Partnerships Unraveled
The weekly podcast where we unravel the mysteries of partnerships and channel to help you become more successful.
Partnerships Unraveled
David Rozzio - The New Channel Opportunity in AI-Powered PCs
In this episode of Partnerships Unraveled, we dive deep into how AI is not just another tech trend but a fundamental shift that’s redefining the future of work, especially within the channel. We’re joined by David Rozzio, Worldwide Head of Commercial Computing at HP, to explore what the rise of AI PCs (AIPCs) means for partners, end users, and the entire technology ecosystem.
David unpacks the four defining benefits of AIPCs, speed, efficiency, security, and personalization, as well as how these intelligent devices are set to transform workflows for roles like sales professionals. He also explains HP’s channel-first approach: from tailored partner enablement programs and tools like the HP Experience App, to outcome-based sales strategies that help partners shift from product selling to solution storytelling.
What makes this conversation particularly valuable for channel professionals is David’s insight into how HP is bridging the AI value chain, combining hardware innovation, ISV collaboration, and training support, to empower partners to deliver tangible, differentiated outcomes.
If you're in the channel and want to understand how to turn AI from a buzzword into a business builder, this episode offers a roadmap and a rallying cry for action.
Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-rozzio-6aa107/
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Welcome back to Partnerships Unraveled, the podcast where we unravel the mysteries about partnerships, and channel on a weekly basis. My name is Alex Whitford, I'm the VP of Revenue here at Chanext and this week I'm very excited to welcome our special guest, david. How are you doing? I'm good.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Alex.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited to have you on. I feel like every podcast almost ends with how AI is going to change the game, and so I think we've come to somewhat of an expert. Maybe, for the uninitiated, you could give us a little bit of an introduction to who you are and what you do.
Speaker 1:Sure. Thanks, alex, and thanks for the time Very appreciated for allowing me to be with you today. I'm very excited actually to be able to talk about AI and obviously IPC specifically. So I'm in charge actually of what we call commercial compute in HP, so I work for HP Inc and I'm the worldwide head for commercial compute category, which yeah, almost, I think, one of the most exciting places to be in terms of the market.
Speaker 2:I was actually recording a podcast yesterday where we were debating whether AI is a bit like the dot-com bubble or whether it's really the absolute real change that's going to sort of radically shift how businesses work. Maybe you can break down how AI PCs will actually change the way employees interact with their devices and get work done.
Speaker 1:And probably, to start with a little story, I come from this bubble I've been going through, so I know a little bit what we mean and I have definitely a strong feeling that we are going in the same type of growth, but not in a bubble way, in a sense that there is something very meaningful. But I think, from a learning of what we learned in the past, I think this is definitely what we'll have to go through. But what is very important and what is changing right now is that the work is changing, so the way people work, and I think there is many elements that happen, obviously in recent years with the pandemic, but we have seen that through different surveys. So in HP, we do what we call HP Work Relationship Survey, something that we did for the second time last year, and according to that, I think all IT leaders coming out from this survey are really showing that it's now time to redefine how work is done, and what I mean by how work is done is that obviously everybody has been talking about hybrid work, working from remote, being at work at home or in the office or on the go. How do you adjust to this new reality? And I think AI is one of the elements that should be able actually to fulfill, I would say, this mission in terms of redefining work. And our mission, by the way, in HP is really to go into this logic of creating actually experiences that drive growth and fulfilling experiences for all people at work. And so what does it mean behind as well into our play for HP Inc, is really to go and focus on defining this mission to be not just actually a PC or a print company, but really defining our company as how do we define work, meaning being the work company into our industry. So this is how it goes to. It goes far beyond this hype, I would say. It's really how do we define the work leveraging AI, and one of the big topics obviously to this change of the work is about AIPC and AIPC in the center of it.
Speaker 1:For us, of this change and when we talk about AIPC, for me there is four things. If I would like that people really understand. To demystify this is that there are benefits associated to an AIPC One it's faster. When we say faster when you have a model or a large language model that you have to prompt in, there is latency because it goes into the cloud so you can have a local that can be probably a smaller language model, that can be locally on an AI PC, that can run locally and that can make you run this local model that can be faster for interaction. If you talk about a Zoom background, if you talk about Teams background, for example, when it goes to the Cloud, get your information locally back and forth, you can have some latency. This is the type of thing that a local AI model can work out to make sure that you are smooth and fluid.
