Futurum Research found that use of artificial intelligence is already nearly universal among technology leaders, but just 27% say their organizations are seeing substantial ROI — a gap that could define the next phase of the channel’s AI opportunity heading into 2027.
For MSPs and other channel partners, that disconnect shifts the conversation beyond simply helping customers adopt AI. Partners increasingly need to help organizations identify the business problems that AI should solve, measure whether deployments deliver value, and address the governance and workforce challenges emerging alongside adoption.
That pressure is building quickly. Tiffani Bova, chief strategy and research officer at Futurum, compared the current AI cycle to cloud adoption but said the timeline has compressed dramatically.
“Cloud took 15 or 20 years. AI is not taking 15 or 20 years,” Bova told Channel Insider. “It’s kind of like 12 to 18 months, six to 12 months.”
AI adoption is surging faster than ROI
Futurum surveyed 775 technology leaders in May 2026 and found AI use is already nearly universal among respondents. At the same time, only 27% said their organizations were realizing substantial ROI from AI, while 30% reported pressure from leadership to overstate the success of AI initiatives.
One-quarter said their organizations prioritize moving quickly on AI over ensuring deployments are safe, governed, or compliant.
For Bova, that tension reflects both AI’s extraordinary pace and a familiar technology adoption problem.
“I really, really do believe that it is pressure around the visibility AI has at the top of the organization,” Bova told Channel Insider.
Partners need to start with the business problem
That pace matters because customers may approach partners asking for AI before they know which operational problem they want it to solve.
Bova said MSPs should resist the immediate urge to turn that request into a discussion of products or infrastructure.
“When a client says, ‘I want to get AI,’ I would stop and say, ‘Okay, let’s put the technology aside for a second. Tell me what you’re trying to accomplish with your business,’” she said.
That could mean reducing the time required to close the financial books, improving inventory processes, speeding up product development, or changing call center operations.
“I think that business consulting conversation is slightly different than the technical consulting conversation,” Bova said. “It’s moving from the infrastructure conversation to the intelligence conversation.”
That shift becomes more important as customers struggle with what Futurum calls AI’s “productivity paradox.” More than half of respondents reported moderate to transformative productivity gains, but nearly one in five also cited meaningful negative effects, including time spent fact-checking AI output, managing tools and workflows, and reworking generated content.
AI workforce changes create another channel opportunity
Partners also have their own internal planning to do.
Futurum found 58% of respondents expect their organizations to employ fewer technology workers within three years because of AI.
But the near-term picture is more about role restructuring than widespread layoffs: 43% have restructured roles to incorporate AI responsibilities, while 37% have increased AI-related hiring and 14% have reported AI-driven workforce reductions.
“This is a huge opportunity for leaders of whether it’s MSPs or vendors…to really spend the time with their people, to understand individually: what’s the sentiment and feeling of your teams?” Bova said.
Notably, AI-specific skills ranked behind traditional technical skills, soft skills, domain expertise, and leadership in Futurum’s hiring data. Critical thinking and problem-solving ranked as the most valuable soft skills.
For MSP leaders heading into 2027, Bova said that means evaluating whether they are hiring people who can connect technology capabilities to business outcomes rather than simply adding another layer of product certifications.
Services portfolios will need to evolve for 2027
Bova does not expect the tension around enterprise AI adoption to ease as organizations move into 2027.
“I feel like it isn’t going to slow down. I feel like the anxiety of it isn’t going to lessen. I feel like the uncertainty isn’t going away, and the friction and tension is going to remain,” Bova said. “The channel has to really think about: do they start to pivot towards more of that intelligence layer, and then that business consulting layer.”
That shift could become an important dividing line for MSPs and other channel partners. Customers may still come to partners asking which model, platform, or infrastructure they should deploy, but the more valuable role will increasingly be helping them determine where AI fits into the business, how employees and workflows need to change, and whether those investments are producing measurable outcomes.