MSPs and AI: from table stakes to differentiator

Early this year we published a series on why MSPs need to reset as Strategic Technology Partners in the age of AI. At the time most of the industry was still asking whether to start. Ten months on, many MSPs have made a start, mostly using AI in their internal functions. The differentiation opportunity is now with those MSPs who can demonstrate learned capability and enable their customers to embrace AI productively.

In conversations with MSP owners, it’s clear that customers who have gone the pure-play consulting route to AI implementation usually end up back with their MSP for all the adjacent needs: data engineering, security, risk management and production-level reliability. We’re now seeing MSPs either building their own business-level consulting capability to help their customers enable AI implementation or partnering with consultants to deliver something similar. Many have begun partnering with the AI frontier companies to bring in new, aligned revenue streams and bring their customers closer.

What has changed in 2026

AI is underpinning MSPs’ internal operations. Informa’s 2026 MSP 501 survey of global high-growth providers, reported via IT Brief in October, found that 91% now offer or use AI solutions, up from 79% a year earlier. More than half (57%) expect AI to be one of their biggest sources of revenue growth over the next year, up from 37%. The Australian picture looks similar: techpartner.news’ 2026 MSP Index of 50 local managed services partners found AI has become a core operational capability, with automating the service desk the main focus.

Customers are moving too, carefully. In Lenovo’s 2026 CIO Playbook, 95% of ANZ CIOs plan to increase AI investment over the next 12 months, and 64% of ANZ organisations are piloting or systematically adopting AI. Smaller businesses are more cautious. The National AI Centre’s tracker put adoption among Australian SMEs at 43% for December to February, and around two-thirds of those not using AI cited trust: they don’t trust AI to make decisions, or they want a person in control.

Vendors are backing partners that package it. In October Microsoft signed agreements with six ANZ MSPs to build secure AI services for their customers, covering around 1,500 small businesses, with funding and engineering help from Microsoft. It is the first time Microsoft has made that kind of commitment to MSPs that buy through distribution.

Using AI internally is now table stakes

Using AI on your own service desk, in triage, documentation and routine requests, is now what customers expect of a competent MSP. Meanwhile, customers assume and expect to see the savings passed on. The MSP Index agrees: most of the efficiency gains so far have been operational, and few providers have yet turned them into revenue.

When AI lowers your cost to serve, the market prices that in. The opportunity then becomes growing revenue and margin from that internally developed or partnered capability.

Turning capability into a differentiator

Where we see MSPs pulling ahead, they are turning that capability into something customers come to them for: advice on where AI fits, the data and security groundwork it needs, the governance frameworks a board can sign off, and services priced on the outcome. The growth in AI services is flowing to providers customers see as strategic partners.

Trust is a core factor: two-thirds of small businesses hold back because they don’t trust AI, so the provider they already trust with their systems and data is the natural one to take them forward. The long-term relationship MSPs retain with customers is an advantage over a vendor or a new AI consultancy. For MSPs to speak with authority on AI uptake, they need to be able to demonstrate their own experience.

When considering the market’s view of your ability to offer AI outcomes, consider:

• Can a customer buy it? Is your AI capability something a customer can buy from you as a defined outcome, at a price, or is it buried in the cost of your managed service?
• Would a cautious customer trust it? Is it governed and secure enough for the customer who is holding back, with a human in the loop where it matters?
• Is it what you are known for? Does it show up on your website, in your proposals and at renewal, or only in your internal metrics?

The series

Over the coming weeks we will revisit some of our earlier articles on MSPs and AI, update them with what 2026 has shown, and add new pieces on putting the capability to work.

Want an independent view of where you stand on the journey? Contact us about our STP Readiness Diagnostic.