16 01732 759725 make sure governance, policy, workflow and all of those things are in place. “This is what MSPs have already been doing with cybersecurity. Until you have governance around cybersecurity and policy and procedure, you’re not at a strategic level with it. It’s the same pattern with AI. “If you ask companies whether they are using AI today, 98% will raise their hands, but when you ask are you using AI today in the way I have just described to you, all those hands will go down bar about 20%-30%.” April points out that there are two dimensions to AI: one is its use by MSPs for their own internal processes, which everyone will be doing by default, and the other is implementing it for or selling it to their customers. “Even internally, there’s a need to put policy in place, covering what AI tools are allowed within an organisation and what workflows are going to incorporate AI. If you’re using AI with Office 365, will that be integrated with other work? Is there an assurance mechanism in place for people that are using AI to create content? Is somebody checking that? Do you have an initial process for making sure that AI‑generated is accurate before it goes out the door? All those kind of things around governance are very, very important.” started yet are going to find themselves left behind because of the pace of change. It’s not a five-year process or a 10-year process. It’s a six-month process. “If you haven’t moved out of the ‘we play around with AI, some of our employees are testing it’ phase of AI, you’re already behind. It’s no longer about adoption at a base level. It’s about maturity in the use of AI within your organisation and how you make it a revenue generator for your company.” So, how would GTIA define maturity? “Maturity as we define it is a company that has adopted AI in a strategic way. And that means having a formal leader in your organisation that owns AI initiatives. It isn’t just something for the IT department. You have a designated person that owns, from the top down, what your company’s going to do with AI, where you are going to use it, where you are not going to use it and how you can sell it to customers. “Next, having governance around AI. Right now, in a lot of companies, individuals are sitting at their desks and using ChatGPT or whatever and there’s no integration, from an organisational standpoint, between all the business functions and applications that use AI. To consider yourself a company that is doing AI at a strategic level, you need to Last month’s MSP Show in London gave Technology Reseller the opportunity to meet up with Carolyn April to discuss GTIA Research’s State of the Channel 2026 report for the UK and Ireland. Based on a survey of 130 IT service providers (ITSPs) in the region, the report’s key finding is that while 42% of ITSPs identified AI services as the top revenue driver for the coming months, only 30% have fully embedded AI into their business models, have formal AI leadership and operational strategies in place and are generating AI revenue. According to the research, 35% of UK and Ireland ITSPs currently generate between 11% and 25% of their revenue from AI-related products and services, with just 7% generating over half of their revenue in these areas. We started out by asking Carolyn April what findings really stood out for her in the report. She highlighted three main takeaways, starting with AI. AI: time to hustle into execution “We are at an inflection point with AI right now where the channel needs to get out of experimentation mode and pilot days mode and really hustle into execution,” she said. “A lot of channel companies are already doing that, and those that haven’t With Carolyn April, Vice President of Research and Market Intelligence at The Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA) Q&A Q&A continued... Carolyn April
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