An overview of the F5 partner roundtable discussion

The rapid rise of AI has become one of the defining topics for enterprises across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Generative and agentic capabilities powered by deep learning (DL) dominate current conversations, while traditional machine learning (ML) has already been embedded in services and applications for over a decade. Yet despite the enthusiasm, the reality for many organisations is complexity, uncertainty, and difficulty in turning the current wave of hype into business outcomes. To explore this further, F5 hosted a London event focused on its EMEA channel partners, with PAC invited to present and facilitate a roundtable discussion. The session examined how enterprises are approaching AI adoption, what barriers they face, and how partners and F5 help customers progress from interest to execution. For PAC, the discussion revealed a consistent theme regarding the indispensable role of the channel partner as a strategic guide, aligning ambition with clarity and delivering secure, scalable AI deployments in partnership with companies like F5.

Making sense of AI adoption

From the questions and exchanges during the event, it was clear that AI, in its current DL form, has become a critical area of engagement with enterprise leaders across EMEA. The channel partners in the room said that conversations are currently driven by opportunity but also by inflated expectations. While the promise of AI-led innovation is undeniable, partners see that the journey is rarely straightforward. Many in the room felt that the sheer volume of discussion around AI has become overwhelming, making it difficult for enterprises to move from initial interest to strategies that create operational and business value. The partners discussed with PAC how many of their clients cite “unclear AI value realisation” as a limiting factor for adoption. This is compounded by a lack of ownership and expertise within enterprises, with projects typically scattered across business function silos. As a result, deployments risk becoming fragmented, making it hard to achieve scale and value. Attendees described how pressure to deliver quickly often results in a “mad rush” where governance, ethics, and security are treated as afterthoughts. All agreed that this too closely mirrors patterns from earlier waves of technological change, but the stakes and impact could be more severe during this AI adoption wave. Despite this, partners in the room said that customers remain in the early stages of understanding DL-based AI, and many mistakenly believe they are already behind. In reality, as PAC discussed, the adoption curve is still forming, leaving ample opportunity to get it right despite the hype pressure. All in the room agreed that the biggest challenge and opportunity is shifting conversations from technology-first to business outcome–driven engagements.

The indispensable role of the channel partner

It is clear to PAC that in this climate of uncertainty, the combined role of the channel partner and technology companies like F5 has never been more important. Based on the experiences of the partners in the room, it was agreed that their value in this context stems from trust, industry knowledge, and integration expertise. They act as a vital “sensing mechanism” for clients, helping them navigate a confusing landscape and identify the right technologies. Among the examples discussed, the most effective approaches shift away from generic AI pitches and focus on solving specific business problems. Rather than selling AI itself, partners frame solutions around pain points such as inefficiency, scalability, or risk exposure. This makes the discussion less about technology and more about AI-led automation’s ability to accelerate operational efficiency, underpinned by critical security and networking capabilities from F5. Another differentiator highlighted by the attendees was the ability to productise repeatable services. While bespoke projects remain valuable, the value for channel partners is scaling AI deliverables for prospects and other clients, which requires identifying common use cases and building delivery models around them. This enables partners to standardise and expand within verticals in partnership with technology companies like F5. However, many attendees noted that this remains a developing discipline in the AI space, as the rapid pace of change currently makes long-term strategies difficult until adoption patterns stabilise and more pan-industry use cases emerge.

Navigating sovereignty and infrastructure

PAC discussed how, as AI adoption deepens, data sovereignty is becoming a pressing issue across EMEA for enterprises. The partners in the room discussed how the public sector, finance, and legal industries face strict requirements regarding data residency, while in other sectors, sovereignty concerns are emerging, often linked to geopolitical considerations. It was clear that organisations are concerned about the reliance on a small group of hyperscalers, which has added urgency to this topic. While hyperscalers simplify adoption, they introduce risks of lock-in, but partners can mitigate this by working across providers, supporting migrations, and wrapping layers of security, scalability, and performance around deployments in conjunction with partnerships with F5 and others. Another challenge raised was NVIDIA’s dominance and cost in AI hardware, which is seeing many projects in EMEA lead directly to NVIDIA solutions, concentrating influence and creating potential bottlenecks. The consensus was that a more open ecosystem is needed, reducing reliance on a single vendor and supporting a healthy, competitive market. PAC considers that channel partners, such as those at the event, in combination with F5, will be essential in helping customers diversify their strategies and build resilience.

The path to co-creation and ecosystems

PAC and the channel partners also discussed how AI adoption is accelerating across established ecosystems such as Salesforce, SAP, and ServiceNow. This creates a multi-ecosystem challenge where customers must orchestrate AI capabilities across platforms, and partners are well-positioned to support integration and deliver coherence through AI governance and orchestration services and solutions. Several partners at the event shared that co-creation is proving highly effective with their clients across the EMEA region. By jointly building offerings with customers and vendors, they deliver early demonstrations of value and secure involvement from the outset. Several of the attendees highlighted how creating reference architectures and focusing on areas of strength, such as cybersecurity and data transport, ensures partners influence projects from inception rather than being brought in later. This led to a discussion on how the partner role is therefore evolving and that it is no longer just about implementation but about acting as an advisor and innovator. By simplifying complexity, integrating ecosystems, and driving co-creation, from PAC’s perspective, it is clear that as partners do this, they will cement their position as critical players in AI adoption across EMEA. 

The role of F5 in simplifying AI complexity with channel partners

A recurring theme throughout the roundtable was the difficulty enterprises face in progressing from exploratory conversations to deployment. They often lack clarity, consistency, and governance, which is where F5’s Application Delivery Security Platform (ADSP) plays a vital role in supporting channel partners. For example, ADSP provides a foundation for embedding security, governance, and visibility from the start of an AI initiative within an enterprise. It ensures that resilience and compliance are not bolted on later, but are built in from the beginning, and because of this, it aligns directly with concerns raised during the event about overlooking governance in the rush to deliver outcomes. As part of ADSP, F5’s Distributed Cloud (XC) capability, meanwhile, addresses operational and sovereignty challenges by enabling flexibility across cloud environments, as discussed at the event. From PACs’ perspectives, it allows organisations to leverage multiple providers, avoid lock-in, and maintain consistent performance across distributed deployments. For channel partners, this means guiding clients towards AI adoption strategies that are both scalable and sovereign, where needed. It was clear when speaking with channel partners at the event that F5’s ADSP is a key platform supporting partners in simplifying AI complexity and shifting conversations from hype to business value. This, in turn, enables a transition from experimentation to secure and scalable deployments, which aligns directly with the outcomes that enterprises across EMEA seek, as reflected in the roundtable discussions at the F5 event.