal data
• Deploy production‑grade agent systems without sending data to external cloud services

NVIDIA Technologies Powering the Platform

The deskside system is built in collaboration with NVIDIA and integrates several of the company’s AI technologies.

NVIDIA NemoClaw provides a secure operational layer for running autonomous agents locally, allowing enterprises to build and manage agents while keeping sensitive data inside their own environment.

NVIDIA OpenShell is integrated across the Dell AI Factory platform and provides a sandboxed runtime environment for building, testing, and operating AI agents. The same runtime can extend from deskside workstations to larger Dell server systems in the data center.

Together, these technologies allow organizations to start with local AI development and then scale workloads across enterprise infrastructure without changing the underlying software environment.

Why Dell Is Emphasizing Local AI

A central theme of Dell’s announcement is the ability to run AI close to enterprise data.

Running agentic AI locally can help address several enterprise concerns:

Data protection and sovereignty
AI agents can operate directly on on‑premises data without sending sensitive information to external cloud services. This reduces exposure risks and helps organizations meet regulatory or compliance requirements.

Lower latency and faster workflows
Local inference reduces the delays associated with remote cloud processing, which can improve performance for interactive or automated tasks.

Predictable AI costs
Cloud AI workloads can produce variable operating expenses. Running AI locally allows organizations to manage infrastructure costs more directly and avoid some unpredictable cloud consumption charges.

Dell has suggested the approach could deliver significant savings compared with cloud‑only AI deployments, depending on workloads and infrastructure usage.

Who the Solution Is Designed For

Dell positioned Deskside Agentic AI for enterprise teams and workgroups that want production‑ready AI capabilities near their data and applications.

Examples include:

• Software engineering teams building internal AI agents
• Data teams analyzing enterprise datasets
• Organizations with strict data‑sovereignty requirements
• Industries handling sensitive information such as finance, healthcare, or government

The goal is to give teams a local development and deployment environment that can later scale into larger AI infrastructure as workloads grow.

Scaling From Deskside to Data Center

One of the defining ideas behind the Dell AI Factory architecture is that organizations can start small and scale.

With OpenShell integrated across the platform, the same agentic AI workloads can move from deskside systems to Dell PowerEdge servers in the data center, maintaining consistent security policies and runtime environments.

This “deskside‑to‑data‑center” path is intended to make it easier for companies to transition AI projects from development and pilot stages into full production deployments.

Other AI Infrastructure Announcements at Dell Technologies World 2026

Dell introduced Deskside Agentic AI alongside several related AI infrastructure and ecosystem updates.

Key announcements included:

Expansion of the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA
The company unveiled new infrastructure and ecosystem integrations designed to accelerate enterprise AI adoption. More than 5,000 customers were already using the platform at the time of the event.

Dell AI Data Platform enhancements
New capabilities were announced to help enterprises prepare and manage data for AI workloads, including updates to the AIDP Data Engine and previews of new data orchestration technologies.

Broader partner ecosystem
Dell also expanded partnerships across its AI ecosystem, including deeper collaboration with NVIDIA and work with other partners involved in enterprise AI development and deployment.

Availability

Dell announced the Deskside Agentic AI system at Dell Technologies World 2026 in Las Vegas (May 18–21, 2026).

Public reports of the announcement do not specify an exact general availability date or pricing for the deskside solution at the time of the event.

The Bigger Picture: The Rise of “Agentic AI” Infrastructure

The announcement reflects a broader shift in enterprise AI—from isolated generative‑AI tools toward autonomous agent systems capable of executing complex workflows across enterprise data and applications.

Dell’s strategy is to provide the infrastructure layer for those systems, allowing companies to run AI agents securely from the desk where decisions are made to the data center where they scale.

If that model gains traction, deskside AI systems like this could become a key step in the pipeline for building enterprise‑grade AI agents—bridging development, experimentation, and full‑scale production deployments.