Channel Digest: Promises of an AI future

While the UK digests news of a £150bn investment in datacentres an AI from a collection of US tech giants, this week we looked at the channel’s AI state in the present

We’ve had a decidedly busy week in the channel, as the UK digests the controversial visit of US president Donald Trump, the trade agreements ironed out and the announcement of several tranches of AI investment.

With a $30bn (£22bn) pledge into UK AI development by Microsoft, a £5bn commitment from Google into its Essex datacentre and related AI infrastructure, as well as further investments from NVIDIA, Nscale and Coreweave, the channel potentially stands to benefit in the coming years.

Elsewhere this week, we covered the looming end of Windows 10 support and whether channel experts see it giving an uplift to AI PC sales and support.

This somewhat forgotten hype magnet of 2024 has attracted significantly less business for channel partners than the marketing spend of last year’s H2 would suggest.

Meanwhile, numerous partners tell CRN that their key growth drivers remain the same: cyber, AI managed services and cloud.

If anything, the announcement of a reported £150bn capital injection into the economy from a collection of hyperscalers, AI and cyber vendors should be welcome news to a sector dependent on those exact technologies.

And while glittering promises of the AI future can be enticing, we also kept our coverage closer to home. As we come to the final quarter, we rounded up the big CEO moves of the year so far.

2024’s frenetic pace of hiring is no more, with far fewer c-suite replacements and appointments as the new and not-so-new leaders settle into their roles. But there were a few standouts.

Talking of standout moves, this week we revealed that Jamie Brothwell is set to bid adieu to her role as managing director of Exertis Business, after 11 years with the distributor.

Sara Yirrell caught up with the channel stalwart to talk about her legacy, her proudest moments at Exertis and what her next step might look like. Read the interview here.

The channel chatter extends beyond the borders of the UK, as Paul Ferretti sat down with Nicholas Zedde, co-founder of French MSP Manaps to discuss the business’ growth objectives and drivers, the economic environment the firm works within and contrast that to the situation over here, in the UK.

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