At the Master B2B Mindshare Summit, Andy Hoar asked that exact question across multiple roundtable discussions with senior B2B e-commerce executives. The result: 18 different answers, but one clear winner. Data and AI stood out far above everything else, and for a surprising reason: they’re really the same investment.
In this episode of Friday 15, Brian Beck and Andy Hoar break down exactly where B2B leaders are putting their next dollar, why data is the most undervalued asset in B2B, and how to think about prioritization when everything feels urgent.
FAQ
Q: Has AI changed what B2B companies need from their systems integrator?
A: According to a Master B2B LinkedIn poll, 67% said yes — the scope looks different. However, when Chris Germann collected data from 50+ practitioners at the Mindshare Summit roundtables, AI was barely mentioned as a factor in evaluating SI partnerships. The fundamentals still dominate: “Show me value. Show me good attention. Give me the A-team all the time. It was all the fundamentals.” The hosts believe the community intellectually understands AI will change things but hasn’t yet figured out how to evaluate SIs differently because of it.
Q: What makes a systems integrator “most impactful” according to B2B practitioners?
A: Two main groups emerged from the roundtable discussions. The first group named their SI as the most impactful partner — but critically noted it typically took three or four SIs before finding the right one. What made the right SI stand out wasn’t coding ability but understanding the business, understanding the industry, and being a true strategic partner. The second group — nearly half of respondents — named specialized partners (data providers, PIM vendors, search vendors, even ERP vendors) as more impactful than their general SI, often because their SI couldn’t do data, search, or PIM well enough.
Q: Is the “generalist SI” model dead?
A: Chris Germann’s advice was direct: “The days of the generalist are over. Niches equal riches.” He recommended that SI CEOs get very clear about their core competencies and back them up with specific case studies. If you claim to do A-to-Z e-commerce, you need proof. He also predicted a wave of acquisitions where SIs buy specialized data providers to fill their gaps. Andy Hoar compared it to the ad agency model — you had general agencies for strategy and positioning, but you hired specialists for SEO. The same specialization is now happening in systems integration.
Q: Why is data competency now non-negotiable for SIs?
A: As Andy Hoar put it: “Without good data, you’ve got no AI. If you don’t know how to do data as an SI — meaning mastery of it, if you don’t have a strategy, a methodology, if you don’t understand how to make data a strategic weapon — then you’re never going to be successful with your clients on the AI front.” Data is the precursor to everything. Companies that emerged as providing the most value in the roundtable discussions were those that could handle data architecture, data consistency, and product information management.
Q: How is AI changing SI pricing models?
A: The traditional SI pricing model — time and materials, where projects cost 5 to 15 times the price of the software — is under pressure. Andy Hoar noted that companies are pushing back: “I’m not going to pay you by the hour because if you’re using AI to write code, it doesn’t take as long anymore. All I really care about is the outcome.” This is driving a shift toward outcome-based pricing, where SIs are compensated for business results rather than hours worked.
Q: What was the breaking news about AI’s public perception?
A: AI has a growing PR problem. A Wall Street Journal article reported that 55% of Americans believe AI will do more harm than good in their daily lives, up from 44% last year. An NBC News poll found AI’s net favorability rating was below that of ICE. Only 5% of Americans think AI development is being led by people who represent their interests. 70% think AI will lead to fewer jobs. Bernie Sanders published an editorial calling AI “a threat to everything the American people hold dear” and called for a moratorium on AI data center construction. The hosts discussed the political implications, noting that white-collar workers who once embraced technology may become anti-AI as it threatens their jobs.
Q: If I’m a VP of e-commerce, how should I approach SI selection now?
A: Chris Germann’s recommendation: don’t look for one SI to do everything. Instead, get multiple specialized providers — someone really good on the platform, someone excellent at data integration, and possibly someone else focused on data architecture and product information. This “best of breed” approach is providing more value than trying to find a single all-in-one partner. When evaluating any SI, prioritize their understanding of your business and industry, their ability to deliver business outcomes (not just code), and their data competency as a non-negotiable foundation.
Transcript:
Brian Beck
Welcome party people to our weekly Friday 15. My name is Brian Beck. I’m here with Andy, my partner in our Master B2B community and thought leadership series for e-commerce in B2B. Welcome Andy to another Friday 15.
Andy Hoar
Yeah, can’t wait. Let’s jump in.
Breaking News: AI Has a PR Problem
Brian Beck
Andy, did you see this? Wall Street Journal this week — “AI Giants Go on Charm Offensive to Avert Public Backlash.” Turns out that AI has a PR problem. While AI use is increasing, 55% of Americans believe more harm than good will come from the technology in their daily lives. That’s up from 44% last year. And check this out — an NBC News poll found that AI had a net favorability rating below that of ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Does AI have a problem?
Andy Hoar
Yes, it does. And it’s a combination of things. They are smart in that they know they have to get ahead of this. That said, I’m not sure it’s going to be successful because some of these numbers are staggering. 70% of Americans think AI will lead to fewer jobs, and only 5% — five percent — think AI’s development is being led by people and organizations that represent their interests.
