MSPs See Massive AI Opportunities In 2026, Pricing Remains ‘Trial And Error’: Panel

The channel outlook for the coming year is cautiously optimistic—despite headwinds from memory pricing and geopolitical uncertainty—with AI and cybersecurity leading the way in terms of growth segments, according to research from The Channel Company’s IPED Consulting arm.

MSPs are largely optimistic about growth opportunities in 2026 driven by surging demand for productivity-boosting AI tools and enhanced cybersecurity, despite headwinds from spiking memory prices and geopolitical uncertainties, a panel of MSP executives and experts said Monday.

The massive demand for Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other LLM-powered tools in the workplace has led to huge opportunities for MSPs around providing IT consulting and security services for AI, according to findings from The Channel Company’s IPED Consulting arm shared during the event.

Panelists who spoke Monday at XChange March 2026, an event hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company this week in Orlando, Fla., said there’s no question that enabling and securing AI continues to be the leading conversation with customers.

“Every one of our customers out there is asking the AI question,” said panelist Michael Goldstein, market president for southeast Florida at Fort Myers, Fla.-based Entech.

When it comes to enabling AI usage for customers, MSPs should already be well underway with engaging with their clients at this point, according to panelist Jennifer Roy, CEO of Vancouver, B.C.-based Nucleus Networks.

“If you’re not having those [AI] conversations with your clients, another MSP is,” Roy said while addressing an audience of MSP executives at the event Monday.

In terms of major AI opportunities, “the sure thing [for 2026] is looking at business processes and business analytics, and how we can help support our clients through automation and AI,” she said.

The biggest challenge many customers are facing is the risk of data exposure through “shadow AI” usage by employees, Roy noted.

“It’s an unknown [and] it’s scary,” she said. “You could lose your IP because of someone who’s put it out in OpenAI.”

At the same time, while many clients express an interest in utilizing AI tools for productivity, not all are clear on what this entails, according to Roy.

“Everyone wants AI, but no one knows what that actually means,” she said. “Helping your clients actually identify [what that means] for their organization is going to be a huge opportunity.”

Most MSPs are also continuing to go through their own learning process when it comes to the monetization aspects of AI, panelists said Monday.

When it comes to pricing, for instance, “I would love to talk to anyone who has it figured out—because we definitely don’t have it figured out yet,” Roy said.

Nucleus, for instance, has been working to determine what might be an appropriate profit margin around AI-related services, and finding that this is not always straightforward to calculate, she said.

“We’re finding out, ‘Oh wait, we didn’t price that right, because there actually was no profit. OK, let’s try again,’” Roy said. “So it’s trial and error right now.”

The uncertainty around pricing for AI is undoubtedly a common, not-yet-resolved question for many MSPs at this point, according to Jatin Mehta, CEO of Voorhees, N.J.-based MetaSense.

“Everyone is worried about how we can price it out, and whether AI is going to be profitable,” Mehta said. “Everyone is kind of in an unknown state. So that’s a big question.”

The right strategy for MSPs may just be to keep the pricing bit more tentative and flexible than with other services, where MSPs offer their services “on a time and labor basis rather than a fixed-cost basis,” he said. “Otherwise, cost is going to be an issue and profitability is going to be an issue.”

Without a doubt, however, AI is a “very big opportunity” for the MSP space going forward, Mehta said.

During the panel, moderated by CRN Executive Editor Jennifer Follett, panelists discussed findings from a recent “State of the Channel” study from IPED Consulting.

Beth Vanni, senior director of research and senior consultant at IPED, said during the panel that the watchword for the coming year in the channel is “cautious optimism.”

Device refresh opportunities still persist, even with the memory crunch, and overall “there’s a diversity of opportunity,” Vanni said.

But AI is “definitely at the top of the optimism list—in terms of investments and practices and demand from customers,” she said.

On the whole, as a result of continuing AI demand, “I think it’s going to be a great year, memory prices aside,” Entech’s Goldstein said.