The State of Channel Partnerships 2026

The channel ecosystem is at an inflection point as AI boosts productivity while increasing enterprise complexity. This session breaks down three barriers limiting partner-led growth—partners don’t know what’s expected, can’t deliver outcomes, or won’t engage under legacy incentives—and outlines how to modernize metrics, enablement, offers, pricing, and services to win through partners in the AI era.

The AI era is forcing technology vendors to confront three systemic barriers that limit partner-led growth: the “Don’t Know” problem (partners are unclear on expectations and still measured on transactional behaviors), the “Can’t Do” problem (partners lack the skills and enablement to deliver customer outcomes), and the “Won’t Do” problem (offers and incentives still reward one-time transactions rather than recurring revenue). Unless vendors address all three, partner ecosystems will continue to drift out of alignment with modern, AI-powered offers.