MSPs and IT consultants are bullish on business growth, and AI has a lot to do with it. In a newly released report, decision-makers at IT service companies say they anticipate AI software and cybersecurity will drive business opportunities throughout the year.
The Go-To-Market Channel Strategy Decision Marker Survey Report, conducted by industry analyst firm The Futurum Group, reveals that 60% of IT partners expect moderate to high growth in 2025. They are banking on digital transformation and services to fuel the increase, with opportunities in AI software leading the charge. “As companies continue to focus on digital transformation,” the report says, “managed services, AI adoption, and cloud infrastructure are pivotal to driving growth.”
AI software, cited by 86% of respondents who sell AI solutions, and cybersecurity, cited by 82% of respondents who provide cybersecurity, top the list of growth opportunities. Results were based on responses from 705 senior and mid-level professionals at MSPs, MSSPs, IT consultants, and resellers.
AI as a Disruptor – Bring it On!
“I was a little surprised to see the optimism around AI,” says Alex Smith, Futurum’s vice president of channels and go-to-market. “I might have thought that more partners would have been apprehensive about how it might disrupt their business.”
AI is a transformative technology, forcing IT service providers and their customers to rethink their processes and reshape business strategies. Historically, channel companies have fretted that transformative technologies might make them irrelevant. But that doesn’t seem to be the case so far with AI.
“Throughout history, partners have faced question marks about their value proposition and their staying power in a market where technology evolves rapidly and go-to-market also evolves rapidly,” Smith says.
It appears this time channel companies see the potential value of a transformative technology and they’re adjusting their businesses accordingly, Smith says. That’s because something like Microsoft Copilot is a simple resell that comes down to persuading customers to buy Copilot licenses, he explains.
But there’s more to it than selling, Smith points out. Partners can deliver services around data ingestion to help customers leverage their data for agentic AI projects.Other AI opportunities revolve around training and educating users on how to deploy and use AI tools, he notes.
Not surprising in the survey results is the importance respondents place on cybersecurity opportunities. “As more of our processes and as more of our systems become digitized, every time you add a new layer in the technology environment [AI], that creates a new risk from the cybersecurity and governance side of things,” Smith says. “It’s a kind of never-ending battle for the industry.”
Related: AI as a Service: What It Is and Why You Need to Offer It
Leaning into Services and Strategic Partnerships
The Futurum survey finds that 85% of respondents expect AI consulting services to be a top growth driver, along with cloud migration services (66%). Traditional managed services ranks lower, with 54% of MSPs saying they are expecting growth in the category.
As respondents move to seize revenue-boosting opportunities, they are counting on vendors to help meet their goals. Partners welcome technical enablement with developer tools, technical support, and training programs, the report finds.
Hyperscalers top the list of strategic partnerships for channel companies. The survey finds that 69% of respondents view Microsoft as a key partner, followed by AWS (66%) and Google Cloud (54%). In addition, 87% report frequent customer purchases through hyperscaler marketplaces.
The partner ecosystem is entering a phase in which everything revolves around hyperscalers, Smith says. “It marks a shift from when other more traditional on-premise companies might have held those titles. We are very much in a cloud-centric landscape and if you’re a technology partner, you need to have a very strong hyperscale story.”
Will Economic Uncertainty Temper Optimism? Time Will Tell
Buoyed by their growth expectations, 75% of respondents are planning to increase headcount. But the survey does detect concern about rising costs. The poll was conducted in early 2025, predating the current economic uncertainty around tariffs on imported goods. It is likely that economic uncertainty and tariffs are creating challenges, Smith says, but at this point, it isn’t clear whether these macroeconomics factors will temper the optimism the survey reveals.
