2027 Agenda

AI is changing where value is created across the channel. A single customer journey may involve a technology advisor shaping demand, an ISV developing a solution, a services firm implementing it, an MSP operating and governing it, and a distributor or marketplace facilitating the transaction. Yet many partner programs still reward only the final sale or the easiest activity to measure. This keynote explores whether partners who drive real impact either earlier or later in the journey are being undervalued. In this vendor-neutral session, OpenAI's Lakshmi Saranath presents a practical framework partners can use to understand how their contributions should be recognized, for what work, and based on what evidence.

Lakshmi will walk attendees through partner roles across discovery, solution design, deployment, adoption, consumption, retention, and expansion. She will help partners pinpoint where they create the most value — and where value in the AI era may go unrecognized. Lakshmi will also compare transaction-based, services-based, consumption-based, and outcome-based economic models, explaining how contributions get attributed, how results get verified, and how to prevent duplicate or unearned rewards when multiple partners touch a single customer outcome. These insights will help partners articulate their vital role in the AI era with greater confidence and specificity — and will give vendors and suppliers a clearer view of how to build new-age incentive structures that properly reward the value partners bring throughout the customer journey.

Using a realistic multi-partner scenario, Lakshmi will show how desired customer outcomes connect back to specific partner activities, and share best practices for measurement, reward criteria, and finance-ready KPIs. Partners will leave with language and evidence to make their value visible; vendor and supplier attendees will leave with a repeatable approach for evaluating partner contributions and adapting business models as AI reshapes customer needs — all while protecting trust, margin, and sustainable growth.