News in the Channel - issue #41

FINDING VALUE IN AI

But Barb Huelskamp, global VP of Channels and Alliances at SolarWinds, notes that for AI to deliver value, it must be tied to a clear objective. “The organisations seeing the strongest results are using it to solve specific challenges: improving efficiency, reducing repetitive work, strengthening operational resilience, or helping teams make faster, better-informed decisions,” she says. "AI doesn’t need to be embedded in every process. The real opportunity is identifying where it can make the biggest impact and focusing efforts there. That’s especially true for channel partners, who are often navigating these questions on behalf of their customers at the same time as managing their own operations. When businesses take that targeted approach, AI moves beyond experimentation and starts delivering measurable outcomes." David Campbell, product manager of modern workplace at Wavenet, says the question is no longer, ‘Should we try AI?’, but ‘Where does AI fit in our operating model, what problems will it solve, and how do we implement it safely at scale?’ “AI only creates value when it is used confidently, safely and with intent. The AI-ready organisation can point to specific moments in its value chain where AI reliably adds value. That might be drafting first-pass documents with consistent structure, summarising complex meeting notes into actions and owners, extracting themes from service tickets, or turning call transcripts into follow-up plans. “For most, AI’s value is acceleration, speeding up thinking, drafting and analysis, while keeping human accountability in place. Get readiness right and the benefits soon start to build, resulting in better quality work, quicker decisions and a more streamlined experience for employees and customers.” AI for AI’s sake With the hype surrounding AI, there is a desire from some businesses to

not be left behind, but this can lead to applications being deployed because they are AI, not for what they do. Anthony Dobson, regional director, sales for Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions business in the UK&I, says with AI the starting point must be what the end customer is trying to achieve and where AI can add value to their business. “In many cases, that comes back to familiar pressures such as improving productivity, reducing manual tasks, making better use of data, supporting teams and improving how services are delivered,” he says. “AI can help in all these areas, but only when it is applied with a clear purpose. “It is not about adding AI for the sake of it, but using it to solve a real problem, improve a process or create a better outcome for the end-customer.” Danny Hemminga, vice president of EMEA partner sales at Tanium, says there’s real pressure to be seen adopting AI quickly, driven by competitive anxiety, board expectations or genuine excitement around what the technology can do. “The risk is that organisations focus on deploying AI rather than on whether the foundations underneath it can actually carry the weight of what they’re asking it to do,” he says. “The most telling sign of this is when organisations ask ‘which AI tool should we buy?’ before they’ve asked whether their data is accurate, whether their teams have real-time visibility, or whether security and IT are working from the same information. Those fundamentals determine whether AI delivers value or just adds another layer of complexity to an already fragmented environment.” Nathan Charles, head of customer experience at OryxAlign, agrees that in many organisations, AI has become a boardroom priority and there can be pressure to demonstrate progress when competitors are discussing their own adoption plans.

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The risk is that organisations focus on deploying AI rather than on whether the foundations underneath it can actually carry the weight of what they're asking it to do,

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