Partnerships in business usually are business-to-business relationships that are mutually beneficial to both parties. We will explore here what are AI partnerships and how AI businesses operate partner programs to recruit and support partners, which will help them grow their businesses.
What is a partner program?
Vendors employ a partner program as a business strategy to motivate channel partners to promote or sell their products and services.
What types of AI Partnerships exist?
In the fields of AI and machine learning, partnerships often fall into a number of categories:
- Reselling an AI product: This could be as a VAR, an affiliate or a co-seller
- Integrating an AI product into an existing software tool: this type of partnership could be via a cloud marketplace or a more bespoke strategic alliance. For instance, you could integrate a Chat Bot or forecasting tool into your software product and sell the combined offering under your own brand.
- Consultants coming together to fill skills gaps: there are many ways this could be structured, including for a short-term project or a longer-term strategic alliance. The aim is to enhance the offering of both partners.
What sort of organization would enter into an AI partnership?
- Reseller: looking to increase the variety and quality of their offerings.
- Software Vendors: These companies may be looking to enhance their offering by adding AI products that they can sell pre-integrated. They might also be looking to co-develop a solution with a partner and share some of the ongoing revenue, or they could be looking for specialist consultants with AI expertise to support the implementation of their products.
- Consultants: Advisors looking to expand their core competencies or increase their bandwidth will often partner with other consultants.
What are the benefits of an AI partnership?
- Speed to market: The development time for some AI products can often be measured in Quarters or years, and if you find yourself behind the competition, a partnership can help you quickly bridge the gap.
- Expertise: Your core area of expertise may be something other than AI, and a partnership can help you provide the skills your team needs.
- Product enhancement: API-first AI products in specialist areas like Chatbots, forecasting and scheduling can improve a software product with just an integration.
- Meeting the customer’s need: As the saying goes, “if you don’t look after your customer, someone else will”. Many organizations are looking to transform their operations using AI, and if your customer is one of these and you can’t meet their requirements, a partnership may help you fill that gap.
- Risk: A partner may already have a proven product offering a lower risk profile than building something in-house.
