Tariffs have dominated the news cycle lately. No doubt, they have come up in your customer conversations regarding their current and future budget. Analyst firm IDC examined how IT buyers’ expectations and attitudes have changed since the Trump administration took office in last week’s North American IT Industry Update. From changing client budgets to AI questions, here’s what MSPs need to know to stay braced for the year ahead.
IT Buyers’ Changing Priorities: From Modernization to ROI
IDC conducts regular surveys of IT buyers and CIOs at businesses around the world. In December, people were focused on modernization—improving cyber resiliency and modernizing their data centers. “For CIOs starting 2025,” says Rick Villars, GVP of worldwide research at IDC, “modernization was our word of the year. We were going to improve our applications and our ability to use data, and make sure that we had the right systems, at the right availability and reliability, to do effectively.”
However, an interview of the same community in March 2025 showed a different outlook. IDC conducted this survey after the new administration took office and the initial conversations about tariff implementation occurred, but before the April 2nd reciprocal tariff announcements. Already, over 47% of IT leaders in the U.S. say that tariffs and geopolitical risk are now the dominant factors that will shape their technology investments. The second highest factor was concern over technology access caused by supply chain limitations.
To combat these challenges, IT leaders in the U.S. are anticipating cost increases and planning for the potential need to overspend their initial budgets. However, while they might be spending more up front, IT leaders are putting more emphasis on making sure they’re getting value and ROI out of that investment.
3 Questions Your MSP Clients will be Asking
IT leaders need to address three questions in light of these developments, says Villars:
- Would cost control or cost cutting be more beneficial?
Businesses are still attempting to achieve their original 2025 goals, despite the concerns. They are willing to increase their tech budgets to do so, though closer scrutiny of spending decisions is likely. If concern due to economic disruptions escalates substantially, there is a high likelihood of aggressive cuts to IT spending from C-suite executives. This will likely affect Capex, professional services, and large, high growth as-a-service contracts most strongly.
- Will AI be an inhibitor or an accelerator to growth?
Businesses are still interested in automating with AI. Also, historically, significant economic disruptions have often been trigger points for major technology shifts. These two factors mean that, provided the technology continues to innovate and be readily available, businesses’ AI efforts should continue to develop. The most volatile factor, which IDC said they will be keeping a close eye on, is the high concentration of AI service providers in North American regions—areas that are heavily impacted by the recent economic disturbances. “We see no signs of AI infrastructure fading or falling off in a significant way,” says Villars, “but with such a small group, that could change very rapidly.”
Related: Is AI the Secret Weapon for MSP Growth? Here’s What the Data Says
- What is the impact of digital sovereignty?
IDC anticipates digital sovereignty becoming a topic of conversation for many businesses, especially multinational ones who operate in the U.S. and Canada. Already, enterprises in North America report 23% of their IT budgets goes to meeting regulatory and compliance requirements. If digital sovereignty becomes more important, businesses will need to allocate more money to meet compliance needs, changing their investment priorities and pulling money away from other initiatives, such as innovation.
A Glimpse at IDC’s Spending Forecast for 2025
Stephen Minton, GVP of data and analytics at IDC, shared a forecasted look at what 2025 and early 2026 might hold. “Our industry is in a pretty good place [right now], Maybe the best place it’s been in for years,” he says. “That’s good, because we’re going to be tested. But the reason why businesses will try to protect their IT investments is because they are part of every digital business toolkit of how to navigate this disruption. That is creating both risk and opportunity [for IT providers]. We will come out of this with more proof that [tech] is integral to business performance and operations.”
IDC is continuing to track these changes; findings from their next survey will be released in early May, with more consequences from changing tariffs.
