Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights

Recent data highlights a growing disconnect between technology spending and measurable business outcomes, with small business optimism softening and widespread skepticism about the benefits of artificial intelligence. The transcript cites an 80% rate of firms seeing no noticeable AI-driven productivity improvements, while trust in technology companies, particularly AI vendors, has declined globall...

The discussion centers on the implementation challenges and partner enablement strategies for artificial intelligence (AI) within the technology channel. According to TD Synnex’s AI Accelerator program, only a small portion of AI projects achieve active deployment and measurable ROI, with widespread difficulties cited in scaling complex AI use cases. Jessica Yeck, SVP of Vendor Solutions at TD Syn...

Welcome to a feed drop ofthe SMB Community Podcast, the longest-running MSP-focused podcast in the industry.  Hosts James Kernan and Amy Babinchak dive deep into AI go-to-market strategies for 2026, inspired by insights from Amy Babinchak’s recent AI class for MSPs. They open with the latest news on Microsoft Copilot and Anthropic's integration, highlighting new privacy and security features for O...

Corsica Technologies’ reported 105% year-over-year growth in managed services bookings stands out as the primary development, indicating heightened demand for flexible service models among businesses with existing IT functions. According to Brian Harmison, CEO of Corsica, this growth is attributed to the company’s focus on operational integration, automation, and data-centric managed services that...

Agentic AI is being deployed as production infrastructure in enterprise settings, but prevailing frameworks remain unreliable for mission-critical operations. Dave Sobel and Ron Aroussi from Muxie underscored that while AI agents are functional—especially in non-deterministic contexts like customer support—expectations of deterministic, workflow-based reliability are not met. The move from demonst...

The central development addressed is the disconnect between rising overall IT spending and the declining channel share for MSPs and IT partners. Dave Sobel, in discussion with an industry analyst, highlights a reduction in indirect channel participation—from over 75% to a projected 66.7% in 2026—primarily due to the concentration of AI infrastructure investment among the largest technology firms....

Global technology spending is projected to reach $5.6 trillion by 2026, with nearly two-thirds of this investment directed toward software and computer equipment, particularly servers, according to Forrester. Generative AI is cited as a primary driver of this increase, shifting the balance of power toward cloud providers such as AWS and Azure. This escalation has implications for operational margi...

Mid-market organizations are transitioning from pilot projects to operationalizing generative AI and agentic workflows, according to a TechEYE article and Tech Isle survey cited by Dave Sobel. This shift centers on outcome-driven automation but exposes providers to new liability concerns, mainly due to fragmented, unreliable data and shadow AI usage—employees employing unauthorized tools outside o...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intensifying workloads rather than alleviating them, leading to increased burnout and declining decision quality, according to findings published in the Harvard Business Review and cited by Dave Sobel. The episode underscores that AI lowers the cost of producing outputs such as drafts and summaries but raises throughput targets and introduces new verification burden...

OpenAI’s twin initiatives to monetize ChatGPT’s free tier through ads and launch the Frontier enterprise agent platform represent a shift in the AI provider’s business model, with substantial implications for compliance and operational governance. Free and low-cost ChatGPT users will now see sponsored links unless they opt to reduce daily usage; only customers paying $20 or more per month retain a...

IT spending continues to expand, with North America projected to lead a 12.6% increase to $2.6 trillion, primarily due to hyperscaler investments in AI infrastructure. However, the proportion of technology spending funneled through channel partners is declining, now at 61% compared to over 70% four years ago, according to a survey by Omnia. This shift signals that while the market is growing, trad...

AI pilot programs are consistently failing to deliver measurable business value, with a primary cause identified as a lack of clearly defined problem statements guiding these initiatives. Ashwin Mehta, an AI strategist with experience leading enterprise transformations, emphasized that many organizations initiate AI pilots without specific objectives, resulting in projects that struggle to demonst...

