Monday Morning Impact – September 28
Gartner: Many People Laid Off in Favor of AI Will Need to Be Rehired
Gartner predicts that by 2029, 30% of employees laid off due to replacement by AI will need to be rehired, often at a significantly higher cost.
While workforce cuts may deliver short-term financial gains, they deplete talent pipelines and erode institutional knowledge, according to the market researcher. With labor force growth flat or declining worldwide, competition for the talent organizations need will be high, ultimately increasing recruitment, training and onboarding costs.
“When business and IT executives look back on the early AI-era, they will realize their greatest mistake was believing that work automation was the point, when workforce amplification was the opportunity,” said Tori Paulman, VP Analyst at Gartner. “The competitive advantage will go to the CIOs and business executives who build an AI-shaped organization where AI value compounds by reshaping roles and allowing workflows to cross traditional boundaries, increasing velocity and reducing friction.”
“Business and IT executives who use AI primarily as a tool for cost cutting risk making reductions that are too deep and too soon, affecting their ability to innovate their business model and compete in new markets as AI continues to mature,” Paulman added. “Instead, they should develop a “talent remix” strategy that uses AI to reshape roles and redirect workers from less productive work to new opportunities.” said Paulman.
The Gartner 2026 Hype Cycle for the Future of Work shows that as early AI investments hit the Trough of Disillusionment the challenge facing CIOs and business executives is no longer technological; it is using AI to amplify human intelligence, expertise and creativity.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 75% of organizations that prioritize capturing AI productivity gains as cost savings will be eclipsed by competitors that aggressively reinvest those gains into innovation, modernization and upskilling.
Channel Impact®
As AI becomes embedded in more business processes, organizations face a growing risk that context, human judgement and institutional knowledge could be lost. Future-ready companies will design systems that strengthen decision quality, maintain human oversight and ensure workers understand not only how a process is performed, but also why it is performed that way. Channel partners can play an influential role in facilitating this journey.
GTIA Acquires the ASCII Group
The Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA) announced it has acquired the ASCII Group, expanding its global member community and increasing investment in the programs, resources and experiences that support IT service providers (ITSPs). The acquisition promises to bring together GTIA’s research, education, cybersecurity and industry strategy with The ASCII Group’s business tools and peer-driven community model.
With the closing of the acquisition, ASCII will become a GTIA community. ASCII members will immediately also become GTIA members, gaining access to expanded resources in the GTIA member portal and a broader global channel community through GTIA’s international meetings, forums and ChannelCon events. Conversely, GTIA members will have the opportunity to join the ASCII community, adding a robust library of business tools and resources and a dimension that drives incremental growth.
“We’ve been in the room at ASCII Edge events, collaborating on world-class, vendor-agnostic research and working side by side with this community because we believe in the same things,” said Dan Wensley, CEO, GTIA. “This is a relationship that’s been building and strengthening for years. This acquisition lets us go further together, and we do it with deep respect for the legacy Alan Weinberger built and the community that legacy created.”
“ASCII and GTIA have built a lasting relationship throughout our shared history in the industry, most recently strengthened through GTIA’s groundbreaking AI research presented at every ASCII Edge event,” said Jerry Koutavas, CEO of the ASCII Group. “Bringing our communities together is the natural next step, expanding collaboration, combining complementary strengths and delivering greater value to every member.”
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Channel Impact®
The combined organization intends to deliver a complete approach to the market, connecting strategic insight with real-world execution to better support ITSPs navigating a rapidly evolving IT channel.
Cato Networks Launches Program to Help MSPs Scale Managed SASE for SMBs
Cato Networks, an Israeli-based converged network and security company, has rolled out “Cato SMB FlexPool,” a new program that helps MSPs deliver managed SASE services to small and midsize businesses at scale.
Available to Cato’s ecosystem of MSPs and service providers, the program gives partners a committed, partner-level pool of Cato licenses that can be gradually allocated across SMB customers as demand grows. Partners can instantly provision customer accounts, allocate capacity from their pool, and activate Cato services through a self-service workflow, while maintaining full portability of capacity between customers and retaining control of the customer relationship, service packaging, support model, and managed service experience.
“MSPs shouldn’t have to slow down customer deployments because of licensing and operational overhead,” said Karl Soderlund, global channel chief at Cato Networks. “SMB FlexPool aims to remove that friction with instant provisioning and flexible pooled licensing, enabling partners to activate new customers while maintaining full control of the customer experience.”
Key capabilities include independent creation and management of customer accounts, license portability that enables partners to allocate and reallocate capacity across eligible SMB customers as demand evolves, and partner-led service offerings that enable MSPs build and own their customer-facing packages, commercial offer, support model, and managed services.
Channel Impact®
Built for high-velocity, scalable go-to-market execution and a streamlined customer onboarding experience, Cato SMB FlexPool is designed to remove the friction of a separate licensing transaction for every customer deployment.
Stay in the Know
Keep tabs on what’s happening in the channel and the impact it will have on the partner community by subscribing to Channel Impact communications.
Recent News
Search Buzz
Buzz Categories
