As businesses deploy more AI applications and agents, unpredictable consumption costs are creating a new challenge for IT departments and a potential recurring revenue opportunity for MSPs. Francisco Criado, senior vice president of cloud, security and AI for North America at TD SYNNEX, told ChannelPro that AI spending is following a familiar cloud computing pattern: Organizations embrace new capabilities before fully understanding how usage translates into operating expenses. "This spend is starting to surprise people," Criado said.
At its recent Inspire conference, TD SYNNEX introduced FinOps Fusion, an offering within its Destination AI framework that helps partners monitor and optimize AI token consumption across public cloud and on-premises environments. The platform combines spending visibility, optimization recommendations and partner enablement to support managed FinOps services. Rather than evaluating cloud and on-premises infrastructure separately, partners can assess workload placement, utilization and total cost of ownership together, helping customers determine where AI applications deliver the best balance of performance and cost.
For MSPs, the opportunity extends beyond one-time assessments. Providers can establish recurring services around AI consumption monitoring, budget allocation, chargebacks, cost optimization and governance as customers expand their use of agents and other AI workloads. That creates an ongoing advisory relationship connecting technology investments to measurable business outcomes. "It really puts the partner even more in the driver's seat and just creates even more stickiness as they're engaging with their customers," Criado told ChannelPro. The challenge for MSPs is to demonstrate that AI investments generate enough operational value to justify their continuing costs.
Source: ChannelPro Network
