AI ‘Won’t Replace’ Power Of Relationships In The Channel: OpenText Exec

The IT channel remains as much of a relationship-focused business as ever—even in the age of widespread usage of AI tools—with no signs of this going away any time soon, OpenText’s Mike DePalma said Monday.

Even in the age of widespread usage of AI tools, there are no signs that the relationship-focused approach that has long been the heart of the IT channel will diminish any time soon, according to OpenText executive Mike DePalma.

Speaking to an audience of MSP executives Monday, DePalma, vice president of business development at OpenText, said the idea has been around for years that technology will somehow bypass the relationship aspect that drives the IT channel. But this hasn’t happened yet, and there are no indications it ever will, he said.

“We need that relationship. We all know innately that the reason why the channel has grown is because of folks in this room,” DePalma said during a keynote session at XChange March 2026, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company this week in Orlando, Fla.

Analysts who once predicted that online marketplaces would displace the need for channel relationships only proved they “don’t understand the channel,” he said. And the arrival of GenAI and agentic technologies is no different.

While AI is likely to make certain jobs unnecessary, “it’s not going to replace this. The one commodity that we have that AI will never replace is that relationship aspect,” DePalma said.

After inviting two MSP CEOs to join him on stage, DePalma asked about how the power of relationships had impacted their own businesses.

Amie Seisay, founder and CEO of Arlington, Va.-based Seisay IT Solutions, described how a relationship in the Microsoft community had led to receiving an invitation to work on a federal contract. While initially the contract was just for a SharePoint migration, over time it grew into an opportunity to provide ongoing support services and governance for the entire Microsoft 365 stack, Seisay said.

“We’ve earned a little under $2 million in revenue over time just because of that referral,” she said.

Meanwhile, Brian Miller, CEO of Kirkland, Wash.-based FusionTek, shared an anecdote of how his connection with DePalma had started while DePalma was at a different company previously.

“That was a vendor we really didn’t do much stuff with, but I got to know you and several of your colleagues really well. And you were authentic, real people,” Miller said.

Such lasting relationships are so critical because when the inevitable problems occur, “we know the right people that we can go talk to who make things happen,” he said.

Without a doubt, the message shared by DePalma and the MSPs he spoke with strongly resonated with the channel community in the room, said Raymond Ribble, founder and CEO of Torrance, Calif.-based SPHER.

“It wasn’t about OpenText—it was more about the relationship. So everybody in there can relate to the conversation they were having,” Ribble said.

And it’s clear that this type of relationship-based approach remains as lucrative as ever, he said, pointing to Seisay’s anecdote about turning a connection into a $2 million deal.

Ultimately, “while AI is really important as an overall theme—you pick that up everywhere we're going—it still comes down to the people,” Ribble said. “Different tasks are being moved to AI. But that last mile is still going to be individuals who are going in there and working with the clients.”