Meta is building a data center in Louisiana that’s nearly the size of Manhattan, using electricity equivalent to 1.6 million homes. I know about this because none other than Bernie Sanders wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. The headline: “AI Is a Threat to Everything the American People Hold Dear. It kills jobs, equality, connection, democracy, and maybe the human race. Congress must act.”
I think he staked out a pretty clear position on this one.
Brian Beck
And these soon-to-be trillionaires can read this. Elon Musk will be a trillionaire by the end of the year because SpaceX is going to go public.
Andy Hoar
This is what people don’t trust — that there are these people who are worth trillions of dollars who are now controlling their lives and probably leading to the end of their careers. This is going to cause enormous upheaval in society. I think we’re only a couple years away from it.
By evidence of the fact that Bernie Sanders wrote that, this is going to be a major political issue going forward. You could have blue-collar Americans who are unaffected by AI because they’re doing things with their hands — which is what everybody’s telling their kids to do now — who love AI. And then you’ve got people in the suburbs, “Office Park dads” who used to embrace and love technology, who now are post-AI because it’s putting them out of work. Talk about a realignment.
Brian Beck
I’m seeing protests in the suburbs, man. Seriously, protests at the mall. It’s going to be interesting to see how this all develops. What do I tell my 14-year-old son? “Hey, think about the trades, buddy.”
Andy Hoar
And you know how crazy this is — the detail behind these proposals includes stuff like OpenAI proposing that there be a tax on robots instead of income tax. That sounds great, but talk about over-the-horizon stuff. That’s your solution to this problem? People are losing their jobs and you’re like, “Well, let’s just tax robots at some point.” This is going to get really weird — probably worse after it gets better.
Brian Beck
It’s going to be interesting to see how different governments get involved in this around the world because this is not an American issue. This is a worldwide dynamic. And look at this data center they’re going to build in Louisiana. Let’s say they succeed in blocking it — that’s one of the things Bernie Sanders called for, a moratorium on the development of AI data centers. Well, companies aren’t going to just stop using AI. Microsoft isn’t going to just not have data centers. They’re going to go elsewhere. Those data centers end up in China or India or South America. They’re going somewhere else.
Andy Hoar
China — not a great place to be dominating AI. I think I’m willing to make that political statement.
The Role of the Systems Integrator in B2B
Brian Beck
So today we’re talking about something practical: has AI changed what you need from your systems integrator? Why is this important to our community? Well, the systems integrator has played a very important role in digital transformation for B2B firms — manufacturers and distributors — over the history of digital transformation.
They help define digital strategy, support platform selection, write customized code, integrate all your systems — ERP, PIM, etc. — handle change management, support digital marketing. And in implementations of new systems, which is where they’re most important, SIs drive the majority of the effort. They often consume about half of the spend in platform rollouts. According to Gartner, the writing of code and integration of software systems is the largest component of SI revenue at almost 46%.
AI seems to be changing a lot of this. Google and Microsoft report that up to 30% of their internal code repositories are already AI-written or assisted. Surveys by organizations like Sonar anticipate that AI assistance will rise to 65% of all committed code by the end of 2027. So the question is: how does this change what you as an e-commerce exec should expect and need from your SI partner?
Andy Hoar
I’d add one thing that often gets lost about SIs. Not only do they do all those technical things, but the good SIs actually come to companies saying, “We need to up your customer experience.” If you’re just writing code, that can be outsourced — Indian outsourcing firms like Wipro and Infosys have been slinging code at an affordable price for 20-30 years.
What always separated the good SIs from the average ones was that the good SIs started with business outcomes. And that’s what we’re starting to see now — outcome-based pricing. They used to charge for time and materials, projects that would be 5 to 15 times the price of the software. Now companies are saying, “Wait a minute. I’m not going to pay you by the hour because if you’re using AI to write code, it doesn’t take as long anymore. All I really care about is the outcome.”
I still think there’s a lot of value in outsourcing this because the only people worse at creating an experience for their clients than an SI is the company themselves. It’s good to have an outside view — oftentimes telling companies what they already know, but it comes from an authoritative source.
What 50+ B2B Practitioners Said at the Summit
Brian Beck
We wanted to get the opinion of one of our leaders here. Chris Germann ran roundtable discussions at our summit in Chicago. Chris comes from a long career at Gartner and now runs our Nexus program. Chris, welcome. What did you hear when you asked about what makes for a good partner?
Chris Germann
I wasn’t real excited when you guys assigned this topic because I thought everybody’s going to just say, “Oh, the SI is the best thing we need.” But it was really interesting. Not a lot of people talked about AI, so I’ll say that up front. I think it’s taking a while to have that impact trickle into what’s actually happening on the street.
