How AI and Community Are Reshaping the Channel Ecosystem

How are the forces of AI and community fundamentally reshaping the channel ecosystem?

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Uncover the answers at the Six Five Summit: AI Unleashed. Dan Wensley, CEO of Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA), joins host Tiffani Bova as one of our Channel Ecosystem Speakers for an important discussion on accelerating adoption, fostering collaboration, and embracing smarter growth.

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Key takeaways include:

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🔹Navigating the AI Hype Cycle in the Channel: Explore the significant impact of the AI hype cycle on IT service providers and vendors, addressing both the profound challenges and immense opportunities it presents.

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🔹Customer Experience, Employee Experience, & Community as Growth Drivers: Dan describes the powerful intersection of CX, EX, and community as the future engine of growth and highlights the critical risks of not actively engaging in this transformative space.

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🔹GTIA's Role in a Community-First Mindset: Discover how GTIA fosters a community-first approach, enabling smarter experiences and faster outcomes within the channel ecosystem through collaborative efforts.

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🔹Empowering MSPs for AI Action: Understand the heightened expectations for MSPs and IT service providers in actioning AI, and learn about the industry's vital role in providing the necessary support and confidence for successful implementation.

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Learn more at Global Technology Industry Association.

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Watch the full video at Six Five Media, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, so you never miss an episode.

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Or listen to the audio here:

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Tiffani Bova: Hi everyone and welcome to The Six Five Summit: Unleashed. For this channel ecosystem spotlight, I'm joined by my friend Dan Wensley, the CEO of Global Technology Industry Association, more commonly known as GTIA, on how AI and community are reshaping the channel ecosystem. Welcome to Dan.

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Dan Wensley: Thank you, Tiffany, so much. Looking forward to the conversation today and appreciate you having me here.

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Tiffani Bova: I know we have known each other for a really, really long time, but for those of you who don't know GTIA, let's start there. Maybe you could give just a quick, you know, overview of what you guys do and all the great work.

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Dan Wensley: Sure. Well, we are a not for profit vendor and member and channel industry association. Many would know us from our former brand of Comptia. We rebranded under the GTIA moniker just within the last this year in 2025 and continue our work in driving membership value in the IT global channel and doing a lot of good charitable work along the way to help make sure that we're having a positive impact for the future of our industry.

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Tiffani Bova: Absolutely. And such a valuable resource for everybody. And I think more than ever it's kind of like I feel like we need it because we have been through a couple of big transitions from, you know, reseller to value added reseller to managed service provider to solution provider to systems integrator to cloud brokerage. Like we've sort of pivoted, pivoted, pivoted. And the channel has had to kind of keep up. But we are in this amazing time where, you know, what used to be 18 months might be 18 days or 18 minutes or 18 seconds. How quickly the market is moving, especially around AI, you know, as GTIA. What do you think the role of the community and the association is going to play in this next transition? Because it's just moving so quickly.

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Dan Wensley: Yeah, you're so right about the acceleration of the innovation that we're all experiencing. I mean, when I joined this association over 20 years ago, Tiffani, as a member. I came into it because of all of the, some of the components you just talked about, the speed of innovation and change even 20 years ago, the need and requirement for us to come together as an IT service services industry to understand the next evolution of technologies that were impacting us, the new business models that were paramount to the long term success of IT service delivery to both small medium business and enterprise. So the association for me personally was a way to stay as a student of the industry, stay connected, stay educated, work with peers, work with competitors, understand the market better than you can do from your SILOED position in any emerging technology organization, which I've been blessed to be a part of over 30 years. It really was a paramount foundation for all of us in the IT Services channel to come together and talk about these evolutions we all went through. You talked about a few of them. Reseller to value added, reseller to solution provider to manage services, to the impact of cloud, obviously cyber and what we're seeing now in AI. And you're right that today, and it's interesting to say this 20 plus years later, but today it might be even more important to be a part of the community and part of the conversation to try to keep pace with this incredible innovation we're now seeing across the globe.

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Tiffani Bova: And the pace isn't going to slow down. I was at an event a number of weeks ago, Dell Technology World, and Michael Dell is the keynote for this entire summit. And he said something really that has just stuck with me. And I've said it a couple of times now since I was at that event. And it was like, well, what we know today is going to be almost irrelevant tomorrow, like how slow we think or how fast we think it's moving today it's going to be faster tomorrow, like it's just not going to slow down. And I know that that has been said a couple of times in our world. But you know, from an enablement, from an education standpoint, how are you tackling the fact that it is moving so fast? Because having a conversation is one thing, but like there's a talent shortage in this area because we don't have thousands of people that have great, vast knowledge around agentic AI and how that's really going to change the market and the businesses. And so education is big. And then enabling this transition, that's also big. And I think that's, as you just said, the most important part of what you bring to the industry. But how can you help our community, our partner ecosystem, keep pace in this time?

