Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights

Enterprise IT spending is projected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2026, but this growth is concentrated in software, cloud services, and AI infrastructure for large organizations, according to HG Insights and Omdia research cited by Dave Sobel. The system integration market is positioned to approach $950 billion in 2025, with enterprises working with an average of 6.3 technology partners. A substantial surge in AI-optimized server sales, as reflected in Dell Technologies’ reported 342% year-over-year increase in revenue for those systems, is reshaping supply chains and vendor dynamics, leading to shortages of DRAM, SSDs, and hard drives.

Underlying this development are volatile component costs. DRAM prices have doubled quarter over quarter, and both Micron Technologies and Western Digital have indicated they are sold out for 2026. HP reports that RAM now constitutes 35% of new PC materials costs, up dramatically from 18% the previous quarter. Such cost shifts are creating downstream risks for managed service providers (MSPs) with fixed-price agreements, as the economic assumptions underpinning many contracts—stable hardware prices and predictable cloud costs—no longer hold.

The episode also highlights an increase in application sprawl and a widening gap between IT budgets and other operational costs. A Torii report shows large enterprises use over 2,191 applications on average, with more than 61% bypassing formal IT approvals, resulting in unmanaged security and compliance exposure. Additionally, 80% of small businesses report rising energy costs that directly compete with IT budget allocations. Industry analysis from Jefferies and Boston Consulting Group signals that AI and automation are not viewed uniformly as productivity boosters and may compress revenue models in both Indian and domestic IT services sectors.

The practical implication for MSPs is the urgent need to audit and reprice contracts related to hardware procurement and refresh cycles, clearly documenting and communicating current cost realities with clients. Dave Sobel stresses reframing device lifecycle extensions as a security risk rather than a cost-saving measure and warns against selling clients on speculative AI market projections. The advice is to focus on specific, scoped use cases and to structure agreements that accurately reflect volatility in component costs and the operational burden of application sprawl, ensuring financial and legal accountability as the IT services landscape evolves.

03:58 Dell's $43B AI Server Backlog Triggers DRAM Shortage, Repricing Downstream Hardware

05:52 AI Shrinks IT Services Revenue Model; MSPs Face Contested Implementation Role

This is the Business of Tech.   

Supported by:

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The episode centers on the evolving responsibility and risk allocation within cybersecurity distribution, with particular focus on Exclusive Networks’ approach. Jason Beal, as president of Exclusive Networks North America, outlines their emphasis on a technical workforce, maintaining a 1:3 ratio of engineers to sales representatives. This structure is positioned to address the increasing complexity of cybersecurity and the demands faced by service provider partners, aiming to support solution integration and customer needs while clarifying each party’s liability.

Supporting this structure, Jason Beal identifies the role of the distributor as both an extension and enabler for MSPs and IT services companies. Distributors are expected to supplement partners’ capabilities—whether technical, financial, or operational—without assuming technology failure risk, which remains with the original technology vendors. Discussion of shared responsibility models also distinguishes between sales success (customer adoption, retention) and risk management. Recent developments in cyber insurance are cited as having reduced the direct risk burden on MSPs, shifting much of the liability away from service providers toward technology creators, albeit within contractually defined limits.

Adjacent to cybersecurity, the conversation addresses skill and adoption gaps prompted by rapid technical innovation, specifically referencing artificial intelligence (AI). Jason Beal quantifies educational efforts by highlighting a collaboration with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which has seen 100 students engaged to help address workforce shortfalls in cybersecurity and AI. Additionally, academic experience informs the importance of modernizing IT operations curricula to better reflect current business challenges, such as cloud, AI, and global supply chain impacts.

For MSPs and IT service providers, implications include the growing necessity to audit core competencies and allocate resources strategically, leveraging distributors not just for sourcing products but for specialized expertise, integration, and operational support. Risk mitigation remains tied to understanding contract language, vendor accountability, and developments in cyber insurance. The pace of AI and other technology adoption requires continuous education and careful evaluation of both operational risk and the practical limitations of solutions promoted by the channel and distribution partners.

