If your last AV project felt slower and more complicated than the one before it, you’re not imagining things. A new report says the AV and UC channel is changing its business model. This isn’t a technology shift. It’s a shift in how integrators make money. That shift touches how you buy, budget, and support AV systems going forward.
Blue Touch Paper’s Channel Pulse Q2 2026 report posed one question. Has the channel playbook changed? The answer was yes. The report draws on interviews with Channel Advisory Board members across North America, South America, APAC, Europe, and the UK. Nearly half identified as AV partners. IT and UC partners made up the rest.
From selling boxes to selling outcomes
For years, most integrators built their business around hardware. They quoted a project, deployed it, and moved on. Revenue landed at deployment. Margin came mostly from product markup.
That model is eroding. Value is shifting away from deployment and toward lifecycle ownership, according to the report. Think monitoring, analytics, advisory work, and ongoing support. Standard meeting rooms, once the industry’s bread and butter, are increasingly commoditized. Integrators now protect margin through high-impact spaces, corporate broadcast work, and managed services instead.
This shift affects you in two ways. First, expect your integrator to push services and support contracts harder. That’s true even on projects that used to be simple hardware buys. Second, expect sales conversations to sound less like a spec sheet and more like a business case.
The report notes an important gap here. Many integrators describe themselves as outcome-led in principle. Yet in practice, their sales motion often remains product-led. That gap matters for you. If a proposal still reads like a parts list with a discount attached, push back. Ask your integrator to name the actual outcome they’re promising.
The billing model is shifting too. The report found that operating-expense, or OpEx, pricing is now widely available across the channel. However, most integrators still only offer it when a customer asks. Few have built it into their standard proposals. If a subscription billing structure fits your budget cycle better, don’t wait for your integrator to suggest it. Ask directly, and expect the option to exist even if it isn’t offered up front.
Pro Tip: Ask your integrator how they price ongoing support and monitoring, not just installation. If they can’t answer clearly, their business model hasn’t caught up to their pitch.
Your buying committee just got bigger
The report’s section on buyer dynamics offers one of the most useful findings for IT and AV leaders. Decision-making for AV and UC purchases no longer sits with a single technical role. Procurement, facilities, HR, and senior executives are all getting more involved, especially on high-visibility projects.
That tracks with what many AV and IT teams already experience. Procurement’s growing role adds pressure on pricing and contract terms. Facilities still leads decisions on new builds, but now shares influence with a wider group. HR is showing up around hybrid work policy, even though it rarely leads the purchase itself.
The report also flags that internal ownership isn’t always clear. Unclear ownership tends to slow projects down. So if your last project dragged through more approval rounds than expected, you’re not alone. This trend isn’t reversing anytime soon. Naming a clear internal owner before you start shopping can save more time than negotiating on price.
AI advice you can trust is still rare
The report also asked channel partners how they’re advising clients on AI in meeting rooms. The finding is blunt. Most integrators aren’t advising clients on AI in any systematic way yet.
Where advice does happen, it centers on transcription and meeting summaries. These are low-friction use cases that don’t require deep AI expertise to explain. Deeper applications, like automated scheduling or workspace optimization, remain mostly absent from client conversations.
Customer need may be accelerating faster than channel capability, the report states. Many integrators admit they lack the credibility to lead an AI conversation with confidence. So if you’re planning AI features for your meeting spaces this year, don’t assume your integrator is ready. Ask specific questions about what they’ve actually deployed, not just what they can theoretically support.
What to watch next
The report frames complexity itself as the channel’s current defense against commoditization. Integrators are deliberately chasing higher-impact, technically demanding projects to protect margin. Standard meeting rooms no longer support the pricing they once did.
That shift can work in your favor, but only if you understand it. Integrators competing for complex, high-value work have real incentive to bring their best resources to your project. That’s true as long as you’re worth the investment. On the flip side, routine refreshes and smaller rooms may get less attention, since those projects carry thinner margin now.
Knowing which category your next project falls into can help you set realistic expectations. That’s true for timelines, attention, and pricing, before the first proposal even lands.
Blue Touch Paper’s next Channel Pulse report is due in Q3 2026. It will examine how ready the channel is to deliver what the firm calls cognitive collaboration. AVNation will cover the findings on publication.
Tim Albright is the founder of AVNation and is the driving force behind the AVNation network. He carries the InfoComm CTS, a B.S. from Greenville College and is pursuing an M.S. in Mass Communications from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. When not steering the AVNation ship, Tim has spent his career designing systems for churches both large and small, Fortune 500 companies, and education facilities.
- Tim Albright
- Tim Albright
- Tim Albright
- Tim Albright
