When it comes to partnerships, few people have seen the industry evolve quite like Margaret Adam. After 14 years as a leading ecosystem analyst at IDC, she then helped Salesforce scale its massive partner GTM and is now shaping the future of the channel as Director of Product Marketing at Channelscaler.
I chatted with Margaret at the El PRADO Hotel in Palo Alto, just ahead of Channelscaler’s first major event since rebranding from Channel Mechanics, to talk about what’s next for the partner ecosystem - from AI and marketplaces to attribution and incentives.
Margaret’s keynote at the event centered on one question: How do we make AI real?
The industry is buzzing with AI announcements and pilots, but as she notes, “95% of GenAI pilots fail to show ROI in the first six months.” Her focus is helping partner leaders cut through the noise and apply AI in ways that actually drive value today.
“It’s about making it tangible,” she says. “Looking at your partner strategy, your programs, your people, and your PRM - and finding where AI can deliver real impact now.”
That means starting small and staying practical. Partner ops teams, she points out, are lean - sometimes just one or two people managing operations for a global network of partners. AI can be a powerful force multiplier, automating the repetitive tasks that bog down partner ops and freeing up time for strategy and relationship building.
A highlight from her keynote is an example from ThoughtSpot, where the go-to-market team - not engineers - ran an AI hackathon. Within days, they built nine field-ready sales agents to handle things like competitive insights and content guidance. The result wasn’t just efficiency, but excitement. “Once people see what’s possible,” she says, “light bulbs go on.”
Beyond AI, Margaret sees major shifts happening in marketplaces and co-sell. What once started as an experiment is now a core sales motion.
“Marketplace is becoming the engine for enterprise procurement,” she says. “The challenge now is how you incentivize sellers and attribute partner impact in that environment.”
Attribution, she emphasizes, remains one of the most complex topics in partnering - especially when so many contributors are non-transactional. But unified, high-quality data is the foundation for solving it.
“AI is only as good as the data it sits on,” she notes. “If your systems aren’t connected, you can’t trigger the right actions or measure true performance.”
Her perspective is grounded in decades of experience - from helping define “the cloud” at IDC to leading ecosystem GTMs at Salesforce and now driving innovation at Channelscaler. The company’s rebrand unites two well-known partner tech firms, Allbound and Channel Mechanics, and this event served as their official coming-out party.
Margaret announced new AI-powered capabilities including a Deal Reg Agent and MDF Concierge, now live in market.
“We’re bringing a unified, modern experience to customers,” she says. “It’s not just about platform consolidation - it’s about driving innovation and real outcomes.”
From her analyst days to her current operator role, Margaret’s passion for the partner ecosystem is clear. “It’s a real community,” she smiles. “I’ve been in it my whole career - and it’s still evolving every day.”
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