News in the Channel - issue #41

COMMENT

Beyond the hype There has been even more hype around AI recently with mega-IPOs in the works for some of the biggest AI companies. But for AI to be the game changer that businesses that use AI would like, it must deliver value.

The US stock markets appear to be heading for a period of mega-IPOs, thanks to a range of AI-focused companies declaring an interest in listing – with even mid-tier companies projected to have valuations in excess of $1 billion. Some, such as Anthropic, creator of Claude, and OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, could have valuations of more than $1 trillion when stocks start trading. The valuations are mind- boggling and are set to make the owners of the companies, and their investors, hugely wealthy. They will certainly be seeing the value that AI can produce. However, some businesses aren’t finding quite such value from AI. Many businesses are now using AI at some level – and most that aren’t are thinking about using it – but not all AI projects are delivering the value that is desired. Perhaps the most famous example is Starbucks abandoning its AI- powered ‘Automated Counting’ inventory program in its North American stores in May – just nine months after it was introduced – because of the volume of mistakes it made. Starbucks’ woe might be an extreme example, but it is easy for businesses to not derive value from AI if a solution is implemented without proper strategising for what it wants to achieve. This is where

resellers can have a vital role in helping their customers get the value from AI. Read more on p22. Sustainable IT procurement is another increasing priority for many businesses and is often a core criterion in selecting devices as they try to reach their ESG goals. Resellers also have a key role to play in helping customers

Dan Parton

find the right sustainable solution for their needs,

whether that is a new device or, increasingly, one that has been refurbished. Read more on p38. One of the few issues to outrank sustainability is cybersecurity. While the rise of cloud services and hybrid working has brought benefits to businesses and employees alike in recent years, it has also helped to increase the number of endpoints in a business that must be protected against cyberthreats. Endpoint detection and response solutions are increasingly becoming business critical to achieve this. Read more on p30. As always, I hope you enjoy the issue. News in the Channel is for everyone working in the channel, so if you have a topic you would like see covered in a future issue – or you have a press release or opinion column you would like to submit for consideration for publication – please drop me a line at dan@newsinthechannel.com. n

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