AI is making software faster to build. But getting it in front of the right buyers? It hasn’t gotten any easier.
That tension ran through much of the agenda at AppDirect’s Thrive 2026, the annual conference for organizations that buy and sell technology, held at the JW Marriott L.A. Live from September 29 to October 1.
On one hand, you have the AI side — how it’s speeding up development. On the other, you have the reality of distribution — how cloud marketplaces, affiliates and partner ecosystems are some of the most effective ways to sell that software.
Partnerships were also the focus of PartnerStack co-founder and CEO Bryn Jones’s day-one keynote, “Winning through partnerships.” The session dug into how companies are using partner-led growth — and the PartnerStack platform — to reach more customers and keep growing.
For a sense of where B2B software is heading right now, we’ve rounded up four takeaways from Thrive on why, as AI makes software faster to build, strong partner and marketplace channels are how the fastest-growing companies will pull ahead.
1. When anyone can build, distribution is the moat
If customers can just vibe code their own tools, why would they keep paying for yours?
This question was at the heart of the “Build vs. buy in the age of AI” session. Its premise: feature parity simply doesn’t protect software businesses anymore. What lasts are the things you can’t prompt into existence, like the integrations, partner ecosystems, services and go-to-market muscle built up over years.
“The new rules of software growth” session explored the other side of that shift: as AI speeds up software creation, buyers are increasingly shopping for software through marketplaces and ecosystems.
Jones made a similar point in April when PartnerStack joined AppDirect: the companies winning today aren’t necessarily the ones with the best products, but the ones with the best distribution.
In other words, distribution is becoming the engine of compounding growth.
That puts partner programs much closer to the center of the business. The integrations you’ve built, the agencies that implement your product and the affiliates who already have your buyer’s attention all make your product harder to replace. A competitor can copy a feature. Copying years of relationships is a lot harder.
You might also like: The AI maturity curve: where partner teams actually stand in 2026.
2. Buyers are shopping in marketplaces and through partners
The way businesses find software is changing too. On day one, the agenda featured “How AI and marketplaces are reshaping growth,” a session with AWS’s Lewis Howarth on how AI and cloud marketplaces are shifting where and how businesses find, buy and roll out technology.
On day two, “The marketplace playbook” brought leaders from HPE, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Workday together to share how they think about marketplaces: getting their platforms off the ground, growing them and deciding what belongs in the catalog.
In his April post, Jones put it plainly: “Marketplaces are the default buying venue.” Pointing to AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud, he wrote, “They’re where enterprise procurement increasingly closes.”
For partner leaders, that means showing up where buyers start their search. A listing in the marketplaces your buyers already use helps. So do partners who know your product well enough to recommend it when a customer asks what to buy. Putting your program where partners look for new opportunities, like the PartnerStack and AppDirect markeplaces, makes you easier to find.
See also: What great partner enablement looks like in co-sell.
3. Siloed partner channels hold growth back
Showing up in more places only really helps if those places work together.
The trouble is, partner programs often grow one channel at a time. You launch a marketplace listing, start a reseller program, add affiliates and then try to figure out a co-sell motion. Before long, each piece can end up with its own goals and reporting, so teams repeat each other’s work and execution varies from channel to channel.
That problem was the focus of “Turn siloed partner channels into a single growth engine,” a Thrive session with Miro’s MJ Kettler. It was built around one company’s experience bringing every channel under a unified strategy, with teams aligned around shared goals.
A unified approach pays off in more than cleaner operations. Running everything from one playbook makes it easier to see what’s driving pipeline. Partners also get a clear message instead of crossed wires. An affiliate, a referral partner, a reseller and a marketplace listing can all support the same deal. More channels can start adding up to more growth.
4. The fastest-growing ISVs compound growth through partners
Once your channels work together, growth starts to build on itself. That’s especially true for independent software vendors (ISVs) that make and sell software.
One Thrive panel, “Growth stories from the ecosystem,” was built on that idea. Its description summed it up: “The fastest-growing ISVs aren’t winning on product alone. They’re winning through ecosystems.”
The panel featured speakers from Mixpanel, UKG, Iron Mountain, Xero and Tackle, all companies that have grown revenue through indirect channels like cloud marketplaces, partner programs and operator networks. The session was framed around three outcomes every ISV is after: more demand, wider reach and a healthier bottom line.
Partner-led growth compounds for a simple reason. Each new partner brings an audience you didn’t have to build. Each channel that works makes the next one easier to justify, since you already have the playbook and the results. Over time, growth keeps stacking up instead of starting from zero every quarter.
Better together: AppDirect and PartnerStack
Getting software to buyers through partners and marketplaces is a big part of why PartnerStack joined AppDirect in April. As Jones wrote at the time, the two companies had “always been solving the same problem from different directions.” AppDirect approached it through commerce and marketplaces. PartnerStack came at it from partners, helping software companies grow through affiliates, referral partners and resellers.
That shared vision was on the Thrive agenda, too. On day one, “Better together: Powering what’s next in B2B commerce” paired Jones with Tackle’s John Jahnke to discuss why each company chose AppDirect and what the combination could mean for the future of B2B commerce.
In his April post, Jones also noted that AI has flooded the market with software, leaving buyers overwhelmed. That makes a recommendation from someone they trust worth more than ever.
That brings us back to the idea PartnerStack started with: let the people your buyers already trust tell your story.
AI is making software easier to build. PartnerStack makes it easier to get what you build in front of the right buyers, with one platform to recruit, activate, track and reward partners, from affiliates and B2B influencers to co-sell partners. Book a demo to see how partner-led growth could work for you.
Couldn’t make it to LA? Thrive 27 is where these conversations pick up next, October 4–6 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Keep an eye on thrive.appdirect.com for details.
