Intel ISV Partner Bets On Channel For AI PC Assistant App: Exclusive

Iterate.ai’s Generate application is part of a new SMB App Pack that Intel is bundling with AI PCs for channel partners to sell, and it has partnered with TD Synnex to handle distribution for the application, which the company says is only the beginning of its channel ambitions.

An Intel ISV partner said it’s going “all in” on the channel for a new security-focused AI assistant for PCs that can analyze, summarize and answer questions using data from private documents, among other things.

The ISV, Iterate.ai, exclusively told CRN that it is bringing the AI assistant, called Generate, to AI PCs powered by Intel processors as part of a partnership that involved 18 months of co-development work with the chipmaker. The San Jose, Calif.-based company plans to expand support to other chip architectures over time.

Generate is part of a new SMB App Pack that Intel is bundling with AI PCs for channel partners to sell, and Iterate.ai has partnered with TD Synnex to handle distribution for the application, which the company said is only the beginning of its channel ambitions.

“We don’t plan to go hire direct salespeople. The whole plan is to scale the business through the channel. And we’re basically about as all in as you can get on the channel,” said Kevin Homer (pictured), a veteran sales and channel executive who was hired as Iterate.ai’s vice president of sales in January, in an interview with CRN.

Called a “secure AI manager” application, Generate relies on the PC’s processor, including its neural processing unit (NPU), and local memory to run retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector databases and large language models for a variety of generative AI use cases that are meant to improve productivity.

For instance, Generate can “consume extremely large documents” with more than 300 pages and use RAG methods to produce summaries and document comparisons for business analysis or training purposes, according to Iterate.ai. It can also be used by call centers to “analyze inbound messages, prepare summaries and call up any relevant customer records and corporate policies.”

Homer said the fact that all of this is processed locally rather than in the cloud is a major differentiator for Generate over other solutions. Iterate.ai is hoping this will win over businesses that have been hesitant to use AI solutions that send private data to the cloud.

“I think everybody’s concerned about the bi-directional nature of these chatbots,” he said.

Generate costs $20 per user, per month, and Iterate.ai is giving TD Synnex a “very healthy margin” in terms of compensation for resellers, according to Homer.

“There has to be enough money in it for the reseller. Otherwise, they’re going to go sell something else. So there are not only programs in place to do this, but TD Synnex said to me [earlier this month] that we are the model for how companies should be going to market through the channel,” he said.

Iterate.ai is among a growing number of ISVs that are designing AI-enhanced features and applications that take advantage of the CPU, GPU and NPU found within AI PCs that debuted last year. The company is working with Intel through the chipmaker’s AI PC Acceleration Program, which includes more than 100 ISVs developing over 300 AI features for PCs.

“They’ve shown us so much attention and love and all that stuff that we really tout a lot about what they do, and we’ve spent a lot of time optimizing on their chips,” Homer said.