Essentially there were two main groups. We got about 50 data points — pretty good representation. The first group did name their SI as the most impactful partner. But a lot of them said it took three or four SIs to get there. There’s this process of finding and culling through your initial SI before you get one that understands the business, understands the industry, and can really help with stakeholders and be a partner. That’s still very much on everybody’s mind — finding the right person.
Brian Beck
What’s interesting about that is you didn’t hear “I need to find the best coder.” You heard “I need to find the right partner,” which implies the relationship and the strategic stuff is really important.
Andy Hoar
The coding’s been commoditized for a while and that’s been accelerated with AI. If all you’re doing is hiring somebody to write code for you, those days are numbered. It has always been the case that the exceptional SIs could actually work with you to understand how you were going to have a sustained, differentiated competitive advantage over time. That’s what you’re looking for — not people to write code.
The Rise of Specialized Partners
Chris Germann
Almost half the people who talked about their most impactful partner named specialized partners — and even some people mentioned their ERP vendor because they have such a broad impact on all areas of the business and data. Some people said, “Yes, our SI is important, but our SI and our data partner or PIM provider combined.” And some people flat out said their search vendor or data partner is the most important.
It says a lot about where people are in their journey. Some organizations have a very mature relationship with their SI, but the SI doesn’t do data very well or doesn’t do search or PIM very well. Getting a specialized outside partner — even with an SI — and not expecting your SI to do everything was providing more value to the enterprise.
Andy Hoar
It’s starting to feel like agencies. Remember, ad agencies had the general agencies that would come up with strategy and positioning, maybe write some TV commercials. But they didn’t do SEO because they weren’t very good at that, so you hired a specialized group. I think we’re starting to see that specialization take place in the systems integration space as well.
Does AI Make the SI More or Less Important?
Chris Germann
As I mentioned, there was no real thread of data that came out indicating AI was mentioned as having an impact. It just didn’t come out as something people would list as what makes their SI differentiated.
Andy Hoar
Like everything else, it changes the value but doesn’t diminish it. The question becomes: can the SIs actually evolve to accommodate this new role?
Brian Beck
So if you put yourselves in the seat of a VP of e-commerce at a big distributor or manufacturer — what am I looking for now in an SI? Am I looking for AI competency? Am I looking for them to be transparent about using AI to write code and reducing costs? There’s a lot of uncertainty in our community about what AI can even do and what it’s actually competent at today.
Chris Germann
If I had a bag of money, I would get multiple providers. I know that’s more difficult because you want one stop. But a lot of providers just aren’t able to be that broad, especially for mid-size organizations and family-run businesses in our network.
I would spend money on somebody really good on the platform, somebody really good on data integration, and maybe somebody else that’s really good on the whole data architecture and product data information. That’s where the family jewels are. That’s what came out of this research — that’s what’s providing the most value right now.
Brian Beck
So it’s best of breed from an SI perspective — you’re not looking for an all-in-one solution. If you’re advising the CEO of an SI, are you telling them to specialize?
Chris Germann
I’m saying be very clear about what your core competencies are. If you say you do e-commerce and can do A-to-Z, you have to have a lot of case studies to back that up. The days of the generalist are over. Niches equal riches.
Andy Hoar
I’ll add one critical non-negotiable for any SI going forward: you have to have a competency around data. Without good data, you’ve got no AI. If you don’t know how to do data as an SI — meaning mastery of it, if you don’t have a strategy, a methodology, if you don’t understand how to make data a strategic weapon — then you’re never going to be successful with your clients on the AI front. Data is a precursor to that.
Chris Germann
And we can make a forecast that if that’s true, there’s going to be a lot of acquisitions of the SIs buying these specialized data providers and folding them in.
Community Poll Results
Brian Beck
Let’s get your reaction to this. We asked our LinkedIn community, “Has AI changed what you expect from your systems integration partner?” 67% said yes, the scope looks different. Only a third said no, fundamentals are the same.
Chris Germann
Intellectually, I can see it’s going to make a difference, no question. But when I sat around that table and talked to 50 people about their SIs and their most impactful partnerships, it was still the nuts and bolts. It was still the bottom line — show me value, show me good attention, give me the A-team all the time. It was all the fundamentals.
Brian Beck
That’s human stuff. Yay. There’s hope for humanity.
Andy Hoar
I remember 10 years ago at Forrester, we did an evaluation of SIs and it was the hardest wave evaluation I’d ever done. Because there was nothing to evaluate — there’s no product. You’re just evaluating personal connections and alleged expertise. I remember one customer reference that three different SIs gave us. It was the same guy. I’m like, “You’ve got three SIs that all claim you’re their customer.” He said, “Well, I guess technically that’s true.”
The one thing I’d say is that many companies don’t know how to evaluate SIs differently right now because they’re not quite sure what they’re doing going forward. How are they going to bring on a partner if they’re not quite sure what their strategy is?
Brian Beck
No question. Well, for time’s sake, we’ve got to leave it there. Chris, thank you for joining us today. All right, folks — we will see you next week on our next Friday 15. Thank you for joining today.