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Anthropic’s refusal to remove safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons in its interactions with the Department of Defense establishes an explicit boundary on the use of AI in federal contracts. The company cited specific civic and legal risks, emphasizing that current AI systems are not reliable enough for autonomous weapon deployment and warning that government pressure on vendors to bypass statutory constraints poses broader accountability issues. This underscores a shift in liability for MSPs and IT providers—any weakening of safeguards under contract does not eliminate risk but instead transfers possible exposure down the technology supply chain.

This position is reinforced by the lack of unconditional trust in military oversight, as highlighted by the Pentagon CTO’s remarks, and by clear legal challenges, including violations of the Fourth Amendment and Department of Defense Directive 3000.09. Dave Sobel asserts that professional liability and cyber policies do not typically cover actions undertaken solely at government request where legal limits are breached. This increases the necessity for MSPs and IT leaders to verify that contract language explicitly defines acceptable AI use and to ensure written documentation before government or enterprise client demands arise.

Additional analysis includes operational deployments of AI in service and workplace environments. Burger King’s AI chatbot, Patty, and ServiceNow’s autonomous request resolution underscore the friction between efficiency claims and trust gaps, as evidenced by a YouGov survey that found 68% of consumers lack confidence in AI customer service. Dave Sobel notes that MSP benchmarks tied to vendor ticket closure rates may not reflect real client satisfaction or risk, especially when legal requirements for monitoring and consent are not met.

The episode further covers market reactions to speculative reports on AI-driven job displacement, studies demonstrating AI’s failure to maintain human-like restraint in conflict scenarios, and IBM’s valuation drop due to AI modernization tools. For MSPs and IT decision-makers, the practical takeaway is the need for documented governance, explicit contractual safeguards, and ongoing risk assessments when deploying or recommending AI solutions—particularly in environments where trust, human oversight, and insurability are not yet aligned with technical capability.

00:00 Anthropic Refuses Pentagon Demands on Surveillance and Autonomous Weapons, Risks Contract

03:40 AI Hits the Human Layer — and Governance, Consent, and Trust Infrastructure Aren't Ready

07:37 AI Moves Markets, Escalates Wars, and Splits Partner Ecosystems — In One Week

This is the Business of Tech.   

Supported by: 

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The episode’s central development is the ongoing dispute between the U.S. Department of Defense and Anthropic regarding Pentagon demands for unrestricted access to Claude, Anthropic’s AI model. According to Dave Sobel, the Pentagon has threatened to sever ties or invoke the Defense Production Act if the company does not comply, seeking capabilities that Anthropic argues may be illegal—specifically mass surveillance without warrants and autonomous weapons systems without human control. This move exposes Managed Service Providers (MSPs) serving defense contractors to unpredictable legal, operational, and compliance risks embedded in their AI workflows.

The analysis highlights that a commercial AI provider’s acceptable use policy now intersects directly with national security policy, and even partial vendor compliance can trigger regulatory or legal instability for dependent organizations. For MSPs, this means that building service offerings on AI infrastructures without clear fallback strategies or documented policy change clauses can lead to unmanageable risk and liability in the event of provider or legal regime shifts. Dave Sobel stresses that failing to address policy volatility as part of a managed service amounts to underwriting geopolitical risk without compensation.

Other notable developments include the passage of the Small Business Artificial Intelligence Advancement Act, federal cybersecurity resource contraction as CISA operates with 38% staffing after layoffs, and heightened uncertainty around cloud infrastructure due to Microsoft’s Azure Local “air-gapped” offering not wholly mitigating U.S. CLOUD Act exposure. Vendor news covered new AI-powered compliance features from Compliance Scorecard (version 10) and Beachhead Solutions (ComplianceEZ 2.0), Apple’s accelerated retirement of Rosetta 2 translation technology, a Microsoft 365 Copilot DLP change, and continued fallout from VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom, which has led to ongoing cost and trust challenges for cloud and infrastructure partners.

The episode’s clear implications for MSPs and IT providers are operational. Service catalogs and statements of work should actively address AI provider liability, dependency exit planning, and degraded federal cybersecurity support. Without scheduled and documented compatibility and risk reviews, MSPs absorb hidden exposure into their margins. Vendor stability can no longer be assumed, and proactive policy, renewal intelligence, and transparent advisory sessions are now required to avoid unplanned liability, budget crises, and damaged client trust.

