62% of Enterprises Turn to Partners to Unlock $450B AI Agent Opportunity
Hi, it's Roman Kirsanov from Partner Insight newsletter, where I deconstruct winning Cloud GTM strategies and the latest trends in cloud marketplaces.
This week we break down:
Why 62% of enterprises are turning to partners to unlock the $450B agentic AI opportunity rather than building agents in-house
ServiceNow's partner transformation strategy behind hitting $12.7B revenue run rate, while growing 22.5% at this scale
McKinsey's new research showing that 33% of large enterprises are now ready to buy $1M+ tech solutions completely digitally—a nearly 3X jump since 2022
These trends are converging to make cloud marketplaces the epicenter of enterprise buying and AI transformation.
Join Cohort 12 of our Cloud GTM Leader course starting September 9th and learn from leaders who built proven cloud marketplace growth strategies —scaling to $MM in AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud marketplaces . Secure early bird pricing before it disappears next week.
62% of Enterprises Turn to Partners to Unlock $450B Agentic AI Potential
Agentic AI is following the same explosive growth path as Gen AI and could unlock $450B by 2028. But 62% of enterprises don't want to build agents themselves — they prefer partners to help.
Capgemini just published a comprehensive study of 1,500 companies, and the message for ecosystem leaders is clear: the agentic revolution will be partner-powered.
Agentic AI Adoption Numbers are Mirroring Gen AI
Agentic AI implementations jumped 3.5x in just one year, mirroring Gen AI's trajectory. Today, 14% of organizations have started implementing AI agents, with another 23% running pilots.
For partners, this represents the biggest opportunity since cloud migration.
Partners Are the Preferred Path
The data reveals a clear preference:
62% want to partner with solution providers (Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow) and system integrators
Only 33% plan to build agents in-house
53% prefer hybrid approaches combining external solutions with internal development
Most Enterprises Simply Aren't Ready to Go It Alone:
Over 80% lack mature AI infrastructure
Fewer than 20% have high data-readiness
Half don't understand AI agent capabilities well enough
These gaps create significant opportunities for partners who can bridge the knowledge and capability divide.
Trust Is the Critical Factor
Trust in fully autonomous AI agents has dropped from 43% to 27% year-over-year (Capgemini). The top factors that could improve trust are demonstrated accuracy and reliability (52% of respondents).
Notably, 69% cite human oversight as their primary risk mitigation strategy.
This is where partners add irreplaceable value — you're not just implementing technology, you can help with trustworthy execution.
The Infrastructure Is Ready
The infrastructure for partner-delivered agentic solutions is now live across every major clouds and platform.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) just launched AI Agents and Tools in AWS Marketplace
Google Cloud introduced its AI Agent Marketplace earlier this year
Microsoft also rolled out Agent Store in addition to Azure AI Foundry
Salesforce and ServiceNow are building comprehensive agent platforms
Where to Focus
Organizations expect highest agent adoption in:
Customer Service (56% within 12 months)
IT - Coding and Operations (51%)
Sales (47%)
These functions offer the clearest near-term opportunities.
The Bottom Line
In three years, organizations expect AI agents to evolve from tools to "team members within human-supervised teams." They'll handle 25% of business processes with Level 3+ autonomy.
The opportunity is massive, and enterprises need your expertise to navigate data challenges, infrastructure gaps, and trust barriers.
What's your agentic AI partnership strategy?
ServiceNow's $13B Partner Playbook & How Partners Built 147 AI Agents in 90 days
As AI agents start to reshape enterprise workflows, ServiceNow's CEO Bill McDermott offers an early lesson:
"what we're seeing is the agents are a lot more collaborative, and more team oriented, and more results oriented than people. So this is gonna be a real fun one to watch."
This isn't just hype —it's backed by the company's results. ServiceNow hit $12.7B annual revenue run rate growing at 22.5% in Q2 '25, with remaining performance obligations (RPO) surging 25.5% to $24B, showing customer commitments. (How RPOs work is here)
At this scale, ServiceNow is striving to evolve into an AI operating system, become the most open and integrated ecosystem, while aggressively expanding its partnerships.
ServiceNow has recently transformed its partner program
It increased partner incentives ~4X in January to fuel growth and simplified its partner program and infused it with AI in June.
The company added 400+ new partners in the last year, to the new 2,500+ total.
Partners not only handle 95% of implementations, but participate across the entire GTM and co-innovation. When they leaned on partners to build Agents, in just 3 months 50+ partners built 147 Agentic AI solutions on its platform.
This ecosystem isn't siloed; it's deeply integrated with hyperscalers
ServiceNow's CEO emphasizes openness in Q2 call:
"We're the only ones that cooperate with all three of the hyperscalers, Oracle too. Think any cloud, any data source, any LLM model, all of them, they're all good."
This approach shines in closing deals:
“AWS is number 1 and number 4 biggest deal ever in the enterprise with ServiceNow customers running an AWS.” - he reflected on Q4.
ServiceNow then expanded Amazon Web Services (AWS) collaboration for AI acceleration, making more solutions available on AWS Marketplace. Google Cloud integrations followed, launching on GCP marketplace to “address demand from global enterprises”.
Recent progress reinforces partner-centric strategy
In Q1 ‘25, CEO highlighted Agent-to-Agent focus:
“Agent-to-agent communication is what we have now done with Google…, and we're doing that with AWS, Microsoft, and others. That might require multiple configuration between different products…, but we are seeing that also going out in less than few months.”