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Dan Wensley: Well, it's an interesting crossroads as they're, you know, at this stage of our evolution. We're in an arena where information is arguably readily available. You can get it from multiple sources, everything's available on the net, podcast. The stories around the innovation are easy to come by. But are you getting siloed? Are you getting the full, wholesome picture that you're looking for? And most importantly, I think, Tiffani, the ability to sit with a peer, a counterpart and a competitor and understand how these new evolutions are affecting businesses and how we're going to Apply them to our own business. Everybody's in a different vertical when it comes to the IT services channel. So they want to talk to other channel providers who maybe are in that vertical that these technologies will impact differently. Much like the days where applications were king. Right. You were verticalized inside your IT service delivery model based on the applications that were applicable to the silo of services you delivered or the market that you service. Today we're going through that same thing, but there's increased pressure, there's increased pace and it's all coming very, very quickly. So again, I think the opportunity for us and the requirement for us to stay more connected and collaborative is at an all time pinnacle for our industry.

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Tiffani Bova: Yeah, and this isn't just about us talking about pace from an ecosystem standpoint because we think it's really the shiny new technology in the corner that we're talking about pretty non stop around AI and agentic. It has everything to do with what customers now need. Especially in the SMB segment where the channel ecosystem tends to be the IT resource for those companies that don't have that, you know, internal bench of talent. Right. They've chosen to outsource that part of the business. And so it's really incumbent upon the partners to bring forward to them kind of like first responders. Like we know that you are going to be at risk if you're not starting to make these investments. And if there's any hesitation from the channel at all, it means the end user will have hesitation. So we really need the channel to kind of jump in with both feet. Why do you think it is, if at all, in your conversations with so many partners out there that they may be a little resistant to this next change? Like, ah, we've seen this before, it's nothing new or nothing different. What do you say to those partners?

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Dan Wensley: Well, this is what I love about the industry because those partners are few and far between. One of the things that I appreciate by necessity, frankly around our industry because it is driven by innovative technology, is the appetite for these suppliers, these IT service delivery businesses, to stay knowledgeable, to stay in the conversation. If they didn't get into the conversation about cloud, they missed it. If they didn't get into the conversation about managed services, they fell behind. So there is almost a predetermined requirement to stay hungry for innovation. So it's a struggle. Absolutely. I think you're absolutely right. They will say, oh, do I need to look at another one? What's happening now? And that's why it's so important that we actually get factual about what the impact is going to be and how it's being adopted. But by necessity, they have to stay aware of emerging technologies and innovation and they must pick up the cause on behalf of their customer. Their customer didn't run to them for cybersecurity. It was really brought to them by innovation and the challenge and the threat of cybersecurity that was then evangelized by the IT service provider fulfilling their role to their customers saying, no, this is real. I know you're a small medium business. I know you don't think you're going to be impacted by cyber, but you are, and here's why. And I think the analogy you just provided is twofold for the end user, the SMB customer, and that's what makes this industry and the IT channel so incredible that they have to pick up, you know, this cause and take it to their customer and really take them and show them why it's so important. And AI is going to be very much like that.

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Tiffani Bova: Well, the theme of this summit is AI Unleashed. I'm going to sort of lean into a question I've asked a couple of the other guests as well is, you know, there if you could sort of advise someone who goes, you know, I want to, I want to start a new channel company or I'm leaving my existing channel company, I want to stand up a new channel company. Right. And I say that in air quotes and you, and you could say to them, oh, like if I were going to start a new channel company today, I would do what, what would you do if you were to double down and you said all the things you know, right. You've been watching for a long time. Where would you place your bet?

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Dan Wensley: Well, it's interesting. Starting new brings added advantages and some disadvantages. Setting up the operational infrastructure of a business is no small task and often overlooked. So the first thing I would do is say, look, are you sure you want to, Are you sure you want to? Don't just want to innovate inside an existing operation because that typically would be easier than standing up new. Now, it does come with some advantages. You can also shed yourself of legacy processes or thinkings or infrastructure that has held you back for growth. So if you're going to do it, be aware of the efforts it's going to take on the administration operational side that a legacy incumbent has already in place, but also take advantage of the ability to move arguably more swiftly into just the best in class operational maturity curve, rather than trying to adopt or evolve into that maturity curve, try to take advantage of that, getting that step ahead. But I think both are viable and both are positive, but they'll come with their own challenges.

