Every crisis is an opportunity: Panels at XChange UK Day 1 talk proactive strategies for economic volatility and the skills shortage

Day 1 of XChange UK, hosted by The Channel Company at Sopwell House, brought up thought-provoking discussions around recruitment, skills shortages and business planning

XChange UK 2025 is upon us – and Day 1 brought valuable connections, insights and the odd hardball question for our distinguished panellists. The expert speakers on the main stage tackled tough topics including the rise of AI, a challenging economy, and the omnipresent challenge of finding, nurturing, recruiting and retaining top-tier talent.

Nothing beats being there and taking part in the conversations around the bar, but in case you couldn’t join us this year, here are the highlights.

In the past five years, we’ve all seamlessly adopted the phrase “the new normal”. Its meaning continues to shift, however, as the business and economic environment remains unpredictable. thriving requires more than just surviving—it demands innovation and strategic adaptation.

Meanwhile, some channel firms have found success navigating economic challenges to drive sustained growth and profitability.

But how can channel businesses effectively manage cash flow to ensure resilience in a turbulent economy?

“I think there are still times of uncertainty. You need to be thinking about how you continue to prepare for that uncertainty,” Richard Behan, chief corporate development officer at CAE Technology Services, told the XChange UK audience.

“I think managing cash flow, having six months of reserve of operating expenses is something that's a fairly straightforward and simple thing that you can just try and bear in mind and having your business to try to navigate these times.”

Meanwhile, Computacenter business CTO networking & security, Dr Colin Williams said that while the industry is experiencing tougher times, this means there’s a degree of prudence required from everyone.

“Matching investment to your expected returns is quite key. Over investing, there are other times to do that and it isn’t now,” Williams told delegates.

“Being a bit more measured in investment is quite key.

“Understanding the effectiveness of your products is very important.

“If you have a product or set of products, they have a life cycle, understand where the money is coming from.”

When the economy is difficult, diversifying services can sometimes prove to be a silver lining for channel firms.

Behan and Williams offer their top bets for how businesses can pull this off.

“AI is giving a great opportunity to look at other things - products, services, markets, and even geographies,” Behan said.

“Being able to explore other services and offerings that you either could do more of, or go into something as a brand new offering would be really key.

“Sectors, again, whether that's private sector, public sector, getting some different sectors could be a good place to start if you haven't already.

“You can even go a bit more international. The growth factor of expanding into different markets is crucial. So maybe you can look from an international standpoint, to try and generate that growth and expand at a time where you really need to really think about how you move forward.”

However, Williams warns that “diversification for the sake of diversification makes no sense.”

“If you're close enough to your customer, you understand what your customer needs. So those are the only products and sort of services that you should really create,” Williams said.

“Being frivolous and saying, ‘this is really, really cool. I think it'd be interesting.’ That makes no sense.

“So being close to your customers, understanding their needs, therefore making sure anything that you actually create is relevant, and test that relevance, emotion doesn't work.

“If you have to market test that relevance to your customers, or analysts or journalists, do that first, and when you've got some confidence, that is a high likelihood that this other product, complimentary, parallel product, will work.

“I definitely am not somebody who gets so caught up in technology that the new exciting thing is the thing that we must do that makes no sense to me.”

A customer first approach is clearly a priority for channel partners, but how can organisations balance this while staying nimble and relevant?

“One of the biggest MSP challenges is the pain of cost of tooling,” said WIlliams.

“Somehow, you've got to maintain great tooling to deliver great service, but you can't pass all those tooling costs onto your customer.

“If you want to drive head on into something new like AI, that’s more new tooling you're going to lay on top of your existing tooling.”

Williams moved onto AI, admitting he didn’t believe he would see another major inflection point like the internet or cloud computing again.

“We all thought we’d seen everything that’s going to be seismic.

“I’ve changed that view. AI is a line in the sand possibly like no other. And those who don't invest in it in a pragmatic way will be left behind. And those who don't find a way of using AI in their existing tooling will be left behind.”

The panel wrapped with a million-dollar question on the world’s most sought-after technology right now - what are some of the practical applications of AI within Computacenter and CAE that have seen success?

“In areas like customer engagement and marketing I think are some good ones. Around our service delivery we’ve seen benefits there,” said Behan.

Meanwhile, Williams stated AI adoption in big companies has been slow.

“The ability to maintain responsible AI, understand data, understand cybersecurity, and overcome what's the initial hurdles required to absolutely turn the knob on AI in a big business, makes it challenging.

“But we’re already seeing benefits with end users.

“Any organisation that switches on Copilot, overnight you’ll see users adopting it en masse.”

Treating the XChange audience to another bombshell statement, Williams told delegates he thinks the channel is “definitely about to see a significant amount of reseller service delivery opportunity, either building systems and platforms as the foundation for AI to allow organisations to use it.”

“Helping organisations to write the business cases that make sense in their world, that are relevant to them, that use AI.

“Helping people to envision how to use AI when they don't realise how to do that.”

And his final point, which Williams concedes he didn’t buy into a year ago, but now believes will be significant this year and beyond, is agentic AI.

“If you think of anything that you can deliver, a workflow where you can either use an agent to elevate a human and chain together human type behavior in a consistent way that scales, that works, 24/7 x 365, you've got a wonderful system that they could have almost infinite capabilities, that you can achieve and program.

“So agentic AI in time will be so valuable and damaging at times, to humanity, business, and society.”

Tackling the talent shortage with creative recruitment

Following sessions from Kaseya, Hitachi and Defense.com, the final panel of the day tackled the ongoing issue of recruiting skilled talent. The panelists balanced a sober and realistic perspective with constructive and creative approaches to recruitment.

Michael Charles, recruitment deputy team lead at Softcat, emphasised the critical consequences of failing to recruit the right talent at the right time: “The impact of talent shortages is real. If you’re not recruiting right, it doesn’t just affect the business—it also affects the people already working there. It’s a task that can seem impossible, but it has a serious effect on those already in the business.”

Seleeta Walker, UK inclusion lead at Softcat, added to this, stressing the importance of nurturing talent internally.

“Companies need to invest in their people.

“There’s a real opportunity in developing existing talent with internal programs, apprenticeships, and platforms like radio, Walker said.

“Creativity is key to bridging the gap and attracting the right people.”

She further underlined the importance of capturing young talent early, suggesting partnerships with universities and apprenticeship programs to build the future workforce.

Samuel Dagogo, commercial director at STECHAD LTD emphasized the urgency of the issue, saying: “When there’s a lack of skilled workers, everything slows down.

“Work processes get delayed, and service providers face challenges in meeting deadlines.

“The shortage of skilled professionals is frustrating and really affects the whole industry.”

The panel also explored how this shortage is impacting innovation, particularly in emerging sectors like AI and cloud technology.

“Innovation thrives on inspiration,” Dagogo continued.

“Without people who can think critically, we risk getting stuck. AI can provide solutions, but we still need human input to push those solutions further and adapt them for real-world use.”

The conversation shifted to the need to widen the recruiting net by building relationships with universities and schools.

Charles spoke to the need for more proactive strategies: “We’ve always been reactive in recruitment, but with AI and other emerging technologies, we need to start preparing now. Let’s build the foundation so that when the demand for these skills increases, we already have people in place who can fill those roles.”

With the growing demand for skilled workers, particularly in AI and cloud, the panelists emphasised the importance of tapping into diverse talent pools, including those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

“Companies need to be more intentional about their recruitment strategies. We should be supporting programs that reach out to underprivileged communities and give back to the society that we profit from.” Walker concluded.