Ingram Micro CEO Paul Bay is calling on managed service providers (MSPs) and other channel partners to become true business partners to their end customers.
AI’s acceleration of change
Speaking at the Ingram Micro ONE 2025 conference, Bay noted that artificial intelligence is accelerating change across society. As a result, customers will look to IT service providers to help them navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead.
A key challenge is that many IT service providers lack the business expertise needed to offer relevant transformation guidance. While providers have understandably invested heavily in IT capabilities, expanding the total addressable market for services will require business leaders to rely more on providers who understand their issues and obstacles at a deeper level.
Backing partners with services and resources
Put simply, Ingram Micro is urging partners to invest more in business consulting services rather than solely expanding IT prowess. The distributor has already invested heavily in professional IT services to enable providers to reallocate resources and, if needed, lean on Ingram Micro as a backstop to fill gaps in their technical services portfolio.
This approach has financial implications for MSPs. Margins on IT services could be squeezed unless providers can reduce internal IT headcount to free up funds for business consulting. The question then becomes: is the cost of relying on external IT expertise cheaper than hiring full-time staff? Even then, providers must ensure customer experience does not suffer.
Leveraging AI to reduce operating costs
There may be opportunities to offset costs elsewhere. For example, Ingram Micro is advocating for greater use of AI to reduce the cost of operations for IT service providers.
Regardless of organizational structure, existing workflows will evolve rapidly. Innovation never happens in isolation: the organizations that rely on IT services will also adopt AI. In fact, some customers may even use AI to arbitrate IT services, dynamically allocating tasks to the provider that delivers the highest quality at the lowest price.
MSPs should proceed with care
The one thing that is certain: there is no going back. The AI genie is out of the bottle. Each MSP will need to proceed with care. While generative AI tools have the potential to reinvent IT service delivery and management, they can still make costly mistakes. After all, even if a tool works eight out of ten times, Murphy’s Law reminds us that the remaining two errors can still affect the most important customers. The key is to apply prudent skepticism and ensure human oversight complements AI outcomes every time.
Photo: Lightspring / Shutterstock
This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.