As 2025 approaches, I have been reflecting on recent insights and conversations with partners on tech trends, which have revealed several exciting opportunities for our partner ecosystem.
Customers are increasingly looking for ways to cut through complexity and we are in a pivotal position to help them embrace the right technologies to support the workloads that will be foundational for their long-term success.
Together, with partners, there is a massive opportunity to guide businesses through this transformative time, boosting their ability to innovate, optimise and succeed for years to come.
Here is my perspective on how the partner community is poised to deliver value and impact in 2025 and beyond
AI has transitioned from a luxury to a necessity and has become crucial for customers’ digital transformation journeys in today’s evolving landscape. The urgency to integrate AI into daily operations is evident, from automating routine tasks to extracting key data insights. AI is poised to bolster efficiency, innovation, growth and more impactful outcomes.
To fully unlock AI’s potential, organisations need the right strategy and infrastructure to manage workloads across complex and dynamic IT environments. This creates a significant opportunity for partners to simplify AI and make it more accessible.
In the coming year, businesses will prioritise acquiring the right platforms and tools to integrate AI into essential processes.
PARTNER TIP #1
This ongoing shift offers a tremendous opportunity for partners to play an instrumental role in their customers’ digital transformations. By building robust AI practices and expert AI capabilities partners can empower customers to confidently execute their AI strategies and realise meaningful outcomes.
AI requires a new approach to the data centre and a deeper understanding of the infrastructure required to support the implementation of AI workloads.
AI is prompting customers to rethink their technology strategy. Companies must consider a comprehensive approach to prepare for a highly distributed data landscape spanning on-prem, at the edge, on AI PCs and in the cloud. Currently, 78% of organisations use on-prem or hybrid cloud solutions for generative AI tasks. As AI workloads increase, organisations will need to invest in infrastructure optimised to manage the immense computational demands consuming data at unprecedented rates.
PARTNER TIP #2
Successfully navigating this ever-changing landscape requires meticulous planning. This includes aligning the right data management strategies with the right workloads while balancing quality, cost, security, data, and latency across diverse environments while considering sustainability and scalability.
There is also a growing trend toward disaggregated architecture where compute, storage, and networking are decoupled and treated as independent resources that can be scaled, upgraded, and managed separately.
This optimised and highly tuned approach offers numerous benefits, but also necessitates a reimagining of traditional methods. Businesses that do not implement the right AI strategy and architecture will be at a disadvantage.
PARTNER TIP #3
According to Canalys, the worldwide addressable market for technology will reach $5.44 trillion in 2025 and 70.1% will be partner-delivered. A customer will typically engage with an average of 7 partners when making a strategic decision. Now is the time to sharpen modern infrastructure skills, as the real opportunity for partners lies in bridging gaps, playing a pivotal role in weaving everything together into a cohesive solution.
AI PCs are revolutionising the way we work. From streamlining workflows to enabling advanced data analytics, these powerful devices are not just boosting employee productivity – they are also unlocking a new era of innovation. With AI extending to the edge, the possibilities are limitless.
We are entering a perfect storm of opportunity. As employees return-to-office, they are seeking a seamless on-site experience for new devices that empower employees with AI productivity tools like Copilot.
At the same time, we are approaching a natural PC refresh cycle, fuelled by the largest installed base ever and Microsoft ending Windows 10 support at the end of next year. With 240 million PCs unable to upgrade to Windows 11 and approximately 40% of Windows PCs over six years old, modernisation is no longer optional.
PARTNER TIP #4
The AI PC will be the backbone of modern workplaces. For partners, this presents a unique opportunity to build strong client relationships and drive growth. By helping customers modernise their aging PC fleets, develop silicon diversity strategies and prepare for the future, partners can capture the immense potential of the AI PC market in 2025.
AI is all about a mindset shift from avoiding what is coming, to leaning-in and embracing it. The future is here, and it is going to require collective leadership to support customers in helping them realise the promise of AI.