By: Jim Roddy, President & CEO at the RSPA
I’m as pro-channel as they come, but even I couldn’t match the optimism of futurist, tech entrepreneur, and AI expert Byron Reese, one of the featured main stage speakers at ScanSource’s 2025 Partner First Conference held Sept. 8-10 in Arlington, TX.
“In a world of many choices – and that’s the world we’re in,” Reese told the nearly 1,000 attendees, “there’s nothing more valuable than a trusted guide.”
AI chatter was infused into nearly every Partner First presentation and many hallway conversations with the consensus being, “We haven’t figured this out yet – but no doubt we will.”
The retail IT channel could teach a doctorate-level course on change, and AI is the latest new thing in that pattern. High-initiative solution providers will continue to stay close to their customers – and each other – to help chart everyone’s best path forward.
That said, our channel is going to need to brace for even more change, Reese predicted, and VARs and ISVs should double-down on personal service.
“Things are about to go crazy and really take off,” he said. “It took all of human history to make your laptop, and in two years there will be a laptop with double the capability.
“But even with all the technology advancements, the jobs of tomorrow will be relationship-based because people don’t want to build a relationship with a machine.”
Tuesday’s Mobility, POS & Payments Training Camp included an industry panel talking AI. David Gosman of HP, Madhu Vasu of Verifone, Christine Collins of Advantix, Mohit Panwar of Honeywell, and moderator Ansley Hoke of ScanSource offered several insights including:
- AI is not as easy as it seems. Think about customer problems first.
- AI is not complete without data. Proprietary business data makes the models more precise.
- AI can be expensive, so you have to try to make AI solutions make sense from an ROI perspective if you want merchants to embrace the technology.
- Start your AI journey with efficiencies for your own employees first, then experiment and learn with willing customers.
- You can partner with other solution providers to help you go to market with AI.
- We’ve been piloting AI solutions with some of our retailers, and the results are astonishing.
The panelists shared several AI applications in retail, restaurant, and grocery, and Gosman further expanded that list in his breakout session that afternoon. Two that caught my eye were both QSR (quick-service restaurant) applications. Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Wendy’s are designing stores with all customer-facing tasks automated through voice AI, digital signage, and kiosks.
Employees still make the food, but AI is helping there as well. Cameras watch the food prep area and can alert the worker of an incorrect ingredient or food contamination. Gosman said one Wendy’s pilot location experienced improved order accuracy, labor savings, and enhanced upsells, resulting in a 0.8% margin improvement.
I don’t want to give a false impression that Partner First was AI First, but AI was undoubtedly top of mind for everyone.
That tracks with other channel events I’ve attended this year; executives at those shows were struggling to wrap their brain around their role in a world hypnotized by AI’s possibilities.
What made the ScanSource Conference different was the general consensus that not only are entrepreneurial retail IT channel companies going to survive in this new world, they’re going to lead the way.
Baur: “Couldn’t Be More Excited” About VAR Opportunities
ScanSource Chair & CEO Mike Baur addressed the changing channel head on during his main stage presentation. “Over time, our role as a company has changed,” he said. “We want you to look at your business and see what you should change.”
Baur analyzed for the audience the business model convergence that $3B ScanSource is seeing among its 25,000 partners. What used to be only product resale is now a three-legged stool that also includes professional services and managed services.
“We don’t play in all of that yet, but we want to, and we want to do that through you,” Baur said. “Some of these services we want to sell them to your customers on your behalf. … We’re on an ambitious plan to double our business over the next five years. We’ll do that through more acquisitions and by helping our partners grow.”
Baur echoed Reese’s “trusted guide” view that VARs are in a strong position to win more business. “Trusted channel partners are ‘invited’ to offer more by their customers. End users will require devices and services and software.
“We’re not as smart as all of you combined. I couldn’t be more excited today about the opportunity.”
Sorrentino: VARs Increase Value Through Adjacent Technologies
Tony Sorrentino, President of ScanSource’s North American Specialty Segment, kicked off the event’s opening session, then I had the opportunity to meet him in one-on-one shortly before the close of Partner First 2025.
Sorrentino summarized 2025 as a year of transition for the channel. He noted that muted spending at the end user level is leading more solution providers to ask themselves, What do I need to do differently? How can I transition into something new?
Sorrentino challenged the audience: “Let’s think of 2026 as a transformation year. Many of you built your business in (technology) silos. I encourage you to think of convergence going forward. The age of convergence is truly upon us. The channel is the backbone of this ecosystem. It takes a village – and we are the village.”
I asked Sorrentino to expand upon the transformation he’s seeing and to specifically address skeptical retail IT VARs. He stressed that solution providers don’t need certainty of their ultimate destination when they embrace transformation. They need to start with learning followed by testing.
“This is both an offensive opportunity and a defensive opportunity for VARs,” he said. “We conducted an end user study, and they told us the more they can get from one provider the better. They really want one-stop shopping. They don’t want to be dazzled. They want it to work, and they want to make it work with as few vendors as possible. We encourage partners to tap into adjacent technologies so they can be more valuable for their customer.”
Some partners need more encouraging than others, he said. “I saw one of our security VARs today and he was walking into the security breakout. I said, ‘Why are you going there? What are you going to learn in there? You already know security. Go learn something new and meet new people.’”
Sorrentino also shared with me details about ScanSource’s AI Center of Excellence. Recently launched as an internal initiative, this group is designed to become an external knowledge hub for ScanSource solution providers.
“We’ll pilot this first internally and see what kind of returns it can get,” Sorrentino said. “AI will be embedded in all the technologies we sell, and we’ll continue in the learning phase of AI. We’re in the infancy of AI. Who knows where this will go? We don’t know yet what’s possible.”
More Insights from Partner First 2025
New ScanSource initiatives highlighted at the event included:
- Integrated Solutions Group: Launched at Partner First 2024, ISG is designed to enable solution providers to wrap value-added services around hardware
- ScanSource Launch Point: An accelerator program designed to identify and scale innovative solutions offerings that might not currently operate in traditional technology channels
- Channel Exchange: Focus on cloud-first solutions
VARs and ISVs don’t have to rely on vibes and anecdotes to see where our industry is heading. Distributors help the channel community understand trends through their sales numbers. Among the facts and figures shared by ScanSource included:
- Physical security is its fastest-growing technology segment
- ScanSource shared its recurring revenue as a percentage of gross profit, and those numbers are trending up: 28% in 2024, 33% in 2025, and a projected 50% in 2028
- 10 ISVs exhibited at Partner First, more than any previous ScanSource event
- I didn’t jot down the specific numbers, but mobile computing is replacing many traditional POS systems in new installations
Ron Insana, one of the foremost financial reporters in the U.S., helped start the show Monday with an assessment of the American economy. Among his noteworthy observations:
- AI and related industries (e.g. data centers, power for those data centers) is booming.
- The average tariff/import tax rate is 17%, the highest in nearly a century.
- Unpredictability will dominate the business world for a period of time.
- We could be moving towards a “mini stagflation environment” – persistent inflation combined with stagnant consumer demand and relatively high unemployment.
- Business leaders need to ask themselves, “What could blindside me tomorrow?” Insana quipped you might want to pose that question to ChatGPT.
Finally, these quotes caught my eye – I mean caught my ear:
- “Some company cultures are not broken, but they’re not built to win.” Chelsey Paulson, Keystone International (and Past RSPA Board Chair)
- “AI won’t replace humans, but humans with AI will.” Ansley Hoke, ScanSource SVP, Integrated Solutions and Services