In Q2 McDermott stressed ecosystem-wide collaboration:
"It's the customer that's driving this. And when they hear, oh, any cloud, any data source, any LLM model, any agent, we cooperate with the whole ecosystem so all of your investments are secure on our clean pane of glass across the enterprise, that's when they realize it's a different company I'm dealing with here."
ServiceNow is betting to make AI agents core to workflows, not just add-ons. As customers need to deploy agents to orchestrate across systems, this requires more collaboration than ever.
33% of Large Enterprises Ready to Buy $1M+ Solutions Full Digital Self-Serve
33% of large enterprises are now ready to buy $1M+ tech products or services digitally, self-serve, end-to-end—no meetings, just click-to-close. This represents nearly a 3X change in just 3 years.
McKinsey 2025 survey of 3,140+ decision-makers reveals that willingness to purchase €1M+ deals digitally has nearly tripled across all enterprise segments from 2022 to 2025 (McKinsey Global Technology B2B Pulse Survey, Q1 2025).
The numbers rewriting enterprise sales:
Large enterprises lead the charge, with one-third comfortable making million-euro purchases digitally.
Medium companies aren't far behind—38% now willing to transact above €500K through self-service channels, nearly doubling from 20% in 2022.
Even small enterprises quadrupled their €1M+ digital comfort, jumping from 2% to 8%.
Even bigger story:
Average maximum order values that buyers are comfortable with purchasing fully digitally surged 51-55% across all segments, hitting
$1,052K for large enterprises
$527K for medium-sized
$306K for small enterprises.
This means the psychological ceiling for digital purchasing has surged upward. Enterprises aren't just willing to buy bigger online—they're fundamentally reimagining what transactions belong in digital channels.
What's driving this explosive shift?
The maturation of digital self-service experiences across B2B. From cloud marketplaces to vendor websites, buyers now trust digital channels for complex, high-stakes decisions that once required extensive human interaction.
How to act on it:
Build digital-first, not digital-optional
Your marketplace and self-service capabilities aren't nice-to-haves anymore—they're table stakes for capturing high-value deals
Audit against new expectations
If your digital transaction capabilities can't handle large transactions seamlessly, you're missing the fast-growing buyer segment
Target the willing middle market
Medium enterprises nearly doubled their digital comfort zone, creating massive share-capture opportunities
Rethink partner enablement
Partners need to be able to orchestrate deals purely digitally too, if your buyers want to self-serve at scale
Speed matters
This transformation happened in 36 months—organizations not adapting to digital-first experiences risk falling behind
The message from this data is clear:
B2B buyers have already shifted their comfort zone to high-value digital purchasing. Digital channels and marketplaces aren't complementary anymore—they're becoming the preferred path for enterprise transactions.
Does your GTM today meet the buyers ready to spend $1M without talking to anyone?
Master Marketplaces Like Our Alumni Who Drive Multi-Million Growth (Cohort 12 Starts Sept 9)
While many companies struggle with growing on cloud marketplaces, our alumni results are truly inspiring: many grew from $0→$M+, others scaled $M→$MM in marketplace revenue, some achieving 4X+ YoY growth.
I'm thrilled to invite you to join Cohort 12 starting on September 9!
We recently celebrated our milestone tenth cohort, but with so much momentum and innovation happening in cloud marketplaces, we're just getting started.
Our Cloud GTM Leader course has grown into the industry's leading program for mastering cloud marketplaces, with 250+ alumni accelerating their growth on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Why is it more relevant today than ever before?
The playbook to grow on cloud marketplaces isn't obvious and constantly evolving.
Cloud commitments hit a record high $469B and are on track to reach $500B this year.
PLG, free trials, and co-marketing with hyperscalers are becoming more critical than ever.
The AI agent explosion is rapidly accelerating cloud adoption and turning marketplaces into "everything stores" for SaaS, data, and agents - right before our eyes.
That's why we've been partnering with 50+ exceptional speakers and mentors who share their actual battle-tested strategies in our courses.
Why join Cohort 12?
Learn directly from VPs of Partner of the Year winners, hyperscaler experts and our incredible mentors
Master co-sell tactics that drive real pipeline ($0 to $200K+ in sales and $7M pipeline in 8 weeks for one alumni, who since then scaled on marketplaces)
Get practical frameworks to get your entire org on-board and accelerate cloud GTM together
Join a growing community of 250+ cloud alliance leaders
But don't just take my word for it.
Here's what our recent alums highlighted:
"I came in knowing almost nothing and now I feel equipped to have in-depth conversations with leadership and stakeholders."
"The highlight was learning a clear, actionable GTM framework and how to align teams around cloud buyer needs through ecosystem partnerships."
Our alums loved the "open discussion with peers from different business functions and companies covering SaaS, Cybersecurity and Hyperscalers" and the "tactical elements and measurement tools to measure progress."
"People with real experience sharing the how - how did they win, how did they fail, how did they tackle challenge X or Y."
"Finding Partner Insight's Cloud GTM Leader course was exactly what I needed. Roman is so well connected, bringing key players across AWS, GCP and Microsoft. I really appreciated hearing from both large and small companies on their selling journeys in the marketplaces."
Ready to transform your growth on cloud marketplaces? Join our Cohort 12 starting September 9th
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