Ecosystem management in 2026

January 21, 2026 • Brian Carbone • 5 minutes

Unifyr last offered predictions about the future of PRM in 2024 with an extensive aggregation of expert views. In retrospect, it’s clear the cohort had their fingers on the channel’s pulse: they were correct in several key ways. In fact, there’s a common undercurrent. Consider some of the assertions:

Partner ecosystems are driving the rise of revenue operations,
Market development funds and incentives will come with more strings attached, and
Tightening budgets will force partner programs to drive efficiency and scale.

Partner ecosystems are reflecting trends seen more generally wherein businesses are operating with precision both in terms of human resourcing and strategic execution. In other words, businesses are no longer pound-foolish — driven by financial necessity — and the immediate challenges that arise from operating in this way require intelligent solutions. That brings me to a relatively safe assertion:

Modern ecosystem management poses challenges that AI solves

With AI — as with web3 — the technology solves many problems really well and does little to mitigate others. You’ll remember the time when “crypto” and “NFTs” were solutions in search of problems, and although they are the zeitgeist no longer, they have found tremendous usefulness in several key niches, including finance, identity, provenance, and data sovereignty. Similarly, language models have been put through their paces and it’s abundantly clear the capacity for AI to interpret change (insight from Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Omdia), make decisions, and execute quickly (for now) far exceeds its capacity to produce compelling long-form content. Insofar as channel teams are operating in the new “sustainable and lightweight” business paradigm, the cost efficiency and efficacy of AI agents positions them not as a nice-to-haves, but as fundamental requirements.

I needn’t harp on the growth of AI and its expanding applicability, but I will attest to its rapidly increasing importance for ecosystem management: we’ll continue to see deeper integration between leading LLMs and PRM platforms to solve key problems:

Lead distribution will be AI-orchestrated and deal health will be AI-monitored.
Onboarding for globally diversified partner networks will become more personalized to culture and geography.
Through-channel marketing automation will be AI-mediated for contextualized relevance.
PRM tooling will offer Model Context Protocol (MCP) support in order for proprietary agents to interact with third-party agents (e.g. agents within CRM and CDP platforms).
Channel management and reporting will be accessible using natural language (indeed, simply ask for a specific report or dashboard rather than spending the time to reckon with which variables are associative and compatible with the graph representation you’d like).

One key aspect is non-negotiable, however: businesses will engage software vendors that make guarantees about data security and privacy. AI features should comprise a closed loop in an enterprise ecosystem: models should not be trained on customer data and customer data must not be shared with third parties or other customers.

A quick plug: If you’re looking to purchase a PRM solution or migrate from an alternative, Unifyr offers state-of-the-art AI agents today using Unifyr IQ, our platform-native and privacy-centric intelligence layer based on the most current and intelligent LLMs available. In addition, you can expect to see a marked expansion of AI-driven platform capabilities in the coming year (some of which will expose my predictions as not-predictions).

Cloud marketplaces are becoming a critical juncture for indirect sales

The numbers speak volumes: “Global cloud infrastructure spending rose 21.8% year on year, reaching $95.3 billion in 2Q25, up $17.1 billion from 2Q24,” according to Jay McBain, citing Omdia research in Q4 2025. There’s much to be said about becoming a technology (and eventually co-sell) partner with a hyperscaler, but here are some of the incentives:

Cloud marketplaces complement your existing reseller relationships, e.g. with managed service providers and global systems integrators, by offering a platform for private offers wherein customers receive your software AND consulting/implementation/management all transacted through the marketplace.
- This model also benefits value-added resellers that bundle your software with often synergistic tools to produce superior customer outcomes.
Whereas technology partner partnership status is valuable, co-sell status creates the opportunity for you to enable the hyperscaler’s sales force with materials necessary to sell your product during their customer interactions.
Companies using hyperscalers will frequently have a committed spend requirement in which they must spend a minimum amount of money in the marketplace to receive discounts: by positioning yourself in the marketplace, you stand to receive some of that committed spend value.
Appearing in a cloud marketplace confers credibility: your product will establish a baseline level of trust for having passed the necessary requirements for appearing in the marketplace.

As cloud growth continues, so will the opportunity for their partners. Indirect sales through cloud marketplaces is very different from direct sales, but strategizing around a model that supports this channel is potentially a very worthwhile investment.

Accurate partner attribution maintains trust (and it’s difficult without the right tooling)

Channel sales has become more lucrative but significantly more complicated with time. 70% of global IT spending is delivered or influenced by partners, dispelling any doubt about the efficacy of a partner-driven revenue engine. However, partners today do not operate in silos: your resell partner may close the sale, but other partners, including technology partners (independent software vendors), consultants (GSIs & MSPs), and hyperscalers (clearly!) provide the influence, validation, and proof necessary for the deal to close.

Guaranteeing precise multi-partner attribution is required to maintain unbroken ecosystem trust. If your partners must raise concerns about inequitable attribution, you stand to damage trust that can be very difficult or impossible to restore. Modern PRM solutions, including Unifyr One, provide the tools necessary to execute accurate channel motions at global scale, particularly in complex enterprise arrangements where multiple parties are involved in completing your full channel marketing and sales cycle.

Correct attribution is one of many channel-specific dynamics that promotes partner engagement and success, however long-term growth is dependent on the product of many other ecosystem features, including seamless onboarding, contextualized partner enablement material, automated lead distribution & deal orchestration, and quick & reliable processes for MDFs and incentives. Successful global programs are built on a foundation of rigor and fairness that ensures partners are focused on working with vendors toward sales rather than fighting their process.

Establish your partner program at any size: Unifyr One Engage for emergent programs and Unifyr One for enterprise programs are built with your current requirements and your future requirements in mind. Start growing your ecosystem revenue with us today.