According to Justin Carver of Dell Technologies, solution providers are playing a leading role in the effort to make artificial intelligence a reality for customers.
When it comes to implementing generative AI, solution providers are playing a leading role in efforts to make it “real” for customers, according to Justin Carver of Dell Technologies.
But given the enormous range of potential uses for GenAI, it will be critical for solution providers to focus on helping customers prioritize consistently, Carver said Monday during a session at the August 2024 XChange conference, hosted by CRN parent company The Channel Company and taking place this week in San Antonio.
(See also: MSPs drive GenAI adoption, but security and data hurdles remain for customers: panel)
In fact, “there are a lot of use cases. Most organizations have over 200 use cases,” says Carver, a consulting systems engineer at Dell Technologies. “You’ll have the greatest success if you prioritize those use cases.”
The ultimate goal of use cases, he believes, should be to help customers “use those that are most relevant to their business.”
“There is no doubt that prioritizing GenAI use cases is imperative – from both a customer and solution provider perspective,” says Travis Adair, principal partner and vice president at InfiniTech Consulting, a Dell partner based in Columbia, Missouri.
For starters, trying to explain general use cases to customers won’t get you very far, Adair noted.
“You can’t just send a prospect a long list of use cases and say, ‘Hey, what can I help you with?'” he said. “You have to try to target the market to one or two specific use cases.”
According to Adair, this is also crucial from the solution provider’s perspective.
“You really have to determine exactly what your expertise is going to be in the market and what use case you’re going to focus on,” he said. “You can’t focus on everything – you have to find your area of expertise.”
Regardless of the specific use case, however, there are some components of GenAI implementation that are fundamentally important for solution providers, Carver said. For example, helping customers with feasibility criteria and data readiness are two key areas regardless of the use case for GenAI, he said.
According to him, critical questions that need to be answered include: “Do we have the right data? Is it properly labeled? What solutions do I actually need to ensure that the data is properly labeled so that the AI tool can actually be used in my environment?”
The bottom line for solution providers is that “services are, quite frankly, the most important aspect of any AI and generative AI discussion for customers,” Carver said. “Without the ability to have a conversation together (with a) collaborative approach – and make AI real for our customers – we are nothing.”