00:00 Pentagon Threatens Anthropic Over Claude Access, Demands Autonomous Weapons Use

04:31 CISA Cuts, Azure Sovereignty Push Signal End of Federal MSP Safety Net

06:56 AI Compliance Tools Flood Market as MSPs Face Validation Gap

09:54 86% of Firms Cutting VMware Ties as Broadcom Renewal Costs Loom

This is the Business of Tech.   

Supported by: Small Biz Thoughts Community

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Recent analysis from Goldman Sachs indicates that $700 billion in AI investment during 2025 resulted in no measurable U.S. GDP growth, with most AI equipment imports negating domestic benefits and 80% of surveyed firms reporting no productivity or employment improvements. This pattern suggests that AI-related spending has primarily shifted margins from enterprise IT budgets to a small number of infrastructure vendors rather than delivering distributed value. Internal concerns are rising, with 90% of IT leaders questioning AI’s return on investment, and 80% citing fragmented data as a primary challenge to measuring outcomes.

Further context reveals that agentic AI initiatives face operational headwinds: Gartner expects 40% of such projects to be cancelled by 2027, and S&P Global found nearly half are abandoned before production, most often due to inadequate planning and data foundations. Margin erosion is widespread, attributed to AI implementation costs, and attempts to scale AI agents into production remain limited by inference costs and insufficient infrastructure. Despite increased adoption efforts, sustainable value delivery from AI platforms remains elusive for most organizations.

Enterprise AI access is becoming increasingly concentrated. OpenAI’s partnership with consulting firms such as BCG, McKinsey, Accenture, and Capgemini consolidates control of the enterprise distribution layer, narrowing competitive opportunities for smaller providers. Meanwhile, Amazon’s 13-hour AWS outage, linked to the misconfiguration of an internal AI tool, underscores the liability ambiguity in agentic systems—where vendors may attribute autonomous actions to user error, complicating risk assignment. Additional updates from vendors such as Anthropic, Cloudflare, and New Relic address incremental technical capabilities, with a distinct focus on cost, operational governance, and policy enforcement.

The prevailing themes for MSPs and IT leaders are increased scrutiny of AI value, heightened exposure to cost and accountability risk, and the emergence of managed service opportunities around data governance, cost instrumentation, and liability management. With enterprise market channels consolidating and risk shifting toward service providers, integrating robust contractual definitions for autonomy, incident attribution, and financial boundaries is essential to limit harm and clarify responsibility before incidents occur.

00:00 Goldman: $700B AI Spend Delivered Near-Zero U.S. GDP Growth in 2025

03:49 OpenAI Enlists BCG, McKinsey, Accenture to Distribute Enterprise AI Agents

06:44 Report: Amazon's Own Engineers Prefer Claude Over Its Mandated Internal Tools

08:56 AI Inference Costs Are Falling — But Governance Gaps Are Growing

This is the Business of Tech.   

Supported by:

CometBackup 

Small Biz Thoughts Community 

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cybercrime’s escalation has reached a projected $12.2 trillion annual impact by 2031, with a notable surge in remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool abuse—up 277% year-over-year, according to Huntress and supporting vendor reports. Attackers utilize legitimate IT tools to facilitate stealthier ransomware and phishing campaigns, amplifying structural vulnerabilities within MSP technology stacks. Key metrics from Acronis, WatchGuard, and Vectra AI indicate a shift to smaller, more evasive malware campaigns, longer times to ransomware deployment (averaging 20 hours), and widespread unaddressed security alerts, raising questions about the adequacy of current defenses and incident response practices.

Vendor-supplied threat intelligence further shows that MSPs’ reliance on signature-based platforms and insufficient visibility leaves them exposed to evolving attack techniques. Data reviewed suggests phishing footholds can quickly compromise cross-client environments, and legal ramifications heavily fall on the service provider when RMM or monitoring tools act as entry points. Notably, only about 58-60% of organizations report full visibility across their systems, with a majority of alerts remaining unaddressed, underscoring gaps in operational maturity and preparedness.

