GenAI Services: A Golden Opportunity for Channel Partners

Canalys research highlights the vast potential in the GenAI space for channel partners, with the market expected to expand from $15.4 billion to $158.6 billion by 2028. This growth offers channel partners significant opportunities to create new revenue streams, especially as the demand for expertise in GenAI deployment, management, and optimization increases. The rising need for GenAI solutions presents an ideal moment for channel partners to expand their services in consulting and managed offerings.

The Rise of GenAI Centers of Excellence

At the heart of this transformative wave is the concept of an GenAI Center of Excellence (CoE). An GenAI CoE acts as a hub where channel partners can offer customers comprehensive support in three critical areas.

1. Thought Leadership and Expertise: Channel partners can position themselves as thought leaders by providing expert advice to drive customer engagement. Educating customers on the potential of GenAI and how it can be harnessed to achieve their business objectives is crucial.
2. Pre-Sales GenAI Consulting Services: Partners can offer pre-sales consulting services to help clients understand the specific benefits GenAI can bring to their operations and how it aligns with their business goals.
3. Post-Sale Managed Services GenAI Packages: The journey continues after the sale with managed and professional services tailored to maintaining and optimizing GenAI solutions, ensuring they evolve in tandem with the business.

Market Dynamics and Opportunities

The push towards GenAI automation is driven by compelling market dynamics:

• Increasing CIO Investment in GenAI: A significant statistic to note is the growing percentage of CIOs allocating substantial portions of their 2024 budgets to GenAI initiatives, despite many not yet fully understanding how to leverage this technology. The global GenAI market's projected worth is approximately $196.63 billion in 2024, expected to surge to $1.85 trillion by 2030, marked by a CAGR of 32.9% from 2022 to 2030.
• High-Value, High-Margin Services: The sophistication required in deploying and managing GenAI solutions translates to high-value, high-margin offerings for channel partners. These services are not one-off transactions but continuous engagements that evolve as the customer's needs grow and change.
• The Continual Journey of GenAI Automation: GenAI automation is not a destination but a journey. As businesses solve one challenge, they uncover new opportunities for improvement, making GenAI managed services a continually evolving and sticky offering.

The Importance of Thought Leadership

For channel partners, establishing a position of thought leadership is crucial. Investing in training and enabling teams, obtaining certifications, and actively participating in the GenAI community can elevate their status in the industry. Leading webinars, authoring insightful papers, and headlining industry events can drive customer interest and build a robust sales pipeline.? For example, Microsoft offers a learning path titled “Develop Generative GenAI solutions with Azure OpenAI Service,” aimed at GenAI engineers and developers. This intermediate-level training covers various aspects of working with Azure’s GenAI services, including the use of OpenAI’s large language models like ChatGPT, GPT, Codex, and Embeddings models for natural language processing solutions.

By obtaining certifications and completing these training programs, channel partners can significantly boost their GenAI proficiency. This expertise not only aids in delivering high-quality GenAI consulting and managed services but also positions partners as authoritative figures in the GenAI domain. Investing and encouraging team members to pursue certifications and training is a key strategy in driving customer interest and differentiation.

Continuous ROI of GenAI Automation

The ROI from GenAI automation is both significant and ongoing. With each process improvement, businesses unlock new efficiencies, driving continual value. This makes GenAI services an attractive proposition for customers, providing channel partners with a golden opportunity to build long-term, valuable relationships.

Closing Thoughts

The GenAI automation software market boom represents a watershed moment for channel partners. By establishing GenAI Centers of Excellence and positioning themselves as leaders in GenAI consulting, professional, and managed services, partners can capitalize on this burgeoning demand. The time to act is now, as businesses eagerly seek expertise to harness the transformative power of GenAI, promising a future of endless opportunities and sustained growth for those ready to lead the charge.

GenAI market statistics and projections - sources used in this article:

• Canalys Insights - Generative AI will be a US$158.6 billion opportunity for the channel ecosystem by 2028 Jay McBain
• GenAI Market Size Statistics 2024 https://explodingtopics.com/blog/ai-statistics)

About the Author

Based in Columbus, Ohio, I’m Jonathan Dunham, living in the Buckeye state with my wife Jennifer and our two dogs, Rusty and Clark. With a solid background in sales and channel strategy, I have a focus on the technology and cloud sectors, including AI, GenAI, CX, UC, CC, and SaaS. My career journey has involved revenue growth, strategic acquisitions, and being part of launching cloud-based CX innovations. I’m interested in the CX market, channels, customer experience, startups, and angel investing, with a strong enthusiasm for all things tech. Currently serving as the VP of Strategic Channels at IntelePeer.ai, a leading GenAI CX Automation platform, my role involves building key partnerships and developing innovative strategies that have led to notable key wins for the company.

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