At ChannelCon 2026 in San Diego, California, I sat down with five channel leaders for a series of podcast conversations about the forces reshaping our industry:
Jennifer Anaya, senior vice president of global marketing at Ingram Micro, on why providers must stop selling technology and start selling business value.
Roberto Elizondo, president and CEO of TRiNet International, on what 30 years in technology can teach us about navigating change.
Reza Sanjideh, founder of Advanced 2000, on the importance of thinking differently before the next crisis.
Hollie Whittles, director at Purple Frog Systems, on the hidden personal and organizational costs of high achievement.
Greg Jones, senior vice president of MSP success at Kaseya, on why MSPs should never try to grow alone.
Each conversation explored the future of the channel from a different perspective. When considered alongside the ChannelCon keynote, however, they revealed a common message: IT service providers are entering a period that will demand stronger leadership, clearer business value, greater resilience, healthier ways of working, and deeper collaboration.
The keynote provided the industry-wide context. AI is changing how providers operate and create value. Customers need help with governance, security, training, and implementation. Professional standards are rising, and organizations are beginning to redesign work around collaboration between people and AI.
My five podcast guests helped translate those industry trends into practical leadership lessons.
Visit JoeyPinz.com throughout September to catch these five ChannelCon 2026 podcast episodes as they are released.
Here are the five ChannelCon 2026 takeaways every IT service provider should act on.
5 ChannelCon 2026 Takeaways Every IT Service Provider Should Act On
The ChannelCon 2026 keynote painted a picture of an IT channel at an inflection point.
Artificial intelligence is changing how providers operate and create value. Customers are demanding stronger security, governance, and guidance. New professional standards are emerging, while businesses are beginning to rethink how people and AI work together.
The keynote presented the industry-wide view. Five podcast conversations I recorded at ChannelCon brought those themes to life through the perspectives of leaders working across the channel.
I spoke with Jennifer Anaya of Ingram Micro about selling business value instead of technology; Roberto Elizondo of TRiNet International about lessons from three decades in tech; Reza Sanjideh of Advanced 2000 about thinking differently before the next crisis; Hollie Whittles of Purple Frog Systems about the hidden cost of high achievement; and Greg Jones of Kaseya about why MSPs should never grow alone.
Together, the keynote and these five conversations point to five actions every IT service provider should consider now.
1. Stop Selling Technology and Start Selling Business Value
AI was one of the dominant subjects of the ChannelCon keynote. The message was not simply that AI is coming—it is already here.
According to figures shared during the keynote, 97% of MSPs report using AI internally. However, only 20% have meaningful governance around it, and just 25% have turned AI into a formal revenue strategy.
That creates a significant gap between experimentation and business value.
Customers are also experimenting with AI, often without a clear understanding of tool selection, employee training, security, governance, or implementation. They do not necessarily need another product added to their technology stack. They need someone who can connect the technology to an outcome.
That idea closely reflects my conversation with Jennifer Anaya, senior vice president of global marketing at Ingram Micro, in Episode 933: “Stop Selling Technology—Start Selling Business Value.”
Technology alone is rarely the outcome a customer wants. Customers want to reduce costs, improve productivity, protect their data, serve their own customers better, and make smarter decisions.
AI services should therefore begin with a business question rather than a product demonstration:
What problem does the customer need to solve?
What outcome would make the investment worthwhile?
How will success be measured?
What risks must be managed?
Where does human oversight remain essential?
IT service providers that can answer those questions will be positioned as strategic advisors—not simply technology resellers.
Action to take: Choose one AI use case that produces a measurable business result. Test it internally, document the process, and turn what you learn into a repeatable customer offering.
2. Use Experience as a Foundation—Not an Anchor
The IT channel has always changed. What feels different today is the speed at which multiple changes are happening at once.
AI is transforming service delivery. Consolidation is changing the competitive landscape. Cybersecurity threats continue to evolve. Customers are buying differently, and traditional business models are under pressure.
During the keynote, attendees were encouraged to confront these changes together rather than try to navigate them alone. The message was that experience remains valuable, but past success does not automatically provide a roadmap for what comes next.
That theme connects with my conversation with Roberto Elizondo, president and CEO of TRiNet International, in Episode 934: “What 30 Years in Tech Teaches You.”
Three decades in technology provide a valuable perspective on cycles of innovation, disruption, and reinvention. The enduring lesson is not that one way of operating will always work. It is that adaptability, relationships, and sound judgment remain valuable even as the technology changes.
Experienced providers have an important advantage. They understand customers, recognize patterns, and know that new technology must ultimately solve a real problem. The danger comes when established processes, services, or assumptions become too difficult to question.
The ChannelCon fireside chat challenged leaders to move beyond industrial-age organizational models and redesign work around outcomes. That requires deciding which lessons from the past still apply and which practices now stand in the way.
Action to take: Review your current services and operating practices. Identify one that exists primarily because “we have always done it that way,” and determine whether it still serves the outcome your business or customers need.
3. Prepare for the Next Crisis Before It Arrives
Trust has always mattered in managed services, but the standard for earning that trust is rising.
