Recorded Live at Ultimate Partner LIVE in Redmond, WA

Unlock the secrets to explosive growth in the digital landscape! 

Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/

Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/

Is your business ready for 2026?

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast.

Join Microsoft’s Sandy Gupta and NVIDIA’s Pat Lee as they explore the monumental shifts driven by AI in the software landscape. Discover why “ISV” is transforming into “SDC” (Software Development Company) , the dramatic reduction in AI token costs and hallucination rates, and the acceleration of cloud migrations. Learn about Microsoft’s commitment to a “marketplace first” approach and a single $1 billion marketplace deal this quarter , and NVIDIA’s vision of embedding AI into every application. This discussion highlights the emergence of agentic AI, the convergence of ISVs and SIs, and the critical importance of embracing AI for all partners to drive significant business outcomes and avoid being left behind.

We’re curating the very best of these moments—fireside chats, expert panels, and executive insights—so you can stay ahead of the curve and fully aligned to where Microsoft and the industry are heading.

And this is just the beginning.
More sessions. More voices. More of what you need to know.

If you’re not yet part of the UPX Community, now’s the time to join us. Access exclusive content, events, and strategies that keep you in front of what’s next.

Thanks for being on this journey with us.
— Vince

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio">

</figure>

Key Takeaways:

• The terminology for independent software vendors (ISVs) is evolving to Software Development Companies (SDCs) to reflect a broader scope of software innovation.


• The cost of AI tokens has dramatically decreased, and AI hallucination rates have significantly gone down, leading to greater democratization of AI.


• Cloud migrations are accelerating, largely driven by AI, which is broadening opportunities across the entire value chain for the ecosystem.


• Microsoft is adopting a “marketplace first” approach, with a single $1 billion marketplace deal projected for this quarter, indicating a massive shift in how software is sold and consumed.


• Agentic AI, characterized by headless agents focused on specific tasks, is a rapidly emerging area with significant potential for business process automation and interoperability across different applications.


• The industry is witnessing a convergence of ISVs and system integrators (SIs), as customers require both robust software and hands-on implementation and change management support.

If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community.

At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio">

</figure>

Transcript:

Key Tags:

AI innovation, software development companies, SDC, cloud marketplace, NVIDIA AI, agentic AI, digitaansfol trrmation, B2B technology, strategic partnerships, ecosystem growth, Microsoft Azure, AI monetization, enterprise AI, digital agents, industry foundation models, employee productivity, customer engagement, business process automation, drug discovery, cyber security, financial services, healthcare AI, channel partner collaboration, tech intensity, go-to-market strategy, cloud migration.

Transcript:

[00:00:00 ] Sandy Gupta: This space is moving so fast and it’s like I was talking to the Pearson guys. The fastest training that’s happening is people who are learning how to develop agents who are non-technical.

[00:00:14 ] Intro: We believe this time is like no other. We believe we refer to these as the tectonic shifts, all the hyperscalers in the world, if you add them all together.

Managed services will be one and a half times larger because it is the customer buying behavior that has created the need for all of us to rethink our models. Until we have data quality, the effectiveness of AI cannot be realized and effectiveness of the partnerships cannot be realized. Can you figure out, first, what your purpose is and how Microsoft can support your purpose and how you can support Microsoft purpose?

Now we have a partnership. It’s the ultimate partnership. Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner Live at Microsoft Redmond Campus, our most powerful event.

Yet, over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room. This episode featuring Sandy Gupta from Microsoft and Pat Lee from Nvidia brings us right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. So I am thrilled to invite to the stage. Uh, first of all, I want, I’m inviting back somebody who was with me in Dallas for the very first time.

He was a day number 52 in his new role, Sandy Gupta, who’s an incredible leader. Uh, at the time we called his role infras, ISV independent software vendors. We’re kind of moving away from that. We’ll talk about that. And here’s the other cl. Piece, we’ve got Nvidia up on stage, right? So have anybody here who’s heard the name Nvidia before?

Uh, any, anyone there? Uh, we, we think that this is a formative moment in time and we talk about tectonic shifts, right? We talk about the world of ai, we talk about the build out. So I am thrilled to invite to the stage both Pat Lee. From Nvidia who leads the alliances and strategic partnerships and Sandy Gupta, who leads the software development corporations SD get ready to say SDC Software development companies.

This is the new terminology we’re getting away from the old world of ISV. So I wanna welcome these two incredible leaders to the stage, Sandy and Pat. Glad to have you. So good to see you, my friend. Uh, so good to see you. I love this guy. So good to see you again, pat. Great to meet you. Nice to meet. Glad you could join us.

Uh, Sandy, I gotta say, because I’ve, I’ve told you this before. We’ve had you on stage. We’ve had you on the podcast. I am envious, so envious of your hair. I just think

[00:02:49 ] Vince Menzione: it’s incredible. He’s got, he got the most amazing head of hair. Um, well, you know, just by the way, just looking at. I, I just got a haircut and you, and you got a haircut.

Like, and, and Pat, and I can, this will take me a full year to grow and Pat, I, and I can, I love it. So good. So join while we can. So good. So

good. Uh, I’m gonna let you both introduce yourselves and then we’re gonna dive into this conversation, but so great to have you back. Thrilled to have you both join us.

So I’ll let you introduce yourself and then turn it over to Pat.

[00:03:17 ] Sandy Gupta: Yeah. I mean, Vince, first of all, thank you. It’s an honor to be on this platform. Again, thank you with these incredible partners. But first of all, thank you that you are safe. Thank you. I think, uh, you played down the accident you had, and I’m just so glad you are safe, and I know it’s still not easy, but yeah, you’ll recover and thank you.

And, and, uh, you know, that’s, it’s, it’s amazing that you, you’re good. Um, look, I, I lead the global ISVs for Microsoft and so, um, or STCs. Yes, yes. Now it’s gonna take some while because it’s been a 32 years of practice of calling ISVs and. Well, we now see software companies emerge who are not like ISVs, what we used to think about as isv.

So that’s kind of the change. So I spent a lot of time working with our ecosystem of software companies, helping them grow their top line revenue. Been 18 years in Microsoft and learning every day.

Yeah,

[00:04:11 ] Sandy Gupta: and by the way, one thing also is like incredible partner here, pat Lee.

[00:04:17 ] Pat Lee: Well, thank you first of all, it’s a pleasure to be here, an opportunity to speak to this audience.

So I’m Pat Lee. I lead a strategic enterprise partnerships at Nvidia, and I’m focused on really the leading enterprise hardware and software providers and helping them bring AI to their platforms to, and let them enable all the power of the data and, and what they’re delivering to their customers. And I think there’s a great opportunity there, huge.

Once they’ve done that, it’s a great opportunity for all of you to help deliver and deploy it.

[00:04:42 ] Vince Menzione: So thrilled to have you both on stage. Um, this is gonna be a really exciting conversation. Sandy, I got to be with you day number 52. Uh, I’d love to dive in a little bit about what you’ve learned from, uh, that was early October of 24.

I. It seems like it was last week in some respects, but I, I would love, maybe we could share a little bit with this audience, like how you were thinking about this o other