Partners Who Shun AI Risk Getting ‘Disrupted,’ ‘Left Behind’

'The AI pioneers, the people that really know what they're doing, they are seeing significant impacts,' IPED senior consultant Mark Williams tells CRN.

The channel has entered a new artificial intelligence era with compelling software and hardware offerings on the market, with early adopters already seeing business benefits and late-comers risking competitive disadvantage.

“The AI pioneers, the people that really know what they're doing, they are seeing significant impacts,” Mark Williams, a senior consultant with IPED, the channel consulting arm of CRN parent The Channel Company, told CRN in an interview. “They are aggressively investing. They're investing in assessments and workshops and education and validation and modeling targets. They're actively hiring anybody they can both from a technical and business perspective.”

Williams will present findings from the team on where solution providers are in their journey to commercialize AI as part of The Channel Company’s 2024 XChange Best of Breed Conference, taking place Oct. 14-15 in Atlanta.

AI In The Channel

Zac Paulson, director of product and strategy at West Fargo, N.D.-based ABM Technology Group–an honoree on CRN’s 2024 Managed Service Provider 500, agreed with the findings that AI is part of the future of solution providers servicing customers.

“Solution providers who don’t invest in AI internally, AI offerings for their clients, are going to get left behind,” Paulson said.

ABM has built out a new AI practice focused on Microsoft’s “modern work” and AI services, even hiring a team of 14 people to build out the practice.

Mike Monahon, vice president and CTO of advanced technology at Fort Mill, S.C.-based Compucom, No. 59 on CRN’s 2024 Solution Provider 500, said in a recent interview that AI can accelerate research and development and create more agile development cycles.

Potential benefits from AI for solution providers and their customers range from more efficient operations, better security, better cost savings–a “stronger competitive edge in the market.”

“If you’re not using AI to be disrupted, you're probably going to be disrupted,” he said. “We tell that to our customers today. Don't be the taxi company to Uber. … I don't say bleeding edge, but [customers] have to be cutting edge. They have to understand, AI is your friend, it's not your enemy. But use it properly, like anything else.”

The Data On Channel AI Impacts

The IPED research showed that marketing received the largest share among business segments for areas where solution providers expect a positive impact of AI over the next 12 months.

Sixty-eight percent of solution providers who participated in the study said marketing will receive a positive impact from AI technology over that time, and 24 percent expect a “significant positive impact.”

Sales, operations and customer support were commonly cited business segments expected to see positive impacts from AI technology over the next 12 months.

For salespeople, GenAI can help automate data entry, scheduling meetings, pipeline analytics and more, according to the IPED research. Predictive AI can help analyze and score leads based on conversion likelihood and forecast future sales trends for improved targets and planning.

In operations, partners have used AI for predictive insights and automated decision-making for demand forecasting, inventory management, route optimization, quality assurance process automation, visual inspections and more.

In customer support, AI can improve ticket routing to the appropriate department or agent. AI can use past interactions and customer data for tailored responses and recommendations. And AI can evaluate and interpret emotions from customer communications.

Fifty-eight percent of solution providers said that they expect service delivery to see a positive impact from AI in the same time period, according to the research.

Partners have leveraged generative AI tools for automation and content creation plus AI enhancements within remote monitoring and management and customer relationship management products.

“There's a lot of focus on the business advisory elements of this,” IPED’s Williams said. “That's where people are making money. ‘Hey, let's go talk about how this is going to impact the way you're doing legal stuff. Now we can do this.’ There's a lot of that.”

Sixty-three percent of solution provider participants said managed services will receive a positive impact from AI technology over the next 12 months. Cloud services and professional services each saw 57 percent of respondents say those parts of their business will receive a positive impact from AI over the same time.

Those positives include automation of routine tasks, customer support, advanced analytics and more intelligent and secure systems

The concept of AI being a technology phenomenon is inaccurate; it’s really a business phenomenon, Williams said.

“What’s going to be more important than proof of concept is proof of value.”