AI Shines at Canalys Forum North America: Dell, Lenovo, HPE

CANALYS FORUM NORTH AMERICA — If you sat through the Wednesday keynote session at the Canalys Forum North America in Miami Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, you might get the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) is a thing.

And by "thing," we mean a massive opportunity for channel partners.

But while AI remains a somewhat nebulous topic to some, the analysts at Canalys, alongside the top vendor and distributor execs gracing the Canalys Forum stage this week, are putting AI into real terms. It's not necessarily AI itself but how it is weaved into all sorts of technology that partners sell; in some cases, tech they've sold for years.

From PCs to the data center, partners will find an AI revolution landing on their doorsteps if it hasn't already. And that's not just for large enterprise customers. In some ways, innovation might begin with the SMB partner and customer as they look to be more productive on a budget.

But AI isn't the only topic at this week's event. Canalys analysts offered plenty of updates on the overall market opportunity, breaking that down into categories such as software as a service, security and more.

See our full recap of day one in the slideshow above.

(Canalys and Channel Futures are both part of Informa.)