5 Practical Ways to Leverage AI in Your Partner Program

Is AI good or bad? Should it be used in Oscar-nominated movies? I don’t claim to have an answer to either of those questions, but I can say that AI, leveraged correctly, can help vendors save time and personalize some of their tools, processes and content for partners. It’s called a relationship for a reason, and we all know relationships take work. But with only so many hours in the day, it’s worth thinking about how some of the recurring actions of a partner program could be performed by AI.

There’s no replacement for a good Partner Manager who cultivates, nurtures and develops critical partner relationships. At the same time, vendors are curious how to use AI to help their partner teams. In our recent Partner Programs Benchmark study, 20% of the vendor respondents indicated ‘leveraging AI’ was a top 5 priority for 2025. Here are five ways AI could be leveraged to enhance your partner programs:

1. Partner Portal – AI can personalize recommendations based on the partner’s industry, performance, and sales history. This makes it easier for partners to access the right tools and information when they need it. Many PRM and portal vendors have made AI functionality available, you just need to set it up.
2. Lead Passing – Use AI to better qualify and prioritize leads, enabling you to assign leads to the appropriate partners. AI algorithms can score incoming leads based on criteria such as engagement levels, historical data, and demographic fit, saving you time and allowing partner managers to focus more on developing partner relationships.
3. Sales Playbooks – Analyze successful sales interactions across all your channels (direct and indirect) with AI. This data collection and reporting can be used by AI to build sales playbooks for partners, helping refine sales approaches across products, regions and even customer workload segments.
4. Content Creation – With human oversight and good input, AI can save your partner marketing team valuable time by generating customized marketing collateral and sales presentations that partners can use to engage their prospects and customers. This could include solution descriptions, case studies, or email templates based on the specific needs of each partner’s target audience.
5. Onboarding New Partners – AI-enabled PRM systems provide partners with step-by-step guidance on how to get started, answer common questions, and direct them to resources such as training paths or sales playbooks. AI can also personalize the onboarding experience based on the partner’s industry, size, or market focus.

In these and other ways, technology companies can leverage AI to engage and empower their partners more effectively, driving higher productivity, enhanced collaboration, and improved partner satisfaction. AI not only streamlines processes but also provides more personalized and intelligent interactions with partners. From sales forecasting and lead nurturing to training and marketing, AI can significantly optimize how technology companies work with their partners, creating mutually beneficial relationships that drive growth for all parties involved.

Have you used AI in your partner program? Are you thinking about how to streamline processes to better serve your partners? We’d love to talk with you about what you’re working on and the challenges you’re facing. Our team of experts (the human kind), can help. Contact us.

Diane Krakora is CEO of PartnerPath with over two decades of experience defining the best practices and frameworks around how to develop and manage partnerships.