MSPs Ride AI Boom but Struggle to Keep Up, OpenText Study Warns

The global managed services industry is enjoying a revenue surge fueled by customer demand for artificial intelligence, but the firms tasked with guiding small and midsize businesses into the AI era are struggling to keep pace.

OpenText Cybersecurity’s third annual Global Managed Security Survey shows 92 percent of managed service providers (MSPs) report new business growth tied directly to AI adoption. Nearly all of them expect that trajectory to continue through the year. Yet beneath the optimism lies a widening preparedness gap. Only about half of MSPs feel equipped to help customers securely roll out AI tools—a steep drop from the 90 percent who said they were ready last year.

“MSPs are under pressure to match the pace of AI adoption by their SMB customers,” said Michael DePalma, Vice President of Business Development at OpenText Cybersecurity. “They need security partners who can deliver integrated, scalable services that reduce tool fatigue and simplify operations.”

Customers Want Simplicity, Not Savings

The survey paints a picture of shifting priorities among SMB clients. Cost reduction, once a dominant theme, has slipped as a concern. Instead, buyers want bundled offerings that unify prevention, detection, and response capabilities into one package. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said their customers prefer all-in-one bundles, while 78 percent ranked ease of integration as “extremely important,” surpassing price considerations.

Tool sprawl and vendor overload are key pain points, with many SMBs prioritizing fewer, stronger solutions over a collection of cheaper, disjointed ones. Nearly half of MSPs said the strength of a security solution was the most important factor in purchase decisions, compared to only 8 percent who cited cost.

Internal AI Adoption as Training Ground

While many MSPs lag in rolling out AI-powered services to clients, they are already experimenting internally. Two-thirds use AI to handle customer support or triage technical tickets, and more than half are tapping it for threat detection and response. AI expertise is now considered the third most important MSP attribute for SMB customers, trailing only threat prevention and around-the-clock support.

Expansion Ahead

The vast majority of MSPs are planning to broaden their portfolios over the next year, with more than half already developing new services. Priorities include integrating disparate security tools and ensuring that new offerings can be easily attached to core services across verticals.

Referrals remain the leading source of new business, but digital channels like online search and technology marketplaces are increasingly important.

For MSPs, the findings underline both opportunity and risk. AI may be the growth engine of the decade, but unless providers can standardize services, simplify deployments, and strengthen security, the adoption gap between customer demand and provider readiness is likely to widen even further.