Partner Content - Schneider Electric’s Farokh Ghadially: Why interoperability is critical for AI success

Schneider Electric's Farokh Ghadially says interoperability, visibility and sustainability power positive AI results.

Channel partners face growing pressure to deliver AI outcomes across increasingly complex technology environments. According to Farokh Ghadially, vice president, IT and data center business at Schneider Electric, partner success driving AI success for clients will depend on interoperability, visibility and sustainability built into solutions from the outset.

Speaking at Schneider Electric Innovation Day 2026 in Sydney, Ghadially said customers no longer look for isolated technology investments. Instead, they expect connected business outcomes that span infrastructure, software and operations.

“Interoperability is all about getting outcomes for a customer,” Ghadially said. “These outcomes are rarely individual outcomes. They are connected outcomes.”

Solution providers now have opportunities to move beyond product delivery to orchestrating broader vendor and services ecosystems for clients. Ghadially said shared visibility across environments enables partners to drive greater value and reduce operational inefficiencies. “If you can see something, you can do something about it,” he said.

The conversation comes as businesses struggle to translate growing volumes of data into actionable intelligence. “If you look at just 2025, we generated about 180 zettabytes of data,” Ghadially said. “But when you start looking at how much of that data is actually analyzed and used to make meaningful decisions, it's a very, very small amount.”

Ghadially said AI helps organizations bridge that gap and turn data into meaningful actions and business outcomes.

Sustainability was another key focus of the conversation. As environmental reporting requirements increase, Ghadially urged partners to incorporate sustainability into solution design when it can have a greater impact, rather than treating it as an add on feature. “It doesn't need to be an afterthought. It needs to be thought about when we are conceiving the solution,” he said, and kept front of mind throughout the solution lifecycle.

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This article is sponsored by Schneider Electric.