Speaker 1:The second aspect is it's more efficient. More efficient in a way that there is low consumption. So when we talk about an AI PC, we are integrating what we call a neural processor unit locally and these neural processor units consume less energy than a CPU, than a standard processor. So this means you can offload some activities which were on the CPU to this NPU and this will bring more efficiency, means that will leverage actually your battery life to have a longer battery life expectation.
Speaker 1:The third point is about actually security and privacy, which is how you can run locally local informations through local prompt on your local device. You can do that offline. Obviously you have some security and privacy if you have some sensitive data that you can do that offline, obviously. So you have some security and privacy if you have some sensitive data that you can manage locally. And the last point is about the personalization. It's everything about the experiences you will bring. The device will adjust according to how you work, so the model locally that you will run will adapt according to that so faster, more efficient, secure and private and more personalized.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the things that, um, maybe is misunderstood in terms of, uh, the efficiency element when it comes to ai, the. The way I explain this to my parents is google went and bought a nuclear power station right, they did that very deliberately because, uh, running an ai model is incredibly intensive, right, and so, whether that's battery life or energy consumption driving those efficiencies, so that we don't have to keep traversing public internet to pull data down, that's what's to be done in the organization, right.
Speaker 1:There is a cost, Alex, for sure. The cost in the cloud is a cost for running your AI. That requires, obviously, servers and requires a heavy, large model with large hardware associated costly. So I think there is a cost for it for sure, and having this being spread across requires different logic and different approach. But I think that's the future and that's the way it's going right now Awesome.
Speaker 2:So just so we're clear AI not a bubble is going to be long, hard sustained growth, which is, I think, excellent and what the market wants to hear. I think the thing that, coming from a channel background, I'm so interested in is how the role of ISVs and AI PCs come together, how you work with software vendors to create AI-powered workflows. Talk me through what that means for the market, what that means for the end user. How does that interaction work?
Speaker 1:Yeah and again, aipc is the hardware topic that I was mentioning, but the elements, which is key to make AI tangible and real, is about all about the ecosystem, and one key element in the ecosystem is obviously the software part. It's about working with ISVs and enhance to make sure we can bring actually the right experiences. So what we are doing right now is that, because we know we know normally quite well the end user how they use our PC from the knowledge of experience that we do have of selling millions of PC for years, and actually based on this experience, what we are trying to really leverage is to create different journeys and journey paths according to the type of persona that we do have for our users. So what I mean, for example and I will take if you have a lot of salespeople listening to us right now, I will take a sales persona just to show an example. If you are a salesperson today, you have to obviously get organized, get organized into your calendar, but, getting through a lot of information, documentation, look for the insight that can help you to drive the right discussion with your customer. You have to define your playbook or, let's say, your customer strategy, but then you have as well to engage on calls and get into the calls of the customer, either face-to-face or, obviously, into virtual calls. This is a cumbersome touch, but this is why we pay our salespeople to go through.
Speaker 1:Now how can we help them to get more efficient? And in such role? For example, you could say hey, let me use first a software from HP called HP AI Companion. Hp AI Companion is a software load on your AI PC on which you will be able to load and create actually a folder for which you will be able to prompt information. So, for example, if you have information which can be very sensitive about a customer that you want to prompt in, instead of putting it either in the cloud or either sharing and having a fear of leaking information, you will be able to prompt locally any type of information here. So each library will allow you to go and have 100 megabytes of information inside which you can prompt in, and then you can build on for a proper rule, for an RFQ, for anything you want to. So it allows you to be more efficient.
Speaker 1:But another example is using another ISV that we call Zyme that we are working with. So Zyme is a software which is more like a coach agent for a salesperson. So the software again runs locally, runs on the device, and we'll hear about, for example, the conversation we do have, and this agent will tell me how to interact, but as well how to act, I would say, according to what the customer is saying. So you can have, obviously, a model which is trained according to your data, according to your products, and then it will help you to coach you in terms of hey, you forget to mention this or hey, by the way, you should ask this question to go deeper. So it's like adding a coach in your pocket.