The keynote noted that one-third of service providers have experienced a successful cyberattack. The same providers helping customers defend themselves are also targets because of the access, data, and systems they manage.
A provider’s internal security posture is no longer just an operational matter. It is part of the value proposition.
ChannelCon also introduced initiatives designed to bring greater accountability to the industry. GTIA announced its work with Texas A&M’s Global Cyber Research Institute to form the Consortium for Responsible IT Services. Its goal is to help establish operational, professional, and technical standards for organizations providing IT services.
GTIA also announced the Managed Intelligence Alliance, an initiative intended to help make the delivery of AI services repeatable, governable, and trustworthy.
These announcements signal where the industry is going. Customers, insurers, partners, and regulators will increasingly expect IT service providers to demonstrate how they manage security, governance, resilience, and professional responsibility.
My conversation with Reza Sanjideh, founder of Advanced 2000, added a fitting perspective in Episode 935: “Think Differently Before the Next Crisis.”
Resilience cannot be created in the middle of an emergency. By that point, organizations are relying on the decisions, controls, relationships, and habits they established earlier.
Thinking differently before the next crisis means looking beyond prevention. Providers should consider how quickly they can detect a problem, contain it, communicate with customers, restore operations, and learn from the event.
Action to take: Run a tabletop exercise covering a cyberattack, major service outage, or misuse of AI. Include technical response, customer communication, decision-making authority, business continuity, and recovery.
4. Redesign Work Without Sacrificing Your People
The ChannelCon keynote did not frame AI simply as a tool for replacing employees. It explored a future in which humans and AI agents work together.
One keynote speaker argued that the industry may be focusing too narrowly on using AI to automate individual tasks. The larger opportunity is to redesign work around outcomes and then determine how people and AI can contribute to those outcomes.
That shift matters because businesses face two challenges simultaneously. They must increase productivity while navigating a long-term talent shortage. The keynote highlighted demographic changes that could leave organizations with fewer knowledge workers available to perform the work ahead.
AI may help close part of that gap, but technology does not eliminate the need for human capability. Judgment, intuition, systems thinking, creativity, empathy, and relationship-building will remain essential.
The human side of transformation also surfaced in my conversation with Hollie Whittles, director at Purple Frog Systems, in Episode 936: “The Hidden Cost of High Achievement.”
High-performing leaders and teams often carry more responsibility as their organizations grow. Constant urgency can be mistaken for commitment, while exhaustion can be treated as evidence that someone is indispensable. That is not a sustainable operating model—especially during a period of continuous change.
AI creates an opportunity to remove low-value work and give people more capacity for higher-value contributions. But that will only happen if leaders deliberately redesign responsibilities, decision-making, and expectations. Adding AI to a broken or overloaded process may only help the organization perform the wrong work faster.
Action to take: Ask your team which repetitive tasks consume time without benefiting from human judgment. Choose one to simplify, automate, delegate, or eliminate—and reinvest the saved capacity in more valuable work.
5. Never Try to Grow Alone
“The Channel Effect” was more than the theme of ChannelCon 2026. It was the idea connecting much of the keynote.
Industry transformation is too large and too fast for any provider to navigate entirely alone. The strongest opportunities often emerge from relationships with peers, vendors, distributors, technology partners, and industry organizations.
ChannelCon attendees were encouraged to ask difficult questions, meet unfamiliar people, share honest feedback, and treat community participation as a business advantage.
GTIA reinforced that message by announcing local chapters designed to give members more opportunities to connect in their own regions. Sixteen chapters were already forming at the time of the keynote. The association also highlighted its global communities, educational resources, research, standards initiatives, and industry events.
My conversation with Greg Jones, senior vice president of MSP success at Kaseya, aligned directly with this message. Episode 937 asked: “Why MSPs Should Never Grow Alone.”
Growth becomes more sustainable when providers have access to people who understand their challenges. Peer relationships can expose blind spots, shorten learning curves, create partnerships, and help leaders avoid repeating mistakes that others have already solved.
Collaboration does not mean giving up a competitive advantage. It means recognizing that strong ecosystems can create opportunities no single organization could produce independently.
One conversation in a hallway, at a chapter meeting, or through a peer group could influence the most important business decision a provider makes this year.
Action to take: Identify one relationship your business should strengthen—a peer, vendor, distributor, community, or potential strategic partner—and schedule a conversation with a clear shared objective.
From ChannelCon Conversation to Action
ChannelCon 2026 made it clear that the next chapter of the IT channel will not be defined by AI alone.
It will be defined by how providers turn AI into business value, apply experience without becoming constrained by it, prepare for disruption, support their people, and collaborate across the channel.
The five priorities are clear:
Sell measurable business outcomes instead of technology.
Use experience to guide change without resisting it.
Strengthen security, governance, and resilience before a crisis.
Redesign work around human strengths and AI capabilities.
Build the relationships that make sustainable growth possible.
The keynote provided the industry’s call to action. My five ChannelCon podcast conversations added the voices and leadership perspectives behind it.
Now the challenge is to carry those ideas beyond the conference.
The providers that act on them will be positioned to become more efficient, resilient, and valuable to their customers. More importantly, they will help shape the future of the channel instead of waiting for that future to be shaped for them.