The CRN 2026 Solution Provider 500: Maximizing AI Opportunities, Navigating Supply Chain Turbulence

Solution providers play a critical role in helping businesses and organizations adopt and get the most value from leading-edge technologies – AI and agentic AI being the most recent example. This week we present the CRN 2025 Solution Provider 500, the annual ranking of the largest solution providers by revenue with operations in North America.

Jim Sullivan, CEO of Boston-based solution provider NWN, knows an opportunity when he sees one. In March he told CRN that as AI workloads strain enterprise networks, customer demand will grow for NWN’s recently introduced Intelligent Connectivity Network-as-a-Service solution to help manage network operations.

“We’re going to see a massive increase in data traffic,” Sullivan said. “That’s the big shift. Networks will need to handle more complex workloads, more real-time processing and higher performance demands.”

NWN’s experience is an example of how the last year has been one of great opportunity for the channel combined with severe turbulence.

The opportunity, of course, is the wave of AI adoption—and more specifically the push to develop and implement AI agents and agentic applications—that’s generating huge demand for IT hardware, software, services and expertise as businesses and organizations overhaul their IT estates to support AI.

“As we enter 2026, our strategy is focused on solving the AI velocity gap, the gap between massive AI infrastructure spending in the past few years and business value realization for our clients,” said Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar during an earnings call in February. “Cognizant’s mission is to be the AI builder bridging this gap to enterprise value by converting the technology to measurable returns on investments for our clients.”

The turbulence comes from having to navigate supply chain problems and volatile prices for IT products in the wake of the memory shortage.

Earlier this month, for example, CDW shares took a price hit after the company reported gross margin pressure due to customers spending more of their IT dollars on solutions hardware due to the memory shortage and supply chain crisis.

The complex business environment, which also includes an uncertain economy and a war in the Middle East, is the backdrop to the 2026 CRN Solution Provider 500, the annual ranking of the largest solution providers by revenue with operations in North America.

Accenture tops the Solution Provider 500 for the sixth consecutive year. Thanks to a combination of organic growth and an aggressive acquisition strategy, the company’s fiscal 2025 (ended Aug. 31, 2025) revenue reached $69.67 billion, up a healthy 7.3 percent from $64.90 billion in fiscal 2024.

NTT Data and Tata Consultancy Services have been vying for the No. 2 spot for several years running and this year is no different with TCS winning out this year and NTT Data holding down No. 3 on the list.

Many of the perennial leaders of the Solution Provider 500 remain in place from previous years with Capgemini, CDW and Cognizant holding steady in the same positions they had in 2025 (nos. 4, 5 and 7, respectively) and others such as IBM Consulting, Infosys and World Wide Technology remaining in the Top 10.

The one major change to the Solution Provider 500 leaderboard is the move by Carahsoft, a leading IT solutions provider and government master aggregator, into the Top 10 thanks to the company’s rapid growth.

Joseph F. Kovar and CJ Fairfield contributed to this story.