{"id":134486,"date":"2026-08-10T01:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/134486\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T01:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:04:09","slug":"amid-ai-surge-trust-is-becoming-the-product-gtia-exec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/134486\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid AI Surge, \u2018Trust Is Becoming The Product\u2019: GTIA Exec"},"content":{"rendered":"

Solution and service providers who are \u2018embedding trust into the solutions that they\u2019re selling are getting ahead,\u2019 GTIA\u2019s Nancy Hammervik told MSP executives Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Matter Of Trust<\/p>\n

For MSPs navigating the fast-changing IT environment spurred by surging AI adoption, keeping a focus on driving trust with clients is more than just essential\u2014it\u2019s even potentially the biggest opportunity for growth, according to GTIA\u2019s Nancy Hammervik.<\/p>\n

Trust is no longer just a \u201csoft skill or a service you offer along with the outcome or the solution\u2014trust is becoming the product,\u201d said Hammervik, chief channel officer at IT channel trade association GTIA, during a session at XChange August 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Related: GTIA Bets Big On AI Standards, Local Chapters To Help MSPs Lead The Next Channel Era<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Solution and service providers who are \u201cembedding trust into the solutions that they\u2019re selling are getting ahead,\u201d she told an audience of MSP executives Sunday during XChange August 2026, which is hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company and being held this week in National Harbor, Md.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the need for maintaining trust with customers is table stakes for MSPs, according to Hammervik.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you lose a top client now because of trust, it\u2019s very difficult to get that business back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What follows are more takeaways from Hammervik\u2019s session at XChange August 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AI Governance Is Lagging In The Channel<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a lot of research at GTIA. We show that 97 percent of the ecosystem is engaging and adopting AI, but only 25 percent are using it strategically\u2014where through agentic AI they\u2019ve built a new platform to manage operations or manage processes. And only 20 percent of them have any formal governance or policies in place. \u2026 This is what it\u2019s taking to get yourself along the continuum of AI to be operating a mature business model around AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hackers Are Targeting The Channel<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hackers are targeting the channel. We are all serving one to many, and the SMB. And the hackers are getting smarter. They\u2019re not hacking in anymore. They\u2019re logging in, using AI. It\u2019s not a question of if you\u2019ll be breached, but when, with one-third of ITSPs and solution providers sharing that they\u2019ve had an incident and a breach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Declining Vendor Satisfaction<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been doing state of the channel research for 17 years now. Every year, partner satisfaction with vendors sits at about 39 [or] 40 percent\u2014very satisfied. This year, we had a significant drop to just 18 percent\u2014a 20-point drop. It\u2019s not that the vendors are doing anything wrong. They\u2019re trying to figure it out, like we all are too. Partners are expecting more from them. They\u2019re trying to get the training, the AI solutions. They\u2019re not buying features and specs anymore. They\u2019re buying outcomes. They want to be spoken to with that language. And we\u2019re all figuring it out together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ecosystem Is Realigning Around AI<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ecosystem is realigning. The players are changing. Many SMB end-user customers can now, through agentic AI, build their own infrastructure management tools. Accountants are starting to build, through agentic AI, tools for their clients that help them manage the inventory better. [It\u2019s] happening outside of the service or the solution provider. They can\u2019t do it without you having the keys to the infrastructure. But you\u2019re going to be partnering with new folk. The whole ecosystem is changing. And the power of community is more important than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Importance Of Trust<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hearing a lot about trust. \u2026 We need that to keep up with this industry now. But trust is no longer a soft value or a soft skill or a service you offer along with the outcome or the solution\u2014trust is becoming the product. And those vendors and solution providers [and] service providers, working with their customers, that are embedding trust into the solutions that they\u2019re selling are getting ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Solution and service providers who are \u2018embedding trust into the solutions that they\u2019re selling are getting ahead,\u2019 GTIA\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[179,7493,24,405,25,8916,12722,313,34462,400,401,6493,318,66720,66759],"class_list":["post-134486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-ai","tag-agentic-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-ai-agents","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-cloud-security","tag-cyberattacks","tag-cybersecurity","tag-data-breaches","tag-managed-security","tag-managed-service-providers","tag-partnerships","tag-vulnerabilities","tag-xchange","tag-xchange-august-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}