Star Metro - Vendasta Launches Easy AI Onboarding, Giving Channel Partners a Way to Sell Finished AI Work Instead of Promises

SASKATOON, SK / ACCESS Newswire / September 22, 2026 / Vendasta, the leading AI workforce platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and the channel partners that serve them, today announced general availability of Easy AI Onboarding & Self-Serve Upgrade. The release changes what a partner sells. When a partner invites a client to the platform, Vendasta's AI Employees research the business, build a starter website, train an AI receptionist on the company's own products and services, and audit its presence across more than 40 review sites and directories. The client's first email is not a password prompt. It is finished work, with a link to inspect each item.

Why it matters to partners

Agencies, franchisors, and software companies that sell to local businesses have absorbed a hidden cost for years: unpaid setup. Before a prospect commits, someone on the partner's team builds a demo account, books a walkthrough call, and configures software the client has not bought. Easy AI Onboarding removes that labor. The AI does the first week of work automatically, the partner presents completed results under their own brand, and the prospect evaluates real output built on their own business.

Every client login also becomes an expansion opportunity. The Business App home page shows the work the AI has completed alongside self-serve upgrade cards for products including Local SEO, Conversations AI, Reputation AI, and Social AI. Partners choose which products appear, set their own retail pricing, and collect payment through Vendasta Payments or through their existing billing workflow. The partner keeps the client relationship and the margin.

"Onboarding was never an information problem. It was an effort problem," said John Vars, Chief Product Officer at Vendasta. "When the first screen an owner sees is a list of completed work, configuration becomes review. That is a much lower bar for a busy business owner."

Closing the activation gap

Software sold to local businesses has always run on a promise: pay now, set it up yourself, find out later whether it was worth it. In a research study commissioned by Vendasta, 65% of local business owners said they want to be guided through onboarding, and only 16% have a desire to set software up themselves. Most products answer with a setup checklist, the one thing most buyers said they did not want. Vendasta calls the space between signing up and getting value the activation gap.

During initial rollout, the redesigned onboarding email, which waits for the AI's work to finish before it sends, increased user logins to the Vendasta platform and apps logins by more than 21% over the welcome email it replaced.

"Prospects are noticing the difference. Easy AI Onboarding makes the leap from trial to paid, for iMediaAudiences Agency clients, feel effortless - and that's turning into real sales momentum for iMediaSalesTeam." - Josh Iverson, CEO & Founder, iMediaAudiences

Availability

Easy AI Onboarding & Self-Serve Upgrades is live now for all Vendasta partners at no additional cost and is on by default for every newly invited business. Setup guidance is available in Vendasta's partner documentation, and the full experience is shown in this walkthrough.

About Vendasta

Vendasta is the AI workforce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Vendasta provides AI Employees that execute the work of marketing, sales, and operations automatically, helping local businesses reclaim time and scale without the overhead of traditional hiring. Founded in Saskatoon, Vendasta works through a global network of channel partners to help SMBs stop managing software and start achieving outcomes. Learn more at vendasta.com.

CONTACT:

Catriona Barcoe
Sr. Manager of Marketing & Communications
Vendasta
+1-306-955-5512 (ext. 5153)
[email protected]

SOURCE: Vendasta Technologies Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

M.Johnston--SMC