Speaker 1:I would say, helping salespeople to obviously not miss anything into the conversation, but as well redirect properly or to steer, I would say, the conversation into the right direction. And this allows salespeople to be more efficient, obviously, and to win more opportunity, and this is thanks to AI and thanks to the fact that it's locally done. You cannot manage this through the cloud, so you will have to manage it locally anyway and leveraging BNP locally. So this is what we talk about when we say about leveraging ISV and leveraging against persona. I'm taking this sales professional persona because I think it corresponds to your audience, alex, but I think we have more and more persona for the customer per se. So if a salesperson from a channel wants to use it, they will have multiple personas to look at, from a knowledge worker, from a product manager, from a C-suite and so on. And all of this we created it and we provide it to the channel. But I can explain more further if needed.
Speaker 2:No, I think that's a really powerful example, and I think one of the things that I always try and emphasize with AI is I think people feel that AI is a broad hammer, and it's not. It's a syringe. Right, it's a very, very specific piece of workflow that you can integrate into a much wider process. And then, obviously, the really clever bit is how do you then tether these micro workflows together to produce these outsized returns, which I sort of love? When it comes back to the beginning of your story in terms of HP's mission is driving business right, and so it's not about, hey, we provide a tool, it's about how we drive an outcome, which I think is an interesting message, because AI is around outcome rather than product. Now, partners very often and historically have sold by product right, they've sold by features and hey, 10% faster and whatever. And yet when we talk about transformational technology, we have to talk about transformational sales process. Talk to me about how HP is helping partners make this sort of mindset shift when it comes to transformational technology and transformational explanation.
Speaker 1:And, to be honest, this is not new in HP neither. So I think we are trying to do that for years, but I think right now it's a change which is happening with AI that should help us as well. To make the point First, we started to get to this outcome-based I would say view by promoting our four core pillars on commercial PCs, which were security, productivity, collaboration and sustainability. So I think these four elements we tried to build it for years about making sure these are the pillars of outcome that we're expecting for customers to deploy Now with AI PC, I think the logic is how do we go a little bit deeper, as I was mentioning before, in terms of the persona play? How do we provide actually the right outcome for the sellers to be able to show and demonstrate the tangibility, I would say, of what is AI and what is AI PC into their workflow? And then, obviously, you cannot do it just by talking NPU, number of stops and performance for the normal processor units. You will have to show it in terms of what does it mean for them in terms of usage, what does it mean in terms of the ISV integration to the workflow, and for that you need to provide tools.
Speaker 1:So for us, we started to work actually first, internally, we created an app which is called HP Experience App. In this app, actually, we are providing all experiences which are available on our PC, and not necessarily only AI to start with, but we started with everything. But now we really focus about what are the AI, PC-related information. So on this app you will find all experiences altogether, AI and non-AI, but then you will find actually what we created with a journey actually to the Persona, which is called the day in the life. So it means what does it mean before what you are doing into your whole versus what does it mean before what you will do with AI, PC, and this is a pitch actually which is shown into this app under one PowerPoint slide showing the different step of before and after, with a video associated. But then the sales team can promote and can help articulating the speech for the customer. On top of this, we just created in this app what we call an HP Assistant, which is a machine learning assistant that will go and query in terms of all of this content we provide in this app, but that will allow you actually to create a predefined email sample with all the questions that a customer could have. You could imagine anything. Oh, I would like to understand how can I get my PC more secure in terms of avoiding phishing? And then you will figure out what would be the type of answer and what we can provide as HP. And there's a predefined email that the sales team can copy and paste. If they are not happy with the tone, they can change it into HP iCompanion to adjust their email associated on an AI PC. So all of this is kind of integrated.
