Lori Williams, CEO of Caylent, Irvine, Calif., believes AI will reshape the way businesses operate, particularly in optimizing workflows and improving customer impact.
“AI will transform how we operate across all business units,” Williams said. “Leveraging AI to optimize workflows and enhance customer impact will not only improve internal efficiency but also strengthen our position as the go-to partner for AI-powered engagements on AWS.”
She highlighted how Caylent is integrating agentic AI through its applied intelligence model to automate manual processes, improve decision-making and accelerate project timelines.
“By leveraging AI agents and test-driven automation at various stages of our service delivery, we anticipate significant improvements in efficiency and the ability to deliver faster, more impactful results for our clients,” she said.
On the other hand, Kelly Ireland, founder and CEO of CB Technologies in Orange, Calif., anticipates a more measured role for AI in her company’s operations. While AI is becoming a part of the broader solutions, Ireland stressed that the focus remains on Internet of Things use cases.
“AI is definitely starting to be part of the solutions but proving out the base IoT use cases are paramount to success first,” she said. “AI will be an additive to developing additional use cases for the IoT wearables, sensors, etc. It will also come into play in computer vision/video analytics, which is something that we are focused on in 2025.”
As companies across the globe accelerate their adoption of AI, solution providers are looking forward to a future where AI not only enhances productivity but also drives sustainable and responsible innovation. As companies continue to invest heavily in AI, the next phase of AI innovation is already underway, and it promises to shape the way IT services are delivered.
As part of CRN’s 2025 CEO Outlook project, we asked CEOs how they expect AI to impact how they do business this year. Here’s what five solution providers had to say.
Joyce Mullen, CEO
Insight Enterprises
Chandler, Ariz.
Our priorities remain the same. We are focused on the fastest-growing areas of the market and the areas where our clients need the most help: multi-cloud, data/AI, edge and security. AI will be baked into every process, every technology implementation, every service engagement. This is all about delivering tangible results to clients fast and earning the right to do more. There’s no better example today of managing the nuances of modern technology than AI, and we are very optimistic about the impact it will have on our business. At a recent meeting of industry leaders held by Microsoft, we discussed how we should expect a century’s worth of innovation in the next decade alone, and we’re already seeing this. Our role is to safely and effectively guide clients through each advancement by combining the right hardware, software and services. And this is not easy. Clients don’t have the time, the money or the skills to learn everything they need to know about LLMs, infrastructure, tools and processes. They need a partner they can trust to simplify the choices, the adoption and the realization of the business benefits.
Lori Williams, CEO
Caylent
Irvine, Calif.
AI will transform how we operate across all business units. Leveraging AI to optimize workflows and enhance customer impact will not only improve internal efficiency but also strengthen our position as the go-to partner for AI-powered engagements on AWS. Agentic AI, through our Applied Intelligence model, is set to revolutionize our operations by automating manual processes, enhancing decision-making and accelerating project timelines. By leveraging AI agents and test-driven automation at various stages of our service delivery, we anticipate significant improvements in efficiency and the ability to deliver faster, more impactful results for our clients. … We are seeing trends across our customers in various industries, from software to retail, using AI to autonomously solve complex problems through reasoning, planning and execution.
Kelly Ireland, Founder, CEO
CB Technologies
Orange, Calif.
AI will be more minimal for us with the concentration on IoT. AI is definitely starting to be part of the solutions but proving out the base IoT use cases are paramount to success first. We believe AI will be an additive to developing additional use cases for the IoT wearables, sensors, etc. AI will also come into play in computer vision/video analytics, which is also something that we are focused on in 2025.
Bob Cagnazzi, CEO
Presidio
New York
AI will be a game-changer across the board, transforming everything from how we provision, manage and support infrastructure resources, regardless of where they live (cloud, on-prem, edge) to how we develop software and analyze data. We expect AI to help us deliver more predictive, proactive solutions, minimizing downtime, optimizing performance and providing deeper business insight. Additionally, AI-enabled automation will streamline workflows, improving cost efficiency and accelerating innovation cycles.
