272 – Unlocking SMB Potential: How PAX8 and AI Are Disrupting the Cloud Channel

Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape! Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ Is your business ready for 2026? Welcome back to the Ultimate Partner® Podcast. Join Vince and Hayley McSpirit from PAX8 as they explore the immense opportunities within the Small and Medium Business (SMB) space, particularly through the lens of cloud marketplaces. This session delves into how PAX8 is disrupting the traditional channel by being a cloud-first organization , empowering MSPs and SMBs to rapidly adopt and leverage AI, often quicker than larger enterprises. Discover the evolving role of MSPs , the power of community-first approaches , and how marketplaces are becoming the critical platform for delivering comprehensive, integrated solutions to this underserved yet highly lucrative market. https://youtu.be/4lcMHcoiejE Key Takeaways The SMB market represents a significant and often underserved opportunity for cloud and AI adoption. PAX8 differentiates itself as a cloud-first marketplace, focusing on providing best-of-breed technology and a complete customer lifecycle for MSPs and SMBs.SMBs and MSPs are at the forefront of AI transformation, capable of adopting and transforming with AI much faster than larger enterprises.The traditional channel is evolving, with MSPs increasingly becoming software development companies (ISVs) and system integrators, driven by new tech opportunities.Community-first approaches and strong partner engagement are crucial for supporting MSPs in their growth and adoption of new technologies like AI agents.Marketplaces are becoming the primary vehicle for delivering integrated solutions and enabling new business models, including the reselling of AI agents by MSPs. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. . Key Tags: SMB market , MSPs , PAX8 , cloud marketplace , AI transformation , channel disruption , cloud-first , digital natives , software development companies , ISVs , community-first , customer lifecycle , agentic AI , business growth , technology adoption , partner ecosystem , Microsoft , innovation , procurement, cybersecurity, data security , unified solutions Transcription: [00:00:00] Hayley McSpirit: And as the new wave of AI as well has come in and, and we see MSPs and SMBs at the forefront of that, to be able to transform far quicker honestly than enterprises. And so we think that we are best placed to, to be doing that. [00:00:18] Vince Menzione: We believe this time is like no other. We believe we refer to these as the tectonic shifts, [00:00:24] Intro: all the hyperscalers in the world, if you add them all together. Managed services will be one and a half times larger because it is the customer buying behavior that has created a need for all of us to rethink our models. Until we have data quality, the effectiveness of AI cannot be realized and effectiveness of the partnerships cannot be realized. Can you figure out, first, what your purpose is and how Microsoft can support your purpose and how you can support Microsoft purpose? Now we have a partnership. It’s the ultimate partnership. [00:00:56] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ultimate Partner. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner Live at Microsoft Redmond Campus, our most powerful event. Yet, over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room. This episode featuring Haley McSpirit, the SVP of Pax eight, brings us right to the edge of what’s next in the SMB segment. Let’s dive in. So this is gonna be an incredible session. We have, uh, the next half hour or so, you’ve heard me talk about this moment right now in the SMB space in a big way. We’ve talked about marketplaces, the marketplace moment. It’s continuing to evolve. You heard about, about the incredible investments you see. You know, it’s kind of the tip of the spear with Cy talking about it, but you also heard Sandy talk about this as well, just this incredible investment opportunity around marketplaces. There’s another area where marketplaces are having another significant impact, and this is in the SMB business, right? We thought about the s and i, I’ll just share, as a Microsoft executive, we didn’t quite know how to manage this SMB business when I was a, a partner leader GM at Microsoft, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s handled very well. But there are organizations that do an even more incredible job and there’s a huge opportunity in this MSP space. In fact, there’s gonna be a workshop ...