Technology advisors are feeling the ground shift as vendors reshape partner programs to reward services over pure sales and AI knowledge management tools get good at consulting research. While the model remains entrenched, TAs are being pushed to redefine their role with vendors and clients.
AI is central to the drama. The technology is a double-edged sword, threatening some aspects of the TA model and uplifting others, according to CXponent CEO Joe Rice.
“AI does reduce the barrier to entry in a lot of opportunities for us as agents,” Rice said Monday, during a Technology Advisor Alliance panel hosted by Channel Dive Senior Reporter James Anderson. “The flip side of this, which does keep me up at night a little bit, is I don't think we should operate [as if we’re] entitled to evergreen commissions forever for just sourcing a lead eight years ago.”
TAs can leverage generative AI to automate services, but it is not a panacea, Rice notes, citing the capabilities of Claude Code and similar tools.
“You can use generative AI to get a long way, but you’re still going to need platform, context and certs, or some deep knowledge in the near term,” he said. “That presents a big opportunity for us, and I don't think you need 15 people to go build a bench to be good at it.”
In the near term, CXponent, which specializes in IT procurement research, budgeting, brokerage and project management, is looking at significant upside as mid-market enterprises deploy AI.
“Our business model is perfectly suited to AI,” Rice said. “We ultimately manage and intake a bunch of information, we filter it out, we validate what's true and spit it back to our customers to be able to move forward, so they have trust and certainty in projects.”
Advisory and services
Implementing AI in a TA practice can be a tricky proposition, given the current fears over tech industry workforce displacement. But the challenges are navigable, Heather Campbell, chief experience officer at ARG, said during the panel.
The technology consulting firm equipped its nearly 100-person staff with AI tools and certifications last year and has an internal team building AI agents. While there were initial job security fears, the company has automated heavy-lift data collection and analysis tasks.
“Our philosophy has always been that the more time our staff spends with our clients, talking to them, the better off we are,” Campbell said. “So we have really worked hard to automate … so that our consultants, who are one of our most valuable resources, have more time to spend with our clients.”
At ARG, AI is helping to expand from pure advisory into services, as vendors push partners to provide broader coverage.
“We do ticketing and triage for our clients,” Campbell said. “We solve the problem at the first call with most of our clients — at least half before they get passed on to the provider.”
‘Picks and shovels’
TAs are in the unusual position of protecting their business model from AI incursions while arming clients with the tools to move forward with adoption.
“We're kind of selling the picks and shovels,” Keith Hatley, co-founder and partner at Cloud Communication Group, said during the panel. “We don't sell a whole lot of AI, but we sell the stuff that makes AI work.”
Vendors have traditionally outsourced sales to agents to minimize in-house operating expenditures. That role will diminish if customers trust AI to inform IT purchases.
“You can now use technology to help you determine what technology you need to buy,” Hatley said. “So, now we have to look at it in terms of how else do we add to our value proposition.”
While the technological demands are changing, the core of advisory services — and the key to sticking around — is relationship building Hatley said.
“First and foremost, you have to make sure that you're spending time with your clients,” he said. “You’ve got to scale your business. But at the end of the day, you can't scale if you're losing customers just as quickly as you're acquiring them … Just because you've got a relationship with somebody that bought from you today doesn't mean that they're going to be there in three years.”