Adjacent coverage highlighted Microsoft Copilot’s repeated security control failures within regulated environments, specifically its inability to enforce sensitivity labels and boundaries across emails—most recently affecting the UK’s National Health Service. The lack of vendor-announced architectural changes calls into question the viability of deploying AI tools in compliance-driven contexts. Separately, political and public backlash against surveillance technologies (such as Flock cameras) demonstrates that unchecked data collection is no longer a manageable passive risk, as data becomes increasingly actionable and retains liability beyond technical considerations.

The practical takeaway for MSPs and IT leaders is a need to prioritize audit, documentation, and enforcement of controls within their technology stacks, especially where vendor tools or AI-driven automation intersect with compliance and client trust. Preserving operational optionality and scrutinizing vendor terms—particularly data sharing and architectural enforcement—are essential to reduce exposure. Waiting for vendor patches, disregarding documented control failures, or underestimating public scrutiny elevate liability across legal, reputational, and client relationship domains.

00:00 Vendor Threat Reports Converge on One Risk MSPs Can't Outsource: The RMM as Breach Vector

05:11 Copilot Failed Compliance Controls Twice in Eight Months — A Patch Won't Fix That

07:03 Flock Backlash Exposes the Liability Hidden in Every Vendor Data-Sharing Contract

09:42 GTDC Summit: Distributors Pitch AI On-Ramp as Hyperscalers Compress Their Margin

Sponsored by:

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 globally according to the Edelman report. For MSPs, this presents a risk of credibility gaps, especially for those selling AI solutions without corresponding outcome data, as client trust and spending habits grow more discerning in the face of unfulfilled promises.

Further context is provided by economic indicators showing a resilient U.S. economy, yet persistent challenges for small businesses. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index has dropped slightly to 99.3, with insurance costs and labor quality as major pain points; only 16% of business owners expect higher sales. At the same time, IT professionals face salary compression—median IT salaries fell from $145,000 in 2023 to $115,000 in 2024—despite a severe shortage of skilled cloud, AI, and infrastructure talent, as less than 10% of hiring managers are confident in filling in-demand roles.

Additional market pressures include rising technology budgets—three-quarters of CFOs anticipate larger tech allocations, but headcount increases are slowing and tech spending faces a widening affordability gap due to sector-specific inflation outpacing budget growth. Vendor-specific developments, such as Western Digital exhausting hard drive capacity for 2026 and Enable reporting 12.8% revenue growth alongside ongoing losses and a 65% stock decline since 2021, illustrate structural risks. Vendor rationalization and strategic uncertainty are likely outcomes for MSPs relying heavily on underperforming partners.

Key takeaways for service providers and IT leaders include the need for caution in messaging and solution positioning: outcome data and defensible value propositions are essential when advocating AI or cloud services. Salary data should be weighed against demand-side evidence to avoid retention failures. Finally, dependency on vendors with deteriorating financial outlooks heightens operational risk; providers should proactively assess alternatives and align with financially sustainable partners to reduce exposure during vendor consolidation cycles or market restructures.

00:00 AI Productivity Gap Widens as Trust Drops — MSPs Selling Outcomes They Can't Measure Face CFO Audits 

04:51 IT Median Salary Dropped 20% in 2024, But Only 7% of Hiring Managers Can Fill AI and Cloud Roles

07:26 IT Inflation Hits 6.9% as CFOs Concentrate Spend; Western Digital Fully Booked Through 2026

10:28 N-Able Beats Revenue, Misses Earnings as 2026 Growth Guidance Drops to 8–9%

Sponsored by: CometBackup

Small Biz Thoughts Community

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A longitudinal analysis from the National Bureau of Economic Research highlights a sustained shift in the U.S. workforce away from evening and night work toward traditional daytime hours over the past 50 years. Research by economists Jeff Biddle and Daniel Hammermesh attributes this shift primarily to rising real incomes, which allows workers to avoid less desirable hours. For MSPs and IT service providers, this trend is consequential, as their service models frequently require 24/7 staffing and response capabilities.

Detailed findings from the study indicate that the percentage of Americans working at 11 PM has declined by more than 25% since the 1970s. During this time, wage premiums for undesirable hours have only modestly increased, rising by approximately 3 percentage points. The retail sector remains an exception, with big-box expansion and 24-hour operations driving late-night and early-morning work. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated daytime work concentration among college-educated employees, many of whom hold the technical skills vital to MSP operations.

