AI is creating new opportunities for MSPs and resellers—but turning the technology into real customer value requires more than simply adding AI to the stack.
In this episode of Channel Insider: Partner POV, Channel Insider Managing Editor Victoria Durgin sits down with Phillip Sellers, CTO at Xentegra, to discuss how partners can help customers move from AI experimentation to practical adoption.
Sellers shares how Xentegra is using AI internally to improve productivity, what partners can learn from their own deployments, and why organizations need intentional adoption strategies rather than simply telling employees to “use AI.”
The conversation also explores why integrating AI across business systems quickly becomes a security and governance conversation, how data access and permissions factor into AI readiness, and why the human element remains central to the channel.
Plus, Sellers weighs in on whether AI represents a fundamental transformation for channel partners—or another technology hype cycle they must learn to navigate.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
01:17 – Meet Phillip Sellers and Xentegra
02:40 – What customers need from partners today
05:04 – Moving AI from hype to practical use cases
07:30 – How Xentegra is using AI internally
09:46 – The AI adoption and training gap
12:05 – What partners need from vendors’ AI strategies
14:24 – Why AI integration creates more value
15:08 – When AI integration becomes a security problem
16:15 – Guardrails, governance and data permissions
18:02 – Why people still matter in an AI-powered channel
20:27 – Agentic AI, autonomy and keeping humans in control
22:15 – Why security platforms matter
24:00 – Data as the foundation for decision-making
25:09 – Helping customers unlock value from their data
27:41 – Does AI really change everything for channel partners?
28:25 – The challenge of monetizing AI services
29:22 – AI hype versus fundamental industry change
31:44 – Closing thoughts