WWT Exec: No One ‘Was Prepared’ For Channel’s Big Physical AI Moment

Mike Trojecki, the head of World Wide Technology’s AI practice, explains why physical AI is a big channel opportunity: ‘There was never really any place for us to make money, but now there’s a huge opportunity from a robotics standpoint because AI is driving that.’

Do solution providers have opportunities to drive sales and services engagements for robotics and autonomous systems? The answer may have been “no” a few years ago, but that is set to change with a push by Nvidia and other vendors to make the emerging field of physical AI a key growth driver for the tech industry.

One solution provider that has invested early in physical AI capabilities is St. Louis-based World Wide Technology, No. 10 on CRN’s 2026 Solution Provider 500. But even then, WWT executive Mike Trojecki said physical AI was not on the channel’s collective radar until Nvidia co-founder, President and CEO Jensen Huang started talking about the term more than two years ago.

“I don’t think anybody in our world—this kind of reseller [and] integrator world—was prepared for any of this, even though companies like Cisco and Dell [Technologies] have been pushing this for years,” said Trojecki, who is area vice president of WWT’s AI practice, in a recent interview as part of CRN’s 2026 Edge Computing Week.

With the goal of using AI to enable autonomous systems to complete complex tasks in the real world, physical AI brings together multiple disciplines, including robotics, computer vision and digital twin simulations. These fields combine to enable the training of robots and autonomous systems in digital twin simulations to prepare them for actions in real-world environments such as manufacturing plants or warehouses.

U.S. distribution giant TD Synnex signaled broader physical AI opportunities for the channel when it announced last month its acquisition of specialist distributor BlueStar and a new distribution agreement with industrial robotics manufacturer Kuka.

“We made an acquisition in the [operational technology] space. We signed up a robotics company, so you can see that physical AI is something which is very, very high on our radar. We are giving ourselves, I would say, the tools to be successful,” TD Synnex CEO Patrick Zammit told CRN in an October interview.

Trojecki said TD Synnex’s recent moves will help make physical AI a bigger opportunity in the channel, which is becoming a relevant part of the ecosystem because of how the field brings advanced AI technologies to robotics and automated systems.

“There was never really any place for us to make money, but now there’s a huge opportunity from a robotics standpoint because AI is driving that,” he said.

WWT Sees Physical AI As A Multifaceted Effort

While WWT has long been providing edge hardware systems and software for customers in industries targeted for physical AI—sectors such as manufacturing and oil and gas—the company has been hiring people with experience in robotics, computer vision and digital twins to fill out the capabilities for its physical AI business.

The effort is so big and multifaceted that the solution provider currently has three teams focusing on different components of the physical AI opportunity.

“My team is leading all the technical aspects from the physical AI piece. We’ve got another one of my peers putting together an overall go-to-market around applied AI, and then we’ve got our services teams as well,” Trojecki said.

WWT’s work in physical AI is bringing the company together in new ways with existing partners such as Nvidia, AMD and traditional infrastructure vendors that seek to claim their own stake in the market, according to the executive.

But the solution provider is also exploring new relationships with ISVs as well as robotics vendors that can help it create new offerings for customers, Trojecki added.

“We evaluated probably 300 new partners last year from an AI standpoint, and I would say 70 percent of those are at the edge,” he said.

Physical AI Isn’t Just A Cash Grab: ‘We Have To Be Futurists’

To Trojecki, the move into physical AI represents not just an opportunity for WWT to increase the revenue it makes from existing customers. The field is also a way for the solution provider to engage brand-new customers.

“It’s net-new logos as well as looking at the share of wallet within our customer base. But it’s also where we see the world going. We have to be futurists,” he said.

The executive credited WWT’s co-founder and CEO, Jim Kavanaugh, with enabling the company to expand into emerging fields like physical AI. He said being a private company also helped WWT move into the space faster than competitors.

“We’re doing a really good job of prediction right now, and that all comes down to Jim Kavanaugh saying, ‘We are an AI-first company,’” Trojecki said.

“And AI-first doesn’t just mean building big AI factories,” he added. “It means the agentic piece. It means the physical AI piece. It’s the software. It’s the hardware. It’s securing it. We’re playing in every single one of those areas.”