OpenAI’s direct investment and technical involvement with Thrive Holdings, specifically through its partnership with SHIELD Technology Partners, presents a new precedent for AI’s integration into the managed service provider (MSP) space. Unlike prior private equity roll-ups or traditional organic growth, this move involves embedding OpenAI's models and engineers directly within SHIELD’s platform,...

A PwC survey of over 4,400 CEOs across 105 countries found that 56% report artificial intelligence has not delivered meaningful revenue growth or cost savings in the past year. Only one in eight organizations saw both benefits. The core issue, as highlighted by Dave Sobel, lies in poor integration—largely due to data quality challenges and legacy systems—leaving many businesses stuck in what PwC t...

The primary development centers on the shift toward smaller, task-specific AI models within enterprises and how this shift is primarily about transferring liability from AI vendors to operators. Dave Sobel notes that while narrower AI models are being marketed as safer and easier to govern, the reality is that they shift the burden of control, oversight, and risk directly onto the organizations de...

The episode focuses on current security risks and limitations in industry intelligence, highlighting that CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog often lags by years in tagging vulnerabilities exploited by ransomware. One cited vulnerability sat in the catalog for 1,353 days before being flagged as ransomware-exploited, illustrating a significant delay in actionable intelligence. This...

The episode centers on the expanding adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools among workers alongside a notable decline in confidence. According to a Manpower Group study cited by Dave Sobel, AI confidence among workers decreased by 18% even as usage increased by 13% over the past year. This divergence highlights a governance and operational gap for MSPs, as enterprise clients confront both...

The episode centers on the structural shift in managed services driven by the adoption of autonomous AI agents and the resulting accountability challenges for IT service providers. According to Dave Sobel, 22% of employees in Token Security’s surveyed organizations are independently running AI agents such as OpenClaw with terminal and browser command capabilities, without formal IT oversight. This...

The appointment of Mike Riggs as Chief Product Officer at Empath signifies the company's transition from founder-led intuition to formalized product governance. According to Wes Spencer, Empath reached over 500 MSP customers and now requires more disciplined processes as it moves from early-stage, high-velocity development to operational maturity. Mike Riggs described his role as systematizing ele...

The episode centers on practical approaches for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and IT leaders assessing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, with David Espindola detailing the crucial distinction between “maker,” “shaper,” and “taker” strategies. David Espindola emphasizes that organizations must intentionally decide their role in AI development and use—whether building proprietary systems, sh...

The current wave of managed service provider (MSP) consolidation and rollups is being distinguished by the integration of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) expertise, particularly among entities such as SHIELD and Titan. As discussed by Rich Freeman and Jessica Davis, these newer rollups are acquiring not just MSPs but also Silicon Valley AI talent and developing proprietary AI-driven services...

The emergence of Moltbot, an open source AI agent designed to operate across various messaging platforms and automate tasks through local device execution, is creating new risk vectors for MSPs and IT providers. Functioning with admin-level access and connecting to services like OpenAI and Google, Moltbot’s deployment has raised direct concerns around authority delegation without sufficient govern...

France’s decision to discontinue American collaboration platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams for government use—replacing them with the domestically developed Vizio platform—signals a shift toward digital sovereignty and data control within regulated jurisdictions. This move, formalized as part of France’s Suite Numerique and to be implemented by 2027, highlights the increasing fragmentation...

Global channel sales in IT are projected to exceed $4 trillion this year, with two-thirds of total spending driven by partner-led deals, according to Omdia research. However, managed service providers (MSPs) continue to encounter significant integration failures following mergers and acquisitions, leading to operational inefficiencies and diminished client trust. The Business of Tech analysis high...

AI adoption within organizations is increasingly polarized, with Gallup data cited showing that while 77% of technology professionals use AI at work, overall workplace adoption rose only marginally from 45% to 46% in late 2025. This stagnation is attributed not to employee reluctance, but to aggressive uptake by leadership without corresponding redesign of roles and workflows at lower organization...