Speaker 1:So we started, as I say, with HP internal, but now we deploy this for partners. So we deploy it in January for all our channel partners and they can access it through the HP Partner Portal. Otherwise, you can access it directly to a link which is called xphpcom XP, like experiencehpcom. You can create your HP ID password and then you can access to the app. Then you will have access to all of this to be able to show and demonstrate workflow and then obviously, the outcome associated. What is missing today in this app but this is our aim as well for outcome is to add up actually a recommendation on products and then obviously add up the ROI element, so the return on investment associated to AI usage to the customer. So this is coming and this is what we'll integrate in, but for Sales Team obviously to go and deploy.
Speaker 2:What I love about that answer, david, is both in my guise as a ChanX VP, but also just advising businesses on how to build channels. My view is that so often we index on providing materials rather than providing tooling, and to me, the thing that really matters is you're really trying to help your partners be more successful, and that means you're really taking a message to them that they can utilize. That is going to drive outsized returns, and I think this is one of the contexts why I find AI and the sort of Venn diagram between AI and channel so interesting, because there is how does it help from a product perspective, but then how can you also implement it from a go-to-market perspective to then drive product sales and tie the whole machine together, which is fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, by the way, alex, one other thing that we did with the channel partner, which is part of this outcome base. We started not just by I was talking about this application now but we started initially a year ago with what we call an AI masterclass for our channel partner and this training was about how do we train them on the basic of AI, how does it work, and now we are going into the logic of AI PC more in detail workflow, into this type of trainings. So this AI masterclass is for all our channel partner, part of Amplify program and we will continue in order to help them obviously to feel confident and to be able actually to articulate, obviously, the pitch on AIPC, but the pitch on HP AIPC obviously so maybe then, focusing in on the partners, you provided sort of education and tooling for how to sell AI effectively most or AIPC effectively, I should say, and tooling for how to sell AI effectively Most or AIPC effectively, I should say.
Speaker 2:But lots of partners are maybe still on the fence whether they should make AI a core part of their offering or maybe whether they should be using AI internally. Talk to me about what competitive edge a partner can have when they fully invest in making AI a core part of their go-to-market strategy, their product offering, their services offering.
Speaker 1:I'm going to switch probably a little bit the angle in a way that, yes, there is an AI motion right now and I think that's the future and we'll talk about it, I'm sure, in terms of how we can go deeper. But there is a moment right now which is about Windows 11 refresh and for me this one is a catalyst for the current business elements of sending AI PC and sending the workflow, sending the outcome, associated business elements of sending AI PC and saying the workflow, saying the outcome associated. There's still a lot of units on the market right now which are part of an install base which is non-eligible for Windows 11 refresh and we need to replace actually this install base. And for me this is a catalyst for AI in a sense that obviously, if you move to Windows 11, you're going to move to get access to new tools and new way launch it and starting with Copilot from a Microsoft standpoint, but then allowing you to test and try into an AI environment and then obviously having an AI PC will be a kind of a no-brainer for future ready type of products that will integrate in future more and more ISV, leveraging the local power, I would say, of the AI on the device For me. That's why it's very important that, first, the channel needs to understand this moment, and this moment is now for the next six months. That's a huge opportunity because the end of support is October this year.
Speaker 1:There's a huge opportunity for one selling this workflow logic of going to AI with Windows 11 refresh and secondly, obviously, to sell the services. This is where I would expect how a partner can go and drive, obviously selling services around AI. But what does it mean? What's the edge for a partner there? Yes, there is a hype on AI, as we just mentioned before. It's not a bubble. So you need to go into this train and this train is already running fast. So I think, if you don't want to be left on the side, you need to go into this train, get to better understand, obviously, what AI means for you in terms of developing your own services to help customers on this journey. And I can tell you, all customers for the last year are all thinking about how do I bring AI into my business. There is a lot of learnings which has been done so far and I think there's a lot of service for selling for partner has been done so far and I think there's a lot of service for selling for partner.
Speaker 1:Now to start with and what I will say again, probably on my non-objectivity on AI PC is start with HPE AI Companion.
Speaker 1:It's embarked on every HPE AI PC, meaning a PC which is having an NPU but having more than 40 tops on performance which would be classified with an AI PC, which you will see an HPLX mark on the device.
