HP’s Kobi Elbaz: Hybrid AI Is A ‘Massive Opportunity’ For Partners

In an interview with CRN, HP Inc. Global Channel Chief Kobi Elbaz says the investments the PC and print giant has made into its three-year-old Amplify partner program will allow the company to ‘double down’ on hybrid AI solutions with partners, which include new AI PCs.

HP Inc. Global Channel Chief Kobi Elbaz said selling hybrid AI solutions is the company’s top priority with the channel, calling it a “massive opportunity” for partners.

Elbaz made the comments in an interview with CRN during the company’s HP Imagine 2024 event last month at its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., where the PC and print giant announced several AI-enhanced products and solutions that it said would improve productivity and collaboration across the spectrum of hybrid work configurations.

“It represents a massive opportunity for us and for the channel to help their customers to become more productive,” said Elbaz, who last fall took on an expanded role as senior vice president and general manager of global channel, sales innovation and operations.

The products and services in HP’s hybrid AI strategy range from a growing portfolio of AI PCs—which includes the new business-oriented EliteBook X laptops—to AI-enabled Poly videoconferencing offerings and its AI-powered Workforce Experience Platform. The company also plans to introduce AI features into its printers next year.

Elbaz said the investments HP has made into its three-year-old Amplify partner program will allow the company to “double down” on these solutions with partners, whether it’s through Amplify’s AI MasterClass training and certification program, Amplify’s More For More compensation benefit or the Growth Play initiatives.

“I think it now helps us to bring more solutions because it really can help us to talk about capabilities, collaboration and performance. So we set the right foundation,” he said.

Elbaz called the launch of AI MasterClass in partnership with AI computing giant Nvidia in March a “big success” in the channel and said the company has seen a gradual increase in partners taking courses and receiving certifications since then.

“The feedback we are getting from the channel is today we are probably one of the only companies that provide them a really holistic view [of AI],” he said.

This is because AI MasterClass is not just focused on training partners on the AI capabilities of HP’s products, according to Elbaz. The program also helps partners learn about various AI use cases and different players in the AI ecosystem.

“It’s opened their minds about who they can work with—different ISVs, different solution providers—in order to provide [solutions] to customers,” he said.

Elbaz said HP has also put an emphasis on providing AI-enhanced devices to partners for demonstration purposes so that they can get hands-on experience.

In addition, HP is leaning into AI technologies to improve the way it serves partners.

For instance, the company plans to introduce a new AI chatbot in the Amplify’s business partner portal next month, according to Elbaz. The chatbot will answer questions about various topics and provide partners with recommendations.

“We continue to invest in tools and capabilities internally that really demonstrate to them that AI helps us to better serve them,” he said.

With PCs representing one important aspect of HP’s hybrid AI strategy, another crucial element is the videoconferencing offerings the company gained through its 2022 acquisition of Poly, which was integrated into HP’s Amplify program nearly a year ago.

By consolidating the partner programs for Poly into Amplify, HP has been able to get more legacy partners selling Poly solutions faster, according to Elbaz.

“It's helped us to accelerate the adoption of Poly [with] our traditional HP legacy partners because now they get the compensation in that immediately,” he said.

The integration of Poly and two other businesses HP acquired over the past few years—HyperX and Teradici—has also helped benefit partners that are tapping into HP’s More for More compensation benefit by selling HP products from multiple categories.

Launched almost a year ago, More for More adds a few percentage points to the compensation rate for every product or service sold by a partner, Elbaz said.

Three months after HP launched the benefit, participating partners were already “doubling” their HP business “on the referral of services” while increasing their compensation by more than 50 percent, according to the global channel chief.

“From the beginning, it was a big success. And this is something that we saw a very fast response around,” Elbaz said.

The leader of a large HP solution provider partner in Canada told CRN that HP has stood out among other vendors due to its investments in the Amplify program, especially when it comes to the AI MasterClass training program.

“They are being proactive in bringing together content from various sources,” said Harry Zarek, president of Ontario-based Compugen, No. 60 on CRN’s 2024 Solution Provider 500 list.

For instance, Zarek was impressed that HP was able to get Andrew Ng, a well-known computer scientist who founded and directed the Google Brain deep learning project, to participate in AI MasterClass programming.

“They’re serious about it, and I’m impressed that they’re an early leader. I’m not seeing it from the other [vendors],” he said. “The Amplify program is allowing them to really bring together content that is relevant, that we can use to help train both our sales [folks] but also our technical folks.”