Channel Partners & MSP Summit 2026 is officially behind us, and after a few days on the floor, in sessions, and in conversations with service providers, partners, and vendors, I walked away with a clear conclusion: this market isn’t just growing, it’s fundamentally reorganizing itself.
What stood out wasn’t any one announcement or vendor pitch, but the convergence of several forces happening at once—AI moving from concept to execution, MSPs expanding beyond traditional boundaries, and an increasing realization that while revenue opportunities are accelerating, margin is becoming the real battleground.
The Market Is Massive—and the Channel Owns It
One of the most grounding moments came from seeing the scale of the opportunity laid out clearly, with a $6.1 trillion total addressable IT and telecom market projected by 2026 and growing at over 10 percent annually, which reinforces that this is not a constrained market but one that continues to expand across multiple categories.
Source: Omdia
What makes that even more important is how that revenue flows, because roughly 66.7 percent of that spend is going through the channel, which positions MSPs not as participants on the edge of the market, but as the primary route through which that market is accessed.
That dynamic is exactly why platform choice matters more than ever, because the providers who control how services are delivered, packaged, and monetized ultimately control how much of that opportunity they capture.
Customers Are Building Ecosystems—Not Buying Vendors
Source: Omdia
That creates a more complex selling environment, but also a more valuable one, because MSPs that expand their role across multiple categories don’t just stay relevant, they become central to how those ecosystems operate.
This is where flexibility becomes a competitive advantage, because providers need platforms that allow them to integrate broadly, adapt quickly, and build differentiated offerings rather than being constrained by closed environments or rigid roadmaps.
The Best MSPs Are Expanding Their Surface Area
The data reinforced that top-performing MSPs are operating across roughly twice as many technology categories as the rest of the market, which is not accidental but a deliberate strategy to increase relevance, drive more value per customer, and create more opportunities to monetize existing relationships.
Services Offered by MSP's
11.5
2026 MSP 601
5.5
Broader MSP Market
Source: PartnerOptimizer
When you are embedded across communications, cloud, security, and AI, you are no longer competing for a slice of the budget—you are helping define how that budget is allocated.
That shift toward broader ownership is exactly why platforms that are API-first and designed for extensibility are gaining traction, because they allow MSPs to move beyond reselling isolated services and instead build integrated solutions that evolve with their customers.
AI Has Moved Beyond Pilots—It’s Now Driving Outcomes
AI was everywhere at the event, but what stood out wasn’t experimentation, it was acceleration. The conversation has clearly shifted from “how do we try AI?” to “how do we deploy AI to drive real business outcomes?”
What we’re seeing now is AI moving rapidly beyond isolated tools and into embedded, outcome-driven services that are directly tied to how businesses operate. Instead of standalone pilots, organizations are increasingly focused on integrating AI into workflow, automating customer interactions, streamlining operations, and improving decision-making in real time.
Yes, there are still challenges around integration and architecture, but those are no longer slowing momentum, they’re simply defining where value is created. The providers that can operationalize AI, connect it to existing systems, and deliver measurable results are the ones capturing the opportunity. This is the inflection point.
AI is no longer about experimentation or incremental efficiency gains—it’s about delivering outcomes at scale. And for MSPs, that means the opportunity has shifted from reselling tools to owning the design, deployment, and ongoing optimization of AI-powered services that directly impact business performance.
Customers Are Turning to Partners to Deliver AI
It was equally clear that customers are not attempting to navigate that complexity alone, with a majority relying on partners, especially for agentic AI because deploying these capabilities requires expertise that spans design, integration, and ongoing optimization.
For MSPs, this is not a departure from their role but an expansion of it, as they move from managing infrastructure to orchestrating outcomes, which naturally leads to higher-value engagements and deeper customer relationships.
However, this also introduces a new challenge, because delivering these services requires a foundation that supports flexibility, scalability, and control, rather than one that imposes constraints as complexity increases.
Growth Is Clear- But Margin Pressure Is Increasing
One stat captured the shift perfectly: 41% of MSP revenue growth is now being driven by AI-related services, compared to just 33% from traditional seat growth, which marks a clear turning point in how this market is evolving. Growth is no longer coming from adding more users—it’s coming from delivering higher-value, outcome-driven services powered by AI. At the same time, however, those same AI tools are beginning to put pressure on margins, as licensing costs and the need for specialized talent increase, creating a dynamic where AI is both the biggest growth driver and one of the biggest economic challenges MSPs need to navigate.
Source: Exaba
Voice is the New OS: - Cloud Communications as an AI Platform
Within that context, cloud communications stands out as one of the most strategic platforms for MSP expansion, not simply because it is another service category, but because it sits at the center of how businesses operate and interact.
When communications is combined with AI, it becomes a layer through which automation, intelligence, and workflows can be embedded directly into everyday business processes, transforming voice from a utility into a platform for delivering outcomes.
This is exactly where providers can begin to differentiate, by building services such as AI-driven receptionists, intelligent routing, and workflow automation that tie directly to customer operations and deliver measurable value.
Where ARPU Expansion—and Real Margin—Happens
However, capturing that value depends entirely on how your platform is structured, because layering high-value services on top of a traditional per-seat model ultimately limits your ability to expand margins, as costs increase with every additional user regardless of actual usage.
Session-based pricing allows MSPs to pay based on concurrent usage rather than total provisioned users, enabling them to scale revenue without a corresponding increase in cost.
This distinction is critical, because it allows providers to align their cost structure with real consumption while pricing their services based on the value they deliver, creating a gap between cost and revenue that drives meaningful margin expansion.
Platforms like NetSapiens were built with this model in mind, giving service providers the ability to oversubscribe intelligently, scale users efficiently, and package services in ways that are not constrained by rigid per-seat economics.
When you combine that with an open, API-driven architecture, MSPs gain the flexibility to integrate AI, build differentiated offerings, and control how those services are monetized, rather than being locked into predefined bundles or vendor-driven pricing models.
This is where cloud communications evolves from a standalone service into a strategic foundation, enabling MSPs to expand ARPU within existing accounts while maintaining control over their margins and long-term profitability.
Final Thought: The Next Era of MSP Growth Belongs to Those Who Own the Margin
As the event wraps and the industry looks ahead, the most important takeaway is not simply that growth is accelerating, but that the structure of that growth is changing, placing greater emphasis on control, flexibility, and economic leverage.
The MSPs who succeed in this next phase will not be the ones who simply add more services, but the ones who take ownership of how those services are delivered, priced, and evolved over time. Because the opportunity is significant, the demand is real, and the role of the channel continues to expand, but capturing that opportunity requires more than participation, it requires control over the platforms and models that define how value is created.
Frequently Asked Questions About MSP Growth in 2026
AI services, particularly agentic automation and consulting, along with expanding services within existing customers rather than relying solely on seat growth.
Rising AI licensing costs, increasing demand for specialized talent, and pricing pressure from customers are all contributing to margin compression.
By expanding into high-value services such as cloud communications and AI and adopting models like session-based pricing that allow them to scale revenue without proportional cost increases.
Key Takeaways from Channel Partners & MSP Summit 2026
- The IT and telecom market continues to expand rapidly, with the majority of spend flowing through the channel.
- Customers are working with multiple partners, creating opportunities for MSPs to expand their role.
- AI is the primary growth driver, but execution challenges remain.
- Margin pressure is increasing, making business model decisions more critical.
- Session-based pricing enables MSPs to disconnect costs from pricing and expand profitability.
- Cloud communications, combined with AI, represents a major opportunity for ARPU growth and differentiation.
