GTIA: The channel is in the eye of the AI storm

At the recent GTIA UK Community Forum in Manchester, the unstoppable rise of AI was a key theme throughout the day, but what do MSPs really think?

The global AI market is set to smash through the $3tn mark by 2033, and according to Dan Scott, UK & Ireland chair of the GTIA Executive Council, the channel is currently in the centre of the AI storm.

“It is going to affect each and every one of us in some way. It is not just rewriting the rule book; it is teaching us that we have to reinvent what we do. AI is changing the world, and we are in the middle of the AI storm, of the revolution,” he said.

Scott added that channel clients need MSPs and IT service providers to ‘re-invent what is possible with technology’ and ‘rip up the rule book and start again’. But he stressed the importance to be part of a community like the GTIA to win through collaboration and idea sharing.

AI and the future - what do partners think?

CRN caught up with some of the GTIA’s MSP/IT service provider members during the event to find out what their take was on the AI revolution.

Damien Harrison, operations and marketing director at Bondgate IT, said AI needs to be carefully handled so it doesn’t push out the next generation of talent.

“AI is like any tool, it has got to be used to magnify the good. For example, replacing first line engineers with AI is all well and good for a company and will save a lot of money, but what does that mean for young people coming into the industry? How can they get started?”

Tracy Pound (pictured), managing director of Maximity, said: “For me AI is amazing. We major on systems implementations around business central, modifications, implementation, training support and that sort of thing, and for us it is cutting days off our development schedule so we can write software so much quicker using AI than we could humanly. What it is allowing us to do is expand our business and do more with the same workforce that we’ve got today, and it is making us massively more profitable. We can get a solution into the client way quicker than we could before.”

But she said AI does have its challenges. “Most people are not that certain about the technology to trust it, and for people to change their business in a way that they don’t understand. I think a big challenge will be educating leaders and owners of businesses around what the opportunity really does mean to them.

“And we are going to see some companies fly as a result of that.”

She also had a warning for vendors. “Please, just slow down! The pace of change is so hard to keep up with that you are almost out of date the minute you’ve read or installed a new update and you are onto something different. Humans are a bit slower than technology because our brains are doing a whole host of other things as well, so we just need to slow it down a little bit and make it a little more realistic.”

Human touch is vital

Matt Royle, marketing director at Commited, said AI will always need the human touch to thrive.

“What we are seeing is that there is demand for AI and people are looking for AI readiness prompted by vendors, but I still don’t think customers are ready. Their data is not structure internally, their infrastructure is not ready and their servers are not supportive of it. When you look under the bonnet of AI readiness, there is still a lot of work to do.”

He added that the demand for cybersecurity will continue to rocket, partly fuelled by AI, as will the need for more robust backup and recovery solution.

But he agreed that this was not the time to stand still.

“If you look at the changing pace of technology market, we have to adopt or we are going to be irrelevant and we are not going to be able to serve customers, deliver services or retain customers as well as you would like to.”

Amanda Stewart (pictured), vCiSO at Illuminate Technology said there were a lot of opportunities around AI: “We’re a small team, we’re all doing a lot of hat wearing and juggling a lot of things at the moment, and AI can play a massive part in that in terms of getting processes a bit more organised, getting better information out to clients etc. But for me it is about doing it in a way that doesn’t scare our staff, because we are not trying to get rid of anybody, we are just trying to make their lives a bit easier and help them work more effectively by getting rid of the boring jobs they don’t want to do.”

Stewart added that education was key. “You can’t just ‘AI’ everything in your business, you’ve got to do all the groundwork beforehand. A lot of people don’t think about the environmental impacts, the social impacts and want to use AI because everybody is using it. We have done a lot of education around that, and in the future, I think our peers will be spending a lot of time and investment creating agents that can be given out to customers to make their processes easier.

“So, we are cautiously dipping our toe in, but mainly about advice and education for customers. Their data is a mess, they don’t know where things are stored and if you don’t have data hygiene right first, then what is the point of AI?”

She also said that vendors need to calm things down, put common sense around AI and give partners advice on how they can use AI safely.

Ian Groves, managing director of Start Tech, said AI presents the biggest opportunity for the channel, but also creates pressure.

“MSPs in general are desperately trying to provide the solutions and find the way forward to support their SMEs. I think we are starting to see a bit of clarity there from where we were maybe 12-18 months ago when AI was just a hype with a few people punching through.

“It is an opportunity that if MSPs don’t grasp this and move, it is first time I’ve ever worried about our sector from external influence coming in. It is a pressing time to either buckle up for the fight and drive forward, or decide if you don’t have the ambition for this, because it will start a whole new wave of business development.”

He added that vendors need to be more supportive.

“I think vendors are trying to make sure they’re relevant and have a product and a client base, but it is in their interest to provide pathways that are lit up for us as too many of them are focusing on building an AI feature into a ‘thing’ and say they do AI.

“That can’t be the end game. MSPs need to evolve quickly or there won’t be as many of us around, and that’s got to be a concern for the vendors and disties upstream from us.”

An interview with GTIA CEO Dan Wensley will also go live this week on CRN.