TD SYNNEX Elevates Partner AI Opportunities With AI Pioneers Program

At their recent Inspire conference, TD SYNNEX placed AI front and center in many ways, including the introduction of a strategic enhancement to its AI go-to-market approach, Destination AI™, with AI Pioneers, a specialized apprenticeship program in North America designed to close the AI skills gap.

Speaking at Inspire, Reyna Thompson, president of TD SYNNEX North America, shared how the initiative came to life after leaders were introduced to the NVIDIA DJX Spark, a compact AI supercomputer, at NVIDIA’s GTC conference. “I didn’t know exactly what it would look like yet, but I knew I wanted to bring this to our partners and showcase it at Inspire,” Thompson recalled.

That vision is now realized through AI Pioneers, a first-of-its-kind apprenticeship program aimed at closing the industry’s AI skills gap. The initiative brings together students and early-career technologists specializing in AI/ML, computer science and data science to co-develop real-world use cases in collaboration with TD SYNNEX engineers, business mentors and NVIDIA technical experts. “Through AI Pioneers, we are investing in the next generation of innovators while enabling our vendors and partners to scale confidently with AI,” Thompson said.

One of those Pioneers, Darla Valderrama, demonstrated her team’s solution, Knode, an AI-powered knowledge hub built on NVIDIA’s enterprise RAG blueprint. Designed to help enterprises cut through data noise, Knode enables employees to access accurate, secure information across multiple formats—from text and PDFs to images, spreadsheets and databases. “Finding what you need, when you need it, can be a struggle in large enterprises,” Valderrama explained. “Knode makes verified company information more accessible and actionable.”

The inaugural AI Pioneers class has already delivered a diverse set of repeatable use cases, including:

• Agentic Platform for Hospitality and Entertainment – real-time AI agents enhancing guest experience and operational efficiency.
• Knowledge Knode – streamlining enterprise data access and decision-making.
• Agent-based Emergency Response Platform – improving situational awareness and response coordination to protect lives and property.

For partners, these solutions illustrate practical paths to implementation. According to TD SYNNEX’s latest Direction of Technology report, 75 percent of partners see AI as essential to their future, yet nearly half face challenges due to a lack of talent. The AI Pioneers program directly addresses this barrier, giving resellers access to proven blueprints and scalable models they can tailor to their customers’ needs.

TD SYNNEX is helping partners turn AI potential into tangible business outcomes. By combining emerging talent, NVIDIA’s enterprise-grade stack and the expertise of the Destination AI team, resellers gain a faster, more confident path to market.

And with these repeatable blueprints, practical use cases and hands-on guidance, partners can accelerate deployment, unlock new revenue streams and strengthen their position as trusted leaders in enterprise AI.