Lenovo Partner Director: Navigate The Windows 10 EOS Conversation With AI, Security Focus

‘There is a different opportunity. AI is that opportunity,’ Lenovo’s Cassie Jeppson told solution providers.

Microsoft has an unusual present of sorts for Cassie Jeppson next year: the tech giant ends support for its Windows 10 operating system on Oct 14, 2025, right around Jeppson’s birthday.

Upgrading machines to Windows 11 will require work by solution providers, but Jeppson, director of North America programs, operations and strategy for Morrisville, N.C.-based computer maker Lenovo, proposed a more optimistic position for talking about Windows 11 with customers.

“There is a different opportunity,” Jeppson said Sunday on stage during the XChange March 2024 conference, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company. “AI is that opportunity.”

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Lenovo’s AI Opportunity

New devices with Microsoft Copilot transcribing meetings, allowing users to turn notes into presentations and other AI-powered features available with Microsoft’s latest OS should aid the customer conversation around upgrades.

Manuel Villa, president of San Antonio-based Lenovo partner VIA Technology, told CRN in an interview that he hasn’t started talking to customers yet about Windows 10 end of support, but all of his customers have voiced interest in AI. He sees Lenovo’s offerings around the emerging technology as top tier.

“Everyone is interested in AI,” Villa said. “But they are so confused by what it means. We’re here to help them.”

Villa said he expects his business with the computer maker to grow this year, with customers’ AI interest a big contributing factor.

Jeppson put the number of four-year-old devices in North America at 31 million, with 70 percent of them running Windows 10 and thus in need of the OS upgrade.

Along with AI, Windows 11 is positioned as an advancement over Windows 10 due to improved threat protection and data loss prevention.

Jeppson told the crowd that 42 percent of small businesses have revised their cybersecurity plans since the COVID-19 pandemic and positioned Lenovo’s ThinkShield security offering as attractive to solution providers.

“SMBs make up over 41 percent of the data breaches,” she said. “But large enterprises are spending more and more on their cybersecurity and adopting those more robust frameworks. Modern businesses are operating around the clock. SMBs are doing it 24/7. And so that data is accessible from anywhere. And a new version of ‘safe’ is required.”