Why the Data Matters Now
The MSP market is changing faster than any annual planning cycle can keep up with. AI is moving from experiment to everyday operations, client expectations around security keep rising and the economics of how services are priced are starting to shift. In a market moving this quickly, gut feel and last year's assumptions are not enough.
That is why regular, structured data matters. Since July 2025, the quarterly MSP GLOBAL State of the MSP Industry survey series has tracked what MSPs around the world are prioritizing, worrying about and investing in, across more than 1,500 responses. Industry analysts, MSP business coaches, security practitioners and AI specialists have then tested those findings live with MSP leaders in a series of community webinars. Read together, the data and the expert discussion point to three shifts worth getting ahead of in 2027.
1. AI Is Moving from Product to Plumbing
For MSPs, the AI question is no longer whether to adopt, but where. In the latest report, internal AI use (ticket routing, monitoring, reporting) jumped from 55% to 71% of respondents in a single quarter. The share still evaluating without deploying fell from 30% to 21%. Client-facing AI services grew too, from 37% to 42%.
Scale is not the same as success. In a September 2026 community webinar, 73% of participants said they had abandoned an AI initiative because of poor output. Adoption also splits by size: Just 46% of firms with fewer than 10 employees use AI internally, against more than 80% of larger firms.
How to get ahead:
- Start inside your own business. Internal AI has the shortest path to value. Prove it on triage, reporting and documentation before packaging it for clients.
- Map before you automate. Understand how work actually flows. Sometimes fixing the process matters more than adding a tool.
- Sell the outcome, not the technology. "Tickets resolved 40% faster" lands better than "AI-powered".
- Build the human capability. Identify internal champions, create safe space to experiment and put governance and training in place. Skills shortage is a rising long-term worry in the survey data.
- Help clients govern their own AI use. Regulation is catching up. In the EU, AI Act transparency duties applied from August 2026, and high-risk obligations now follow in December 2027. An inventory of where clients use AI is a natural advisory starting point.
2. Security Is Becoming the Floor, Not the Differentiator
Security's place as an MSP priority has remained high throughout the year and is expected to build as AI enables more complex attacks. According to the latest data:
- 49% of MSPs said clients ask about security services more than before
- Only 53% have a formal incident response plan
- Security and compliance expertise as a primary differentiator rose from 35% to 47%
Simply offering security services no longer sets anyone apart. Expectations have risen as MSPs morph into MSSPs. Regulation adds pressure: In Europe, NIS2 is now binding across most of the EU, and clients' own customers increasingly ask for proof of security in supplier contracts.
How to get ahead:
- Define a security baseline. Decide on a mandatory set of security services, then migrate existing clients onto it rather than selling it as an option.
- Embed, don't bolt on. Build security into every service, technically, operationally and commercially.
- Sell preparedness, not protection. Frame the value as resilience and confidence, including meeting the requirements of clients' own customers and insurers.
- Communicate regularly. A short monthly update linking security news to each client's compliance obligations keeps the value visible.
3. Recurring Revenue Is Table Stakes; Outcome Pricing Comes Next
The XaaS model has won. 78% of business strategy respondents already run recurring, subscription-based models, and only 2% say it is not on their agenda. Recurring revenue no longer differentiates.
Meanwhile, price pressure and commoditization rank as the biggest long-term risk to the MSP business model, peaking at 41% in early 2026 and still 30% in the latest report. AI sharpens the problem. As automation cuts the cost of delivering a seat, device or ticket, pricing built on those units tends to pass the savings to the client. IDC projects that by 2029, 30% of all service provider contracts will be outcome-based.
The survey shows MSPs are thinking about this but not yet acting: 40% are considering co-managed IT and 32% outcome-based pricing, with far lower implementation. Expanding service offerings as a priority jumped from 21% to 35% in a single quarter.
How to get ahead:
- Audit what you bill for. Identify where pricing rests on effort (hours, tickets, devices) that AI will make cheaper.
- Make advisory recurring. One MSP business coach put it plainly in a community webinar: AI commoditizes ad-hoc tickets, not a recurring advisory relationship. Assess, report, recommend and repeat on a fixed schedule.
- Pilot one outcome-based offer. Choose a trusted client and agree two or three measurable KPIs, such as response time or risk reduction.
- Partner to broaden, with structure. 85% of MSPs who partner now use formal mechanisms such as NDAs, revenue-sharing agreements or a dedicated partner lead. The top reasons to partner are entering new verticals and adding capacity without hiring.
Getting Ready for 2027
None of these shifts needs a big-bang transformation. Each starts with one honest question for the leadership team before the year turns:
- Which routine service-desk work could AI take on in the next six months, and what would the team do with the time saved?
- What is the non-negotiable security baseline, and how many clients sit below it today?
- Which service could be priced on an outcome rather than on effort?
The most valuable thing in this research has never been a single number. It is MSPs comparing notes, testing each other's assumptions and finding that others face the same choices. Bring these three questions to a peer group, a partner or a team meeting this quarter, and dig into the full State of the MSP Industry report to understand how the market is changing.
MSP GLOBAL is a vendor-neutral event for managed service providers, MSSPs, resellers, systems integrators, enterprise IT leaders and technology vendors. It takes place October 21-22, 2026. Register now.
About the Author: Christian Jaeger is CEO of MSP GLOBAL & CloudFest.