ChatGPT - should the channel care? CRN asks partners for their view
From role consolidation to companies falling behind if they don’t invest now, here’s what partners think about ChatGPT’s influence in the channel
ChatGPT has captured the imagination of businesses, investors and consumers in recent weeks.
The chatbot was launched in November 2022. But it's the flurry of coverage and exposure the software has had this year that has got some partners asking, what opportunities does it present the channel?
While technology provider Westcon-Comstor has been having fun with the software by asking deep, philosophical questions like what football team would Westcon be, CRN has quizzed five channel partners to gauge what they make of this next step in the AI revolution.
Some believe Google should be afraid of Microsoft's investment while another thinks the security concerns are an opportunity for partners, here's what Performanta, CloudBlue, Alludo, Nomios and of course, Westcon had to say.
Walter Van Uytven SVP of Technology, Alludo
Is ChatGPT good or bad for the channel?
Fundamentally, ChatGPT has a lot to offer businesses in the Channel, helping make business development teams more efficient and effective. Whether this is good or bad depends on your perspective and your relationship to the channel. If you are a shareholder of a business in the channel or are employed by a company that is committed to investing in its people, great.
There will likely be a consolidation of roles, though, particularly from those firms looking for efficiency over efficacy. These roles might be ones that include more mundane tasks, and so removing these could be an opportunity for individuals and teams to unburden themselves and up-skill. They said that video would kill the radio star and that citizen journalism would kill publishing…
To what extent do partners see it as a lucrative use case for end users?
The conversations I have had with partners about ChatGPT have varied. Certainly, ChatGPT offers a lot in terms of being able to provide information to end users and therefore enhance and speed up customer service, resolving problems and queries faster. End users can get training and support which they can benefit from.
What are the opportunities for the channel to sell AI solutions to clients?
AI is already integrated into many solutions from clients, particularly in the Robotics space, data warehousing etc. Good AI is invisible to the user, so as it evolves and improves, AI will increasingly become part of the solutions that we sell and the products and services that we use in business and in our everyday lives.
Will channel partners be using ChatGPT for marketing purposes?
I know for a fact that many already are. ChatGPT is being used to support SEO, translate content into different languages, generate marketing copy and sales enablement collateral. This will continue and accelerate, but I envisage that we are a long way away from humans being totally cut out of the loop.
What about the security concerns around ChatGPT?
Any concern is an opportunity for partners. Remember the Millenium bug or GDPR?
But there are serious concerns that have been identified in terms of ChatGPT being able to break passwords and code, etc. I think the bigger threat could be from the ability of ChatGPT to democratise information. It will no longer be necessary for a coder to go to college, or a designer or architect to study how to create a plan for a building.
I can see a future where someone needing to fix a device or connect something may not need an expensive, trained expert. There could be a tremendous shift coming in terms of the need to protect intellectual property. I predict that the biggest winners here short term will be lawyers.
Continue reading to hear what Performanta and Westcon-Comstor have to say...
ChatGPT - should the channel care? CRN asks partners for their view
From role consolidation to companies falling behind if they don’t invest now, here’s what partners think about ChatGPT’s influence in the channel
Guy Golan, CEO, Performanta
Is it good or bad for the channel?
I have a mixed view about it.
The good: Processes will be shortened. Example: Target Operating Model can be easily built.
Marketing will become easier: tell ChatGPT what you want and it will scribble something really good out of it.
In Cyber (a bit early), analysis on incidents may become easier to detect.
Knowledge will be far more available and more contextualised.
More time available to do other things. Creation of info is very time consuming. Betterment is much easier.
These are few areas.
The not so good: Competitive edge: it will be difficult to differentiate one from the other at presales and tender level (just ask ChatGPT and get a response to the tender).
Increase the ‘snake oil syndrome'. There might be a lack of genuine knowledge and expertise. People will profess to know rather than truly know.
Numbness of the brain. Some will be discouraged to grow as 80 per cent of the answers (good enough will be there).
To what extent do partners see it as a lucrative use case for end users?
We find it to be quite lucrative. In fact, we utilise ChatGPT in our messaging and introductions. This AI writes really well. Chat bots may be even more helpful by using ChatGPT. I believe there will be more client centricity (ChatGPT to assist in ‘how to' cases, as an example).
What are the opportunities for the channel to sell AI solutions to clients?
I believe that AI is the next revolution, and ChatGPT is one of its leaders. It comes across as a REAL AI. If you haven't used it, I suggest you give it a bash. You will be amazed. Like everything else, the channel will have its early adopters and late adopters. The early adopters are already playing and offering AI solutions. On the flip side, the challenge is that the market has many false AI platforms, where the interface seems to be a genuine AI but in the background there are hundreds of hamsters running on the wheels trying to provide the answer.
Since this is a revolution, or literally the art of the possible, I believe many will follow. The applications of AI will be far wide and deep. To the degree that usability will be in all digital aspects of life: call centres, cyber, communications, writing, editing, designing, and yes, journalism as well. Imagine for a second that the answer below was to be provided by ChatGPT! Scary and impressive at the same time. It might even do a better job than me!
Will channel partners be using ChatGPT for marketing purposes?
Oh yes. That has already started. We have enjoyed it quite a bit. Two articles. One was written by ChatGPT and the other was not. Can you spot the difference?
The Metaverse is the ‘next frontier' for the cyber industry - Intelligent CISO
Attack Surface Management is rapidly emerging | Encore.io
What about the security concerns around ChatGPT?
