Sven Berckmoes, Solutions & Alliances Lead, TD SYNNEX Maverick
Every major technology shift creates new opportunities for the channel and AI is no exception.
Over the past year, we’ve seen an explosion of interest in AI solutions, from productivity assistants and intelligent collaboration tools to AI-powered meeting experiences and automation. Customers are investing, vendors are innovating and partners are responding with new services designed to meet growing demand.
It’s an exciting time for our industry because AI is opening the door to entirely new opportunities. At the same time, it’s worth considering what happens when AI is no longer the thing that sets partners apart. As intelligent capabilities become standard across the major collaboration platforms, customers will spend less time comparing features and more time looking for guidance on how to turn those capabilities into meaningful business outcomes.
When AI becomes expected
For many years, competitive advantage often came from helping customers choose and deploy the right technology. That expertise remains incredibly valuable, but AI is expanding what customers expect from their partners.
Increasingly, customers are looking for guidance before deployment begins and long after the licences have been assigned. They’re asking whether their data is ready, how governance should evolve, how employees will adopt AI and, ultimately, how they’ll know whether it’s delivering genuine business value.
In many ways, customers are buying confidence in the decisions that surround AI, not just the AI solutions themselves.
The value isn’t in the demo
One thing I’ve noticed in conversations with partners from across Europe is that AI demonstrations no longer generate the same reaction they did twelve months ago. That’s not because AI has become any less impressive. Quite the opposite. Customers now expect those capabilities. What they’re looking for is confidence that AI will solve real business challenges and deliver measurable value.
What captures attention today is understanding how those capabilities solve real business challenges, fit into existing ways of working and deliver measurable outcomes.
The most successful partners are already making that shift. Rather than leading with demonstrations, they’re starting conversations around productivity, business outcomes and the challenges customers are trying to solve. Technology remains at the centre of the discussion, but it’s no longer the starting point.
The partner of the future
I think AI is accelerating something that was already happening across our industry. The role of the partner has been evolving for years. Customers increasingly expect strategic guidance alongside technical expertise, and AI has brought those expectations into even sharper focus.
The conversations that create the greatest value today often begin long before a solution is selected. They explore data readiness, governance, user adoption, change management and the outcomes customers are trying to achieve. By the time technology enters the discussion, the partner has already become a trusted advisor rather than simply a supplier and that’s an incredibly exciting position to be in.
It creates opportunities for new services, stronger customer relationships and conversations that extend well beyond the initial deployment. More importantly, it allows partners to demonstrate the value they bring in ways that technology alone never could.
Looking beyond AI
One day, AI itself won’t be the headline. Like cloud services and video collaboration before it, it will simply become part of everyday business. As that happens, the conversation will shifts from the technology itself to the value it creates.
The partners who thrive won’t necessarily be those selling the most AI. They’ll be the ones helping customers use it with confidence, embed it into the way they work and achieve meaningful business outcomes.
Customers won’t remember who sold them AI. They’ll remember who helped them succeed with it.
