Zscaler's Asia Pacific channel chief says partners who keep selling products instead of advice will miss the AI security opportunity, as customers move fast to secure AI agents and employee AI use.
Foad Farrokhnia, VP of Channels and Alliances for Asia Pacific and Japan at Zscaler, said the market opportunity is real but partners need to change how they engage. In an interview with CRN Asia, he described a region where organizations struggle to manage visibility over employee AI use, with shadow AI remaining a constant problem despite guardrails.
"This is especially critical in how customers bring a level of value with regard to their investments in AI. That value needs to come from the ability to deploy AI in a way that's secure, safe and driving productivity and return for them," Farrokhnia said.
What Zscaler is shipping
At Zscaler's ZenithLive Summit in Las Vegas in June, the vendor extended its Zero Trust Exchange platform to secure AI agents. The company announced Zscaler AI Broker, which secures agentic communications, and Zscaler Endpoint AI Security, which detects AI-related threats on employee devices including risks in browsers, plugins, and local AI tools.
The Zscaler AI Access Graph, powered by the acquisition of Symmetry Systems, maps how AI workflows, data sets, and users communicate in real time. It lets organizations enforce policies, reduce unnecessary access, and track data lineage.
"The Zscaler AI Access Graph is sort of the family tree of how all these agency workflows, data sets, users and such communicate and align with each other, in real time, understanding whether the right access is given to the right entities through that process," Farrokhnia said.
He warned that some organizations run anywhere from a million to a million and a half AI agents simultaneously across their data. "If that doesn't have that governance around it, you can expect absolute chaos," he said.
Partners face a capability split
Farrokhnia expects partners to divide into groups: those that evolve into advisors, those that stay with traditional product sales, and new entrants. He said customers are already scrutinizing which partners can handle AI security, and some are asking Zscaler whether their existing partner can keep up.
"Some partners will evolve and move and be able to adapt. Some partners will continue in their traditional sort of state of play. And it doesn't mean that they don't have an opportunity. The opportunity is still there. They just might not move into this opportunity," he said.
Partners that have already built centers of excellence are in a stronger position, he said. Global system integrators are playing a large role in building security at scale, and Zscaler's Project Guardian initiative works with firms like EY, Deloitte, and Indian SIs on those engagements.
Farrokhnia said partners that have been "predominantly just shifting boxes" will struggle to expand, comparing it to the shift from legacy architecture to cloud. "We saw a lot of partners kind of struggle with that for a while, and some are no longer around."
He also noted that regional partners without deep AI expertise can still win by understanding local regulation and culture. "They understand the dynamics and the mechanics of a particular country, especially the regulatory and cultural elements of it," he said.
What partners ask for in return
Training is the top demand from partners, according to Farrokhnia. "Our partners are constantly coming to us and saying, 'OK, you've just talked about this new capability. How do I get really skilled at it?'"
Zscaler is investing in specialization and authorization programs so partners can hold credible customer conversations. Profitability is the second major topic, and Farrokhnia said the conversation has shifted from transaction margins to value delivery.
"The world of just being able to transact and see margins upon margins is starting to evolve," he said. Zscaler runs initiatives with focus partners including shadowing help around delivery, deployment, proof of value, and architecture workshops.
For GSIs and advisory partners, the goal is board-level influence. "What we try and do at Zscaler is give them all of the ammunition in terms of, what exactly is the value prop of what we do?" Farrokhnia said.
His advice to partners that haven't moved yet is direct: "Get really clear around what you want your value proposition to be for the next 6 to 12 months. If you're very clear around that, then you build what you need to be able to execute."
Why this matters for sales professionals
For sales teams, the takeaway is that product knowledge alone won't close deals in AI security. Customers are asking harder questions about governance, data visibility, and AI agent control, and they expect partners to answer them. Sales professionals who can speak to those concerns - and pair them with AI for Sales training or AI Productivity approaches - will have an edge over peers still pitching boxes. The window to build that capability is short. As Farrokhnia put it, customers are moving fast and some already feel they should have thought about security sooner.
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