Speaker 1:And for every of these PC you will have HPI companion can be run locally. So you can deploy this easily for a customer in a simple way. It's integrated on this device, it does not cost any money on top of the device and then the customer can already start to test AI through this logic of using this tool, just to give some perspective in order to create a profile, of having a folder where you can prompt on your own file. If you go to chat GPT, it's going to cost you $20 per month. If you go on an AI PC, it's integrated into the device and you can do it locally and in the cloud. So I think for me it's like use, use this as an argument as well to customer. That's an edge you can get and obviously you as a partner and define your own services that you can go and develop, obviously around the IPC.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So you touched on AI not a bubble. It's really here to stay. And look, I'm in complete agreement. I still think people view AI like the internet and I think it's going to be radically more world-changing than even the internet was, which I think is a hard thing to sort of conceptualize, given how much the world has shifted in 20 to 30 years. Fast forward five years, david. What do you see happening? How much of a radical shift in how we work, how we build channels, how this whole environment, how this whole ecosystem is going to shift once AI is five years more mature than it is today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a big question.
Speaker 2:I think if you have a bulletproof answer, you're going to be driving a really nice car in five years. But give me your best guess.
Speaker 1:First of all, I think we know the market is changing. So when you look at from a forecast perspective of different sources from an IDC, from Canada, from whoever, you see that first of all, in the next two to three years, the mix of AIPC will be far bigger. In five years I would expect that potentially 90% to 100% of PC should be an AIPC, meaning it's integrating a neural processor unit, an NPU. So that's the first element. Now will the PC per se? Will change as well in the next five years, I'm pretty sure. I'm sure there will be some form factor change that will come, because the model of leveraging with AI is that you can have a multi-model approach, meaning you will use different approach in terms of interactions. Today we use a keyboard. Voice is coming more and more. You have voice at home. You have voice a bit everywhere on your phone, in your car, wherever you can. You have gesture, which is as well coming more and more predominant in some specific environment, being on augmented reality or virtual reality. So you can imagine that the logic of form factor will change and that the PC interaction can be very different. So now there will be some great things and things that will be big bubble and hype and there will be some failure for sure associated, but there will be, I'm sure, out of it, some opportunities to get out.
Speaker 1:So is it a new moment for this industry to change and disrupt?
Speaker 1:The answer is yes and I'm sure in the five years there will be some changes associated.
Speaker 1:Now I cannot have a crystal ball or I cannot share with you the details of R&D, of what we are working on on this, but I think definitely there is some innovation that will be brought in the next five years. What I would expect for me, what is very important for a channel partner to understand, besides the next five years, where it goes and to dream about it is that in the next five years there will be a lot of services to sell and our partners, their bread and butter is really about selling services. I do believe if they want to expand and I do believe there's a great opportunity for not selling. Just don't think about just Gen AI into the cloud space and agent into the cloud space. You need to think about AI with agent locally on device. There's a lot of support you can bring for customer and partner, for customer actually to develop their own journey, and I think I would recommend that partners can work in the next years to really focus on getting into the train of this AI journey right now.
Speaker 2:Awesome, David. That's been wonderfully insightful and I think it's great to hear optimism when people talk about AI. Sometimes I think the talk track on AI gets a little bit sort of too terminatory, so it's great to hear in terms of the positive impact from a revenue perspective, from a product perspective, that AI is going to have on the channel. I do have a crystal ball in terms of what the Partnerships Unravel podcast is going to achieve, because we like to shortcut and cheat by asking our current guests to recommend our next guest. Who do you have in mind?
Speaker 1:So I would propose you actually to get in touch with somebody from Accenture Some people that we have been in touch recently. We're talking about how can we grow this IPC market and how do we make sure that people and customers and partners and environment and ecosystem is understanding it about the change happening. This person is called Arish Natarajan. He has a lot of experience coming from different industries. I would advise you to talk to him and get him interviewed so that he can probably share with you far more insight and further, in terms of the workflow, the engagements what does it mean for customer and employee? And benefits.
Speaker 2:Awesome, we'll definitely get that booked in soon, david. Thank you so much for sharing your insights. It's been awesome. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Thanks for inviting me, I appreciate it.