Please refer to the top. There is a major opportunity from a usability perspective rather than the vulnerabilities it may pose. When ChatGPT becomes the platform of choice from a cyber detection, protection and remediation risks may happen there. At the moment, it is a bit too early.
ChatGPT - should the channel care? CRN asks partners for their view
From role consolidation to companies falling behind if they don’t invest now, here’s what partners think about ChatGPT’s influence in the channel
Runa Macleod, vice president marketing, Westcon-Comstor
Is it good or bad for the channel?
Overall good—and we already know this. AI is already being used by the channel, through things like customer service chat bots, support ticket systems and CRM solutions. ChatGPT, as an evolution of this technology, has the potential to take these to the next level with extremely sophisticated generative-AI.
The upcoming annual TSIA keynote is on "The Opportunities and Threats of AI". For this to be a major theme of a key channel event shows just how mainstream this technology is—not a futurist's dream but something we need to take seriously today.
The buzz around ChatGPT means every business is asking itself how they can take advantage of it and not be left behind. Smart partners will be looking for use cases that help them drive more productivity and innovation, in their own business, as well as improve the solutions and services they offer their customers.
It is important however, to have a balanced approach; while looking to harness the power of AI, also recognise the possible limitations and risks of ChatGPT and similar technologies.
To what extent do partners see it as a lucrative use case for end users?
While the technology is going mainstream, it's important to remember that ChatGPT is still in beta. Nevertheless, there is an exciting breadth of potential use cases available.
The public availability of ChatGPT has served to democratise thinking around AI, creating awareness and curiosity beyond tech specialists. This has stimulated thinking and will shape demand from customers. Channel partners should start to explore what ChatGPT and other AI technologies mean for their business and start to build experience to stay ahead of the curve.
What are the opportunities for the channel to sell AI solutions to clients?
As partners explore different tools and think about their business applications, it's hard not to get excited. There are real opportunities for partners who can continue to integrate AI into their own services and solutions, particularly an opportunity to build industry-sector specific offerings in healthcare, finance as examples. And of course, as vendors continue to build AI into their solutions, then this will inevitably flow through the channel.
AI also has the potential to transform the interactions between businesses and customers across the channel, from vendors through to end users. By offering better insights into partner and customer behaviour, better support, better lifecycle management and more, we can use AI to help partners understand their customers far better. At Westcon-Comstor we are evaluating how AI can help us better support our partner ecosystem.
Will channel partners be using ChatGPT for marketing purposes?
I think there are clear ways that ChatGPT can help marketing teams and I am encouraging my team to explore and experiment with ChatGPT as well as other AI tools. Every marketer should be curious about new technologies, and they should get comfortable using AI, test and learn. What we are finding is that ChatGPT can really help with productivity, with research, brainstorming, and idea generation—but it requires experience to get the best results.
Used well and under supervision, ChatGPT is capable of delivering high-quality content and assisting our marketing efforts. We are certainly not outsourcing content writing in its entirety to ChatGPT, we need to be mindful of its limitations. The OpenAI website states that "ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers" - and it can sound credible, so you need to be on your game and know your subject.
My message is to embrace it—the more you work with it, the better you get at asking the right questions and prompts. I'm enjoying the curiosity and energy from my team and others in our organisation right now, whether that is around ChatGPT or other AI opportunities.
What about the security concerns around ChatGPT?
With any opportunity comes risk, and there are certainly reasons to be concerned about the potential for ChatGPT-enabled security risks, most obviously now with threat actors generating malicious code more easily and at scale. Security professionals need be aware of these threats. ChatGPT has safeguards, but these are not necessarily fool proof, and there is no guarantee as to what safeguards future AI tech may have.
But just as threat actors can use AI to attack, so can security teams work with it to help defend. AI is already part of security, and will no doubt be a big part of its future.
ChatGPT - should the channel care? CRN asks partners for their view
From role consolidation to companies falling behind if they don’t invest now, here’s what partners think about ChatGPT’s influence in the channel
Steve Garrood, UK managing director, CloudBlue
Is ChatGPT good or bad for the channel?
Right now, if I'm brutally honest, we're not seeing a big uptake.
Are our customers and prospects shouting about it? Not right now. They have probably bigger challenges to automate, and scale.
But what's this stuff likely to do? It's going to give you an enhanced customer experience. But it's not ready in this space yet.
Let's be honest, what do you need for this type of technology? You need a huge database that's going to give you everything about your business for an AI tool to pick.
If someone wants to know if a certain Microsoft product is the best for them, you've got to manage that database. These guys and everybody in the digital subscription business aren't operating in that way. So it's probably a few years away.
I would say that it's going to be more used as a front end in terms of marketing, social media, that type of thing. But again, we're not there yet.
ChatGPT - should the channel care? CRN asks partners for their view
From role consolidation to companies falling behind if they don’t invest now, here’s what partners think about ChatGPT’s influence in the channel
Richard Landman, head of marketing, Nomios Group
Is ChatGPT good or bad for the channel?
I think I think it's good for the channel overall, but not for everybody. Some companies who didn't have the vision of investing in AI early are now behind.
I think the main effect right now is that AI went from marketing to real hype with people recognising that this is something very powerful.
Of course, it makes absolute sense to also have your digital infrastructure being managed by AI and machine learning. It will really improve. In the end it will improve the user experience.
I think the main thing will be that Microsoft investing in ChatGPT is a very big risk for the whole ecosystem of Google. Because there's a big chance that people's search behaviour will change. And you will just have a conversation with the AI instead of searching endless pages.
For me, I think it's a real game changer because any IT manager at a large enterprise will reconsider their investments and make AI part of the equation. It went from nice to have to must have.