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Tiffani Bova: I agree. I would say data management is one drum I keep really banging on because AI is only as good as the data. So data management to me, breaking down the silos of multiple data sets, right. We've got so many applications in both SMB and enterprises, there's a lot of sprawl, there's lack of integration between those data sets. And if you really are going to maximize what agentic and AI brings to bear, you have to get that right. And that's where I think channel companies have an opportunity to actually use what they sell. I always say to partners, if you're not using what you sell, it's harder to sell it. And so have you seen any really great use cases of partners coming to market with a great, you know, I don't want to just bulk in AI as one big category. It's not like AI is a box and you sell it and it just works. There's so much that goes in it. But actually come to market with something you felt was unique or different or a great customer story where one of the partners as part of the GTIA community has really been successful.

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Dan Wensley: Yeah, and we're highlighting many of those now and you know, as we're looking to provide guidance and resources for the larger community and the membership. You know, the Quick Guide to AI reminds me of the Quick Guide to Cyber and the Quick Guide to Managed Services, but those are the jumping off points. What I think is really a valid point that you make is around data. You and I had conversations a few years ago about the importance of data. That was a part of our vernacular and our conversation and I think it's come full circle now. It's mission critical to really leverage what we're going to see in the opportunity for AI. At the end of the day, it is access to data, the manipulation of that data and the ability to take that data and be more innovative and be more automated and provide maybe autonomous computing  for truly, maybe the first time into our industry. We've been talking about it for decades. Is it here? So I think in some ways, you know, to our earlier points that we talked about in this conversation, sometimes we're ahead of our skis on the terminology by years or decades. And some of those things you and I talked about and you've been so good about explaining to the industry as an analyst are really starting to come to fruition now with what we're seeing. And that's an exciting time because I do think it takes time to catch up, whether its technology or adoption curve by the customer or this provider themselves.

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Tiffani Bova: Well, what I love most about the channel, the ecosystem, the partner community, whatever you want to call it, is the fact that it's all about community and connection. And you know, for those that are watching this, that are in it, you know exactly what I mean. For those of you who are watching this that aren't that familiar with it, you know, it is some massive percentage, you know, some vendors are 50% north of 50%, some are north of 85 or 90% of all their technology goes through some part of the indirect channel, whether it be distribution, whether it be managed service providers or resellers, or any of the terms that we've tossed out there today. But really that community and connection is what it's all about. And I'm hopeful that the partner to partner, community and collaboration and connection really takes off this time. Because I think this is an opportunity where partners working with other partners, whether it's coopetition or in an alliance way or really strategically can take advantage of their individual skills and capabilities. And then one plus one equals three versus trying to go at this alone. Would you agree?

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Dan Wensley: I do. And we've talked about these themes for many, many years. Managed services was, was the first sort of sortie into the ability to expand outside your limited geography of where you could drive to, to provide IT services and the ability to do some autonomic computing and some remote remediation, provided that hey, my market can open up and we talked a lot about in those years, about now, it opens up the ability to partner with other IT service providers across the globe where you may, or across the geography, at least state to state or frankly even globally to be able to provide the on site services that are still a requirement or interaction with the customer, but to be able to own that. So, that to me was the genesis of the partner ecosystem that did develop. But I think you're right, I think this is going to accelerate that and provide new opportunities on even a grander scale.

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Tiffani Bova: So as we wrap this up, Dan, what would be your message to those vendors out there and maybe even partners and integrators and ISVs, et cetera, that aren't part of GTIA or aren't taking advantage of everything that the community can really offer? What would be your message to them and how they could approach you and the organization in a way that really is advancing enablement and education around some of these new innovative technologies.

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Dan Wensley: Yeah, it's really our obligation. I mean, we have been the best kept secret in many ways in the industry for a long time. I sat on the board of this organization over a decade ago. I've been a member for 20 years. And now we have a renewed sense of responsibility to expand the membership. We're doing this in so many ways at GTIA with the global community's expansion, with the Spotlight Awards, with really the resources that we're now developing and delivering into the market. So I encourage everybody to check us out, come see the value. I've been a member again for 20 years and it certainly paid dividends for all of the businesses that I've been a part of as well as my career personally. So I think we have nothing but great things collaboratively to do together and come join the community.

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Tiffani Bova: Excellent. Well, thank you Dan, so much for joining us for this Channel Ecosystem Spotlight at The Six Five Summit. Stay connected with us on social and explore more conversations at SixFiveMedia.com/summit. More insights coming up next.

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Disclaimer: The Six Five Summit is for information and entertainment purposes only. Over the course of this webcast, we may talk about companies that are publicly traded, and we may even reference that fact and their equity share price, but please do not take anything that we say as a recommendation about what you should do with your investment dollars. We are not investment advisors, and we ask that you do not treat us as such.

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