MSPs need to push clients past AI experimentation

COMMENTARY: The real MSP opportunity in AI is moving beyond implementation. Customers need help with readiness, governance, shadow AI, visibility and ongoing management. The bigger question now is whether MSPs can turn that work into repeatable services customers will actually pay for.

Businesses are increasingly scrutinizing their AI investments as they look for proof of measurable returns. Many are finding that generating real value requires far more than selecting a tool or launching a pilot program. The real challenge is building the operational foundation needed to turn those investments into reliable business outcomes.

For managed service providers (MSPs), managed security service providers (MSSPs), resellers, and value-added resellers (VARs), this represents a major opportunity. Customers need more than help acquiring new technology. They need partners who can guide them through the complexities of adoption, implementation, security, and ongoing management, while ensuring AI efforts translate into tangible results.

According to IDC, 81% of organizations are increasing MSP spending to support AI initiatives. This growing demand reflects a broader market reality: organizations recognize the importance of AI but need experienced partners to help them move beyond experimentation.

The channel has always played a critical role in helping businesses navigate technology transitions. AI marks the next evolution of that relationship.

Closing the gap between AI interest and AI impact

Many organizations have been exploring AI through productivity platforms, automation tools, and business applications. But moving from isolated experiments to scalable, enterprise-wide adoption presents a different set of challenges.

Auvik’s recent IT Trends Report found that 67% of IT professionals are optimistic about AI’s potential impact on IT, yet only 5% say AI is currently core to their IT operations. This gap between AI ambition and AI execution is where MSPs and other channel partners can deliver significant value.

The report also reveals uneven progress in how organizations are establishing AI policies. While 59% of organizations already have an AI policy in place, 28% say their policy is still in development, 10% have no policy, and 2% are unsure whether one exists.

These findings point to an AI maturity gap, and an opportunity for channel partners to help customers put the necessary operational foundations in place.

Getting infrastructure ready for AI

Much of the current AI conversation focuses on models, applications, and use cases. However, the channel understands that technology only delivers value when the infrastructure supporting it is reliable.

AI can introduce added complexity across networks, cloud environments, endpoints, and security systems. As businesses deploy more AI-enabled applications, they often create additional dependencies that IT teams must monitor and manage. A disruption anywhere in that ecosystem can affect critical business processes, particularly as organizations advance automation at scale.

For MSPs and MSSPs, this means infrastructure readiness should be a central part of AI conversations with customers. Organizations need guidance on whether their current environments can support increased AI usage, where AI introduces new operational risks, and how to maintain visibility as AI becomes more autonomous and more deeply embedded in business operations.

IT channel partners are uniquely positioned to answer these questions. They already help customers maintain uptime, improve efficiency, and resolve technical challenges. AI introduces new demands, but the underlying challenge is familiar: ensuring every part of the technology environment continues to work together as it evolves.

Expanding the role of the channel in the AI era

The traditional MSP model has focused on keeping businesses operational through infrastructure management, monitoring, and support. While those responsibilities remain critical, AI is changing customer expectations.

Businesses increasingly want partners who can help them make strategic technology decisions and identify opportunities for automation. This requires channel providers to move beyond reactive support and become proactive advisors.

For MSPs, this evolution creates opportunities to deepen customer relationships and develop new areas of expertise. By helping customers identify high-value AI use cases, prioritize efforts, assess readiness, and establish a clear path toward meaningful outcomes, MSPs can play a more strategic role in shaping their customers’ next phase of digital transformation.

Visibility will be critical to AI adoption

As businesses continue integrating AI into everyday workflows, visibility will become one of the most important capabilities for both customers and their technology partners. This means understanding how AI is being used, as well as having a clear view of the environments it is intended to support.

While organizations are eager to embrace AI, employees often move even faster, experimenting with new tools to work more effectively. In 2025 alone, Auvik customers discovered more than 100,000 Shadow AI applications across their networks. These discoveries show how quickly employee-led adoption can outpace sanctioned AI initiatives, exposing organizations to security and compliance risks they may not even know exist.

Visibility across the broader technology environment is equally important. That includes networks, devices, applications, and the dependencies between them. AI cannot reliably support or optimize systems it does not understand, just as MSPs and MSSPs cannot effectively manage environments they cannot fully see.

Navigating the next phase of AI adoption

AI adoption is entering a new phase, with business leaders moving beyond experimentation and facing growing pressure to demonstrate returns on their investments. MSPs, MSSPs, resellers, and VARs have an important role to play in helping customers achieve more meaningful outcomes from their AI initiatives.

By combining technical expertise, customer knowledge, and operational insight, channel partners can help businesses build the foundation needed to make AI successful. The value of AI will be defined not only by the technology itself, but by what organizations can achieve with it. Channel partners have a unique opportunity to help shape that future.

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