‘Everyone was excited about deploying AI, and rightfully so, but once they started rolling it out, they realized pretty quickly that they didn’t have all the answers. They had the talk track around AI readiness, but not necessarily the solutions. Now we’re seeing the market evolve from point solutions trying to plug individual gaps to a much bigger conversation around how you actually build a platform that can support governance at scale,’ says Scott Sacket, AvePoint’s senior vice president of partner strategy.
As MSPs see massive opportunity in AI, a new global study shows many are struggling to turn that momentum into scalable services, with governance and compliance seen as the biggest roadblocks.
New research from Jersey City, N.J.-based AvePoint, conducted with London-based research firm Omdia, surveyed 333 MSP executives across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The study from the global provider of multi-cloud data security, governance and resilience technology examined how MSPs package governance and compliance services, their level of automation maturity, the challenges of scaling and what they need from vendors to succeed.
According to the study, titled “The Road to AI Readiness: Unlocking the MSP AI Opportunity Through Governance,” 51 percent of MSPs said data governance and compliance challenges are the biggest barrier to AI adoption.
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At the same time, the market opportunity tied to AI services is expected to reach $276 billion by 2030, according to Omdia. For MSPs looking to capture some of that market, that means reframing governance and compliance not as a cost center, but as an enabler of AI adoption and long-term customer value, according to Scott Sacket, senior vice president of partner strategy at AvePoint.
“What really stood out is not that partners don’t understand how important governance is, they absolutely do, but how many of them still aren’t prepared to deliver it at scale,” Sacket told CRN in an exclusive interview. “A lot of MSPs have already built AI readiness or governance into their services, at least from a messaging or commercial standpoint. But when it comes to actually executing across different customer environments, at scale, with consistency, they’re still struggling to get over that hump.”
That gap is becoming more visible as some MSPs moved from early AI experimentation to real-world deployments but then quickly ran into issues around security, compliance and data exposure.
“Everyone was excited about deploying AI, and rightfully so, but once they started rolling it out, they realized pretty quickly that they didn’t have all the answers,” Sacket said. “They had the talk track around AI readiness, but not necessarily the solutions. Now we’re seeing the market evolve from point solutions trying to plug individual gaps to a much bigger conversation around how you actually build a platform that can support governance at scale.”
About half of MSPs surveyed said they want a fully integrated platform, while 91 percent said backup and disaster recovery are more effective when integrated into a broader data governance strategy rather than offered as standalone tools.
For MSPs, that can have direct implications on both operations and profitability.
“If you’re trying to deliver AI services across dozens or hundreds of customers, each with different environments and configurations, doing that through disconnected point solutions becomes a real commercial challenge,” he said. “The more you can consolidate into a platform approach, the more efficient and scalable your business becomes. It’s not about a silver bullet, it’s about being able to cover more ground in a consistent way.”
And even as 94 percent of MSPs said they are committed to automating AI data readiness and compliance services, only 43 percent reported high levels of maturity. That disconnect comes down to skills, complexity and the speed at which the AI landscape is evolving, Sacket said.
What’s also evolving is how to price and package AI services, going from one-time assessments to recurring services that continuously manage risk, enforce policies and monitor data environments.
“Today, a lot of partners start with an assessment, which makes sense, but governance is not a one-and-done exercise,” Sacket said. “It has to become part of your ongoing managed service offering. That’s where the real opportunity is from both a customer value perspective and a recurring revenue standpoint.”
And as AI adoption accelerates, he said MSPs have an opportunity to take a more proactive role by helping customers understand risks before deployment.
“A lot of customers are buying AI tools without fully understanding their data exposure or risk profile,” he said. “MSPs can step in right now and help them establish that baseline.
“This is still very early innings,” he added. “The MSPs that move quickly, build expertise and align with the right platforms are the ones that are going to capture that growth.”
