It’s fall, and as much as that means pumpkin spice, fall foliage and the actually good part of daylight savings, its also conference season for the buying groups, and kicking things off, we have the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA) Fall Conference that took place in Salt Lake City, Utah this past week.
HTSA ‘Elevate’ Conference Gathers Members in Utah
Pulling in roughly 100 members, the three-day conference was filled with discussions, education and networking opportunities for HTSA’s vendor and dealer members with the core theme of the event being “Elevate.”
Though, as one member put it as the event was ending, the ever-present message of “Elevate” seemed less like a mission objective for the singular conference, and more like a challenge for dealers and vendors to keep business strong heading into the new year and beyond.
Standing on Firm Ground
What might make that a challenge is that, for all intents and purposes, HTSA members are already “elevated” in the current economy. Where other sectors have reported big pullbacks, the luxury segment that HTSA members cater to has maintained a slightly-slowing-at-this-point, but rock-solid, growth trajectory.
Speaking on the state of business Jon Robbins, Executive Director at HTSA, told CE Pro during the Elevate conference:
“Things are active. The growth has tapered off a little bit compared to what it was earlier in the year, but there is still growth there, and at current levels, we would have to have a really bad closeout to the year to not finish in double digits.”
Of course, better footing means, for the time being, members can focus on that refinement needed to ‘elevate’ their business instead of spending time and effort navigating rockier waters.
How HTSA Plans to ‘Elevate’ Member Businesses
Generally, HTSA likes to split its conferences in terms of functionality a little. While the spring conferences usually gives members a chance to get hands on and demo some vendor products alongside business development, fall tends to be all in on networking and education for its programming.
This year’s event aimed to capitalize on that to a large degree with talks on management, new technologies and evolving sales strategies.
AI Tools for Business
As to be expected, discussions of AI stole the show with Sonance CEO Ari Supran kicking off the event with a tremendous deep dive into the more practical uses of AI. Readers who caught his Smart Stage talk at the 2025 CEDIA Expo/CIX will have gotten a taste of what he had to discuss this time around regarding common misconceptions and tools.
Wispr Flow, Perplexity, ChatGPT and Google NotebookLM all got their chance in the spotlight during the discussion for being freely available and generally useful.
An evangelist through-and-through, however, Supran also had plenty of niche AI tools to show off, such as one that could organize a product order just short of pressing “Buy.”
Dealer’s Thoughts on the Direction of AI
While the possibilities floated around the room with a sense of excitement and wonder, it was interesting to sit down and chat with the dealers themselves to see how they were handling the onboarding of AI in their own businesses.
Not a single person I talked to didn’t already have some aspect of AI incorporated into their workflows, even if it was just ChatGPT. Though, after Supran gave everyone a look into how much he’s leveraging AI, everyone post-presentation seemed to agree: there was a lot more they could be doing if they wanted to get really competitive.
That said, there was some trepidation. The AI buying tool received some incredulous responses as part of the demonstration involved Supran playing a video of it taking control of his computer to fill out the order forms.
However, the incredulity had less to do with the AI’s ability to fulfill an order, and more to do with people expressing concerns over letting an AI take over their computer to do.
Despite Caution, Though, Integrators Remain Bullish on AI
Even with the trepidation for some of the more advanced tools, however, dealers ultimately agree: AI is probably one of the biggest business transformation opportunities out there right now, and everyone needs to be on it.
Quoting Robbins again: “People are misreading what AI can do in our industry. A lot of attention gets put on what the products we sell are going to have. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about transforming our business models to make them more effective and more efficient. Instead of replacing people, we’re making people more efficient and more effective.”
Sales, Management Skills Seen as Other Major Areas of Development
Beyond AI, there were plenty of educational sessions that focused on a variety of different topics, including how to best utilize HTSA and CEDIA resources, in addition to creating a more consistent client experience across the various functions of a business.
Managing to pull Keith Esterly, Chief Learning Architect at HTSA away from his busy schedule at the show, I picked his brain on how his sales trainings had been going throughout the year as, in my conversations with integrators outside the conference, many firms are now struggling to find qualified sales personnel for their businesses.
Two things he mentioned regarding what members are looking for currently to improve their businesses:
- Managerial training, as many members have grown big enough to the point where having these skills is becoming a necessity,
- And a greater focus on expanding the sales experience across the business so each department can better contribute to the client experience.
Takeaways from HTSA ‘Elevate’
HTSA members have always occupied a unique position in the industry with many operating at the highest end of custom integration. That position always offers a unique perspective, as, while some specific concerns may diverge from other businesses, their forward outlook and focus can often offer immediate insight into where others might want to start looking into improving their own businesses.
AI is the obvious pull from this, but amidst all the wild optimism and excitement that pervades discussions at times, it was interesting to hear where concerns lay. In most cases, it was how much dealers should be investing in AI as with all the tools coming to market, it sometimes seems like enough is never enough.
A few others did have more existential quandaries, however. How do we prevent atrophy in the knowledge and skills we let AI assist us on? As provisioners of exceptional client experiences, at what point does the inclusion of AI in the outreach process start to erode that? How much control should we even be giving these tools?
To be clear: I haven’t heard a single person say they’re stepping away from AI adoption based on these concerns. For the many gathered, though, they were questions that were worth keeping in mind moving forward, which, to that end, points to a more tempered approach when onboarding AI tools into businesses.
When looking back at the core challenge laid out by HTSA, the focus of its members and programming is clear here: in order for integrators to ‘Elevate’ their business, the adoption of AI, a unified sales strategy and strong management skills is a must in today’s business environment.
