CBTS is positioning channel partners to help customers identify where agentic AI can produce measurable results. The technology services company will handle the engineering needed to put the agents into production.
The company earlier this month launched an AI agent-building platform activated by plain-language prompts. Forge Agents bundles engineering, governance and managed operations and works with the models and technology environments customers already use, CBTS said.
For partner firms, the opportunity starts before creating any agent, CBTS CTO Mark Giles told Channel Dive.
“Our trusted advisors add value the minute they begin the conversation with the client,” Giles said. “Building the agent is only one part of getting it into production.”
Giles said partners can use their knowledge of a customer’s business and technology environment to identify repeatable, high-volume workflows, define measurable outcomes and align the right stakeholders. CBTS handles the engineering to build, govern and operate the agent.
Depending on the engagement, partners may also support discovery, integration, change management or ongoing optimization, Giles said. After launch, they can help customers identify the next use case, measure results and expand what works.
Forge Agents includes 187 pre-built artifacts and 34 cross-industry blueprints and supports Anthropic, Google, AWS, Cisco and on-premises deployments.
The platform doesn’t require partners to become engineering shops to participate.
“Our trusted advisors don’t need a bench full of AI engineers,” Giles said.
Instead, they need to understand workflow discovery, security, data governance and change management, and connect each use case to a measurable outcome.
Giles suggested partners start with work the customer already understands and tracks. The data should be trustworthy, the boundaries defined, and a person able to review or reverse what the agent does.
“If no one can explain what success looks like, who approves an exception or what happens when the agent is wrong, the workload is not ready for production,” Giles said.
CBTS made governance a core capability. Forge Agents includes access controls, intake gates, auditable decision trails, usage analytics and metered spend. Sensitive workloads can run within a customer’s own tenancy, CBTS said.
For partners, the governance boils down to an approved AI route users will follow.
“You can’t govern what you can’t see,” Giles said. “If the approved path is slow or difficult, employees will find another one.”
Partners can help establish intake processes for AI ideas, operationalize approved tools, and build security and governance into workflows from the start, Giles said. At the same time, he argued against applying the same controls to every use case.
“An agent summarizing internal documents should not face the same restrictions as one that changes a financial record or communicates with a client,” Giles said.
As AI risks rise, so should approval requirements, audit trails and human oversight, he added.
“No matter the use case, the goal is to make the secure option the easiest option for employees while keeping consequential actions visible and controlled,” Giles said.
Giles said ownership depends on the use case and what each party has agreed to handle. The customer defines business policy, acceptable risk and the authority granted to an agent, while service providers are responsible for components within their scope.
“The operating model should document who approves the agent, who monitors it, who can stop it, and how incidents or exceptions are handled,” he said.
CBTS developed Forge Agents after deploying AI internally, with more than 2,300 employees. The company said it reached full ROI within four months.
“The channel opportunity is to help clients make AI operational,” Giles said. “The best place to begin is one process with an outcome the client can measure.”
Meanwhile, CBTS is expanding the infrastructure behind its AI strategy. The company on Sept. 10 acquired Recovery Point Systems, adding Tier III, fiber-dense data centers alongside disaster recovery and cyber resiliency capabilities. CBTS said the facilities strengthen its ability to host AI infrastructure in resilient, scalable environments customers can control.
