AI and analytics are shaping up to be the critical drivers of business transformation and partner differentiation, and securing a slice of this soon-to-be ubiquitous source of competitive advantage requires immediate attention, according to industry experts at the March 2024 Comms Dealer Channel Forecast insight session. Among the issues under discussion were the speed of change, how the channel needs to react and where we can expect to find the greatest returns.

The impact of AI and analytics will be seismic, but a Comms Dealer survey of reseller and MSP business leaders showed that barely any respondents are mindful of AI as a future growth market. It’s simply not blipping on their radar screens as a strategic priority. Over two thirds are not involved in analytics… hardly a recipe for the channel to exploit the fast evolving AI revolution. But forecasting the ICT market through an AI lens can only mean one thing – fundamental and inevitable disruption – and tomorrow’s winners will be working out their AI and analytics strategies today. So no surprise that our Channel Forecasters are united in urging resellers and MSPs to prioritise their response to AI.

“Not to get involved with AI and analytics now would be a mistake because of its fast pace of development,” stated Matt Bodsworth (pictured left), Head of Operations, Inform Billing. “In the past, analytics and AI have been a black art requiring a team of people – data analysts and data engineers – to build and analyse the data. As a collective, vendors are taking that pain away and packaging solutions. The sooner partners start on this journey the quicker they will learn how AI and analytics can transform businesses.”

This news story has been extracted from Comms Dealer website, access the full article here; https://www.comms-dealer.com/channel-forecast/channel-forecast-ai-analytics-front-runners-set-take-decisive-lead

Watch the channel forecast video series below, videos will be uploaded periodically as a ‘series’ throughout April 2024.