Zoom Channel Chief Nick Tidd On Going ‘Channel-First,’ AI Monetization And The Partner Opportunity

Ahead of Zoom Partner Connect 2026, Zoom’s channel chief, Nick Tidd, talks AI monetization, new partner revenue opportunities and the investments behind the company’s shift from channel-friendly to channel-first.

Zoom has been working to transform itself from a company heavily focused on direct sales into what it now calls a truly “channel-first” organization over the last two years.

A year after rolling out “version 3.0” of the Zoom Up partner program, that strategy is entering its next phase. Zoom has expanded well beyond its video meetings roots into contact center, phone and AI, while investing in partner tools, enablement and new routes to market. Nick Tidd, head of global channel go-to-market for Zoom, pointed to growing partner certifications and contributions to new business as evidence that the strategy, under his leadership, is succeeding. Also, Zoom’s enterprise business grew 7.8 percent in its latest reported quarter—the best in three years—while Tidd said nine of the company’s top 10 contact center deals last quarter came through the channel.

Now, Zoom is turning its attention toward helping partners capitalize on its expanding AI portfolio, including opportunities to monetize AI and use the technology to drive both customer acquisition and retention.

Ahead of Zoom Partner Connect 2026, Tidd sat down with CRN to discuss the results of Zoom’s channel transformation, the evolution of the Zoom Up partner program, the AI revenue opportunity and what partners can expect next.

What are the biggest Partner Connect headlines for partners, and how do they demonstrate Zoom’s shift from channel-friendly to channel-first?

I’ve now been here two years, and when I came into the business, it was a heavy focus on direct. Our platforms were not “partner ready.” Our routes to market were not where they needed to be, and we talked about a channel-first strategy. Now let me fast forward to where we are today, and the message coming out of Partner Connect this week is not just that Zoom is a channel-friendly organization; it is a channel-first organization. And what does channel-first mean, and what’s the opportunity for the partner?

When I think about platform, it’s our CX business, our phone business, our [Zoom Revenue Accelerator] ZRA, our [Zoom Virtual Assistant] ZVA, and our AI business. The platform is much broader than it’s ever been. So, the opportunity for partners to take advantage of additional share of wallet and platform is at the best it’s ever been in the history of Zoom. Those opportunities, and how we’re enabling the partners; we have now a one-year anniversary of the Zoom Up program, and we’ve got a full circle of qualifications. We’ve invested heavily in our partner tools — things like dedicated account access to give partners the ability to do managed services that they’ve never had before. We have invested significantly in our partner content hub and enablement using our virtual agent product so now literally, a partner says: “I’m about to go and do a sales call, and I need all relevant information on your contact center product in a healthcare vertical.” We’re much more collaborative than we’ve been before. We have also invested heavily in our quote to cash tools.

If I rewind two years ago, it was: “I’m going to sell a meetings license, and I’m going to sell a phone license,” and that’s about it. Whereas today, that platform is much more robust, [as is] our ability to provide that context layer, because that’s what everybody’s after. [These are] the proof points that we’ve demonstrated along the journey that has enabled us to be a channel-first company.

Where do you see the biggest opportunity for partners to monetize Zoom’s AI strategy?

I think the most important piece, and really what we’re going to focus on [talking to the channel about], is how partners can take advantage of what we call the context layer of our AI monetization strategy. Think about your UI layer across the top: meetings, phone, contact center. As you capture all of that information, it comes into a context layer. It’s then about: How do I extrapolate that context and put it into an AI workflow? Zoom’s ability in that context layer is one of the most competitive advantages we have in the marketplace today [and] we are the industry leader in speech-to-text conversion and simultaneous translation.

Back to the headlines at Partner Connect, it’s the breadth and depth of the platform, and the ability now [to] take conversation to completion, and what does that mean for the partner community? If you think about Zoom and our platform, I am capturing more conversations than anybody else in the world. My ability to then take those conversations and turn them into context, which then informs completion. That whole area of adoption of AI and monetization of AI; our partner community has got a tremendous opportunity in front of them.

How much of your business now flows through partners, and has that number increased over the last year?

What I can share with you is a couple of individual statistics. CX deals — I can tell you that I represent the largest creation of pipeline now for the company. I now represent the largest contributor of new business to the company from the enterprise perspective, and when I look at the number of enrolled partners and the growth year over year, those are the indicators to the percentage and composition of revenue that we make up. In our last earnings announcement, it was our best enterprise quarter in three years.

The next team that I’m rolling out are partner technical advisors that will shadow our channel community for implementation and services, and the number of new heads we’ve brought in to enable channel are all indicators of that contribution. When I look at our contact center business, which is very channel centric, nine out of the 10 top deals last quarter came from the channel. When I look at the number of certifications and trainings the channel community has taken, I’m now over 300-plus certifications and rising, so I use it as a barometer [for partner success.]

One of the other barometers I look at is ease of doing business, because that was the number one complaint I got when I came into the business: “You’re too hard to do business with,” “You’re inconsistent in policy.” And if I look at my partner help tickets, they’re down 46 percent. If revenue is up and your tickets are down, it means you’re doing something right.

If you had to point to a partner program change that’s had the biggest impact on partner profitability, what would it be and why?

I would say it’s probably three things. The first one I would say is the investment in tools to enable [partners], whether that be access to information, how we code, how we provision, and how we manage. The second would be the program investments we’ve made around consistency and policy, enabling them to have a self-paced journey for growth. And I think the third piece is just the sheer size of the product portfolio now from a platform perspective. Those are the three pillars that I would say have brought us to where we are.

There’s a subtle undertone to that. You have to have loyalty and trust in your channel community. Why I’m in the field so much is about building that trust and that loyalty. I now have partners who say to me, “I have built my entire business around Zoom,” [and] that is not an uncommon statement. I hear it all over the world now. At the same time, we’re opening up new routes to market. So, we’re opening up the [business process outsourcing] BPO space, we’re opening up the MSP space, and we’ve opened up the carrier space, and so all of those are accretive growth to our channel community. They’re not share shift. We’re building an engine for scale and an engine for growth.

When partners leave Partner Connect 2026, what’s the one message you want them to take away that will have the biggest impact on their business in 2027?

I think them understanding just how much untapped potential there is with the Zoom portfolio and the acceleration of product and opportunity that we’re presenting to them. This world is moving so fast, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. I have never seen the rate of change I’ve seen in the last two years.

I want the partners walking away feeling confident that they’ve made the right choice, that we’re enabling them for success, and that there is much more opportunity than they even imagined and then I want to give them the parameters and gates to be able to measure the success of that investment.