Concurrently, current hiring environment data from Robert Half shows just 7% of hiring managers are confident in filling technical roles, indicating persistent shortages in the same skill areas on which MSPs rely. Dave Sobel notes that standard industry responses to after-hours IT work—on-call rotations and offshoring—are under pressure. On-call demands risk burning out a difficult-to-replace workforce, while offshoring depends on wage differentials that are narrowing as global labor markets evolve. Meanwhile, 80% of firms report no measurable productivity benefits from AI, suggesting automation is not yet a viable solution to the labor shortfall.

The implications for MSPs and IT service providers are immediate and structural. Demand for around-the-clock technical support is rising even as workforce preferences and labor market conditions make these hours increasingly costly and difficult to staff. The discrepancy is accruing hidden costs, with risks of margin erosion and unaccounted operational stress. Providers must reassess contracts, resource allocation, and contingency plans in light of these systemic pressures, emphasizing transparency, workforce sustainability, and realistic client commitments.

Support the vendors who support the show:

👉 https://businessof.tech/sponsors/

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 Synnex, highlights that progress is contingent upon engaging partners at their current state of AI readiness and aligning support resources accordingly. The evidence reflects a move away from one-size-fits-all approaches toward tailored frameworks that focus on tangible business outcomes and repeatable processes.

TD Synnex’s revised strategy prioritizes meeting partners “where they are,” using assessment frameworks that differentiate between partners with defined AI strategies and those seeking foundational guidance. Jessica Yeck references leveraging the broader technology ecosystem—including vendors, ISVs, and hyperscalers—to deliver solutions with multi-party input. This approach enables partners to identify actionable opportunities and develop pipelines, but demands cross-functional collaboration and technical-specialist engagement, particularly as customization—rather than rigid standardization—is required for effective deployment.

The episode also addresses the evolving role of technology distribution in supporting partners beyond logistics. There is explicit recognition of the importance of financial mechanisms, marketplace access, and consultative guidance for services. Jessica Yeck underscores the interconnectedness of relationship-building, competency focus, and ecosystem utilization, noting that partners do not need exhaustive in-house technical skills if they can identify and collaborate with relevant specialists. This points to a strategic shift in what services and value partners can realistically deliver.

For MSPs and IT service providers, the key implications involve re-evaluating approaches to AI enablement and partner relations. Instead of prioritizing technical uniformity or attempting to master every subsystem, providers should invest in relationship management and focused competency development while leveraging broader ecosystem resources. Adoption risk is reduced when partners clearly understand their customers’ primary objectives and are prepared to orchestrate service delivery with targeted technical and financial support from their distribution networks. The episode reiterates that risk and accountability in AI projects hinge on practical readiness, process discipline, and honest assessment of operational capabilities, rather than technology enthusiasm or over-reliance on standardized templates.

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 Office apps. Then, they explore how MSPs can not only adopt AI internally but also create new, innovative service offerings for their clients—like custom AI grant-writing agents for nonprofits, real-world business demonstrations, and the integration of AI readiness assessments.

Pricing strategies, project sales versus monthly recurring revenue, and the importance of meaningful quarterly business reviews also come under the spotlight. Throughout the conversation, Amy Babinchak and James Kernan share practical examples, discuss industry challenges, and encourage listeners to rethink and monetize their approach to AI as we move toward 2026.

Tune in for fresh ideas, actionable strategies, and a glimpse into the real-world experiences of MSPs shaping the future with AI, and find it on your favorite podcast player.   Links at https://smbcommunitypodcast.com

MSP Radio is supported by our partners:

ABC Solutions · CometBackup · Firetail · HaloPSA · LogMeIn · Mailprotector · Pax8 · Rythmz · ScalePad · TimeZest · Transit AI

Supporting the IT services community through insights, analysis, and transparency.

Get exclusive access to investigative reports, vendor analysis, leadership briefings, and more.

👉 https://businessof.tech/plus

Want the show on your favorite podcast app or prefer the written versions of each story?

📲 https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe

Looking for the links from today’s stories?

Every episode script — with full source links — is posted at:

🌐 https://www.businessof.tech

Pitch your story or appear on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights:

💬 https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079

YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.