Orchestration Is The New Go-To-Market System Of Record In The AI Era

InnovationOrchestration Is The New Go-To-Market System Of Record In The AI EraByJason Atkins,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)May 29, 2026, 07:00am EDTJason Atkins is the founder & CEO of 360insights, a leading partner ecosystem orchestration platform. getty​The way revenue gets created in business-to-business (B2B) has fundamentally changed. Customers no longer move through linear funnels, and partners no longer operate in isolated roles. Companies now depend on networks of influencers, integrators, consultants, resellers, service firms and customer communities. Go-to-market strategy has become ecosystem-led.​Yet most organizations are still trying to support this complexity with tools built for a different era. Stand-alone PRMs, CRMs, channel incentive management platforms, loyalty systems and MDF tools were designed to manage individual processes, not interconnected ecosystems. As buyer journeys become more distributed and partner roles multiply, these systems create friction instead of clarity.​​Fragmentation has reached a breaking point.​For years, the partner technology landscape pushed companies toward a patchwork of siloed tools. A PRM handled partner engagement. A CRM managed direct pipeline. A channel incentive tool processed rebates and SPIFFs. MDF and co-op funds lived in separate marketing platforms. Loyalty programs operated on stand-alone reward systems.​This made sense when partner programs were simple. But today, partners influence deals before the sales team ever sees them. Multiple personas contribute to the customer lifecycle. Incentives span dozens of categories and touchpoints. AI needs unified data, but the data is trapped in disconnected systems. Buyers engage in non-linear journeys that no single platform can track.​Each system addressed a specific need, but none were designed...