AI companies<\/a> with successful AI track records.<\/p>\n\u201cWe have amazing 100- to 150-people companies that are AI-native and really are focused on nothing but AI and transformation. They have just as much of a space and a play and an expertise in our network as the large folks do,\u201d Kapase said. \u201cSo there\u2019s room for both.\u201d<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s $150 Million Channel Investment<\/p>\n
OpenAI is initially investing $150 million in the channel with the launch of the OpenAI Partner Network to support and help partners bring the benefits of AI to more organizations more quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe [$150 million] is going to be used for enablement, for service delivery, cost offsetting, for MDF funds, etc.\u201d Kapase said. There\u2019s an alignment across our entire leadership that: partners are important, we need them, and the $150 million is a signal to our partners of our investment in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company plans to train and enable 300,000 certified consultants by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s Three-Tier Partner Network Details<\/p>\n
The OpenAI Partner Network aims to incentivize partners for the value they create and provides them access to the resources and support needed to build successful AI practices.<\/p>\n
Partners can progress through the program\u2019s three tiers: Select, Advanced, and Elite.<\/p>\n
Each tier has a high bar for sales performance, technical capability, co-sell engagement, and deployment experience.<\/p>\n
The program makes it easier and more flexible for partners to work with OpenAI, whether they are co-selling, deploying, building, or helping customers connect to OpenAI technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be very highly technical, capable requirements [regarding the tiers],\u201d Kapase said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for enterprise-ready partners that know how to do AI transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
OpenAI Codex, Cybersecurity And AI Agent Specializations<\/p>\n
Partners in the program can earn new OpenAI specializations that signal deeper expertise in high-impact areas such as Codex, cybersecurity, and AI agents.<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s specializations are designed to help customers identify partners with proven capabilities in the areas that matter most to their AI transformation.<\/p>\n
At the same time, these specializations aim to give partners a clearer path to build expertise, stay current with OpenAI\u2019s rapid product delivery cycles, and bring more targeted solutions to market.<\/p>\n
\u201cPartners need to get in there and earn one of those specializations. So that\u2019s the first criteria to move up the [partner program] ladder,\u201d said Kapase.<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s Forward Deployment Program<\/p>\n
Lastly, OpenAI is piloting a Forward Deployed Experts (FDE) program only available to its top-tier Elite partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be our highest-level training for our partners on-site here at headquarters, led by our own FDE-capable employees,\u201d Kapase said.<\/p>\n
The FDE program is for partners working on complex AI enterprise deployments.<\/p>\n
The program is designed to help partners better align with OpenAI\u2019s own Forward Deployed Engineering teams when customers\u2019 need deeper deployment support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to build out a bench of partners with FDE to accelerate deployments. We want them to operate as an extension of our team,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
These partners will gain exposure to OpenAI technologies, playbooks, and transformation patterns, helping them bring more OpenAI-native expertise into customer environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRN breaks down the five biggest things the channel needs to know about the OpenAI Partner Network\u2014from specializations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[24,405,408,25,14492,223,415,157],"class_list":["post-77220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-openai","tag-ai","tag-ai-agents","tag-ai-applications","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-channel-programs","tag-generative-ai","tag-llm","tag-openai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77220","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=77220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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