MicroScope+ Premium Content/MicroScope

With a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and noise about the channel’s role, it is interesting that HPE boss Antonio Neri recently claimed the company’s tie-up with Nvidia for HPE’s Private Cloud AI “makes the channel relevant in AI for the first time”. It gave rise to the question of whether Neri was entirely accurate in what he said. How could it be accurate when there has been so much buzz about the channel’s involvement in AI from other vendors for so many months? Has it all been hype or does the channel already have relevance in AI? And if so, where and how? A tool to help partners Tom Henson, managing director at Emerge Digital, feels Neri’s comment is inaccurate for most channel companies. “The channel has been very proactive in promoting, educating on, and now utilising and advocating for the use of AI,” he says. “It is widely acknowledged within the channel that AI is still in the early stages, but its true potential is rapidly being unlocked.” He cites Microsoft and Copilot as a prime example, with the ...