Netrio CEO: AI, Security Shape Next Era of IT Services

As service providers and channel partners continue to support customers through the end of 2025 and look ahead to 2026, they are weighing opportunities and challenges in a variety of areas.

We spoke with Netrio CEO Mark Clayman about his vision for a strategic partner-driven approach to IT services and how AI capabilities will help everyone avoid commoditization.

AI and security continue to top list of priorities for customers in 2025

Clayman, like most in the industry, lists AI and security as the most pressing technological concerns facing organizations. For Netrio’s midmarket base, AI is still an item on a to-do list, not an already accomplished task.

“I tend to find most of them are still coming to us and saying, ‘we know we need to go down this path,’ or ‘our board and directors above us are expecting this, but we don’t know how to get there,’ and we are working to help them do so,” Clayman said.

“Other than AI, security is definitely next on the list for many of our customers,” Clayman continued. “Lots of customers are looking to get somewhere between where they are now and perfect, which no one can ever really be when it comes to security.”

On the security front, Clayman stresses the importance of end-user training in keeping organizations as secure as possible.

“If you aren’t training your end users about texts they might receive that they shouldn’t, or emails that can look legitimate but aren’t, and you aren’t doing that on a quarterly basis, that’s the biggest risk an organization might face.”

Security and AI are of course in many ways overlapping focus areas, and Clayman stresses that above all, it’s the relationship between Netrio and its customers that remains paramount no matter the trending technology in question.

“There’s a lot of talk about platforms, technology, and tooling, and those things are of course crucial, but at the end of the day, it’s always going to be about the people, relationships, and the talent in services,” said Clayman.

Why strategic business conversations, not just routine IT services, mark the path forward for providers

That relationship has long been considered many providers’ bread and butter, but that too is changing as businesses need more from their technology than ever before.

For Clayman, that shift gives companies like Netrio an opportunity to evolve beyond the increasingly commoditized services everyone offers to an elevated role with customers.

“We need to be having strategic conversations with our customers about how they can become more efficient operations,” Clayman said. “Asking about things related to their supply chains, how they approach customer service and experience, what they are planning over the next few years for their own products. We need to then understand how we can help them get to where they want to go.”

We have covered the notion of MSPs evolving the value they provide several times. From ScalePad’s CEO Chris Day to partners and vendor executives at ChannelCon this summer, many in the channel echo Clayman’s sentiments: just offering various IT tooling and services likely won’t be enough to remain competitive within the next five years.

Netrio ensures its customer success managers and those deemed “strategic advisors” on key accounts are prepared to ensure ongoing services are being deployed appropriately while also identifying opportunities to support their clients’ long-term goals.

“We’re focused on making sure we aren’t just more relevant to our customers but that we are at the table with leadership at those businesses,” Clayman said. “We want to understand the goals our customers are trying to accomplish so we can help them solve those problems.”

NetrioNow platform one way the provider keeps customers at the forefront of plans

Netrio announced the latest release of its self-service platform, NetrioNow, last month. The offering is the result of months of integration and testing as the provider continues to leverage recent acquisitions to unify the company’s approach moving forward.

The platform, Clayman says, is one way the provider continues to innovate on how it best serves its customers now and in the future. Netrio’s CRO Mike Cromwell told Channel Insider earlier this year the company sees the platform and the provider’s portfolio as a way to drive more value for midmarket organizations.

“We’ve got the ability now to offer global support 24/7, 365 days of the year,” Cromwell told us. “Our product portfolio together is about 2x what it was before, and we’re going to deliver all of that through a platform our end users can leverage. That’s going to have a huge impact and be very meaningful to local clients who didn’t previously have access to those things.”

Clayman emphasizes the importance of clients’ needs today and tomorrow in everything he says about Netrio’s future. The provider wants to retain clients, surely, but it also wants to leverage internal successes as it adds to its portfolio over time.

Looking ahead: Clayman focused on efficiency gains and productizing opportunities

To that end, Clayman has his sights set on bringing more AI-focused offerings to the market “over the next few quarters.”

Clayman says Netrio is identifying ways to leverage AI internally to strengthen its delivery capabilities and support workflows.
“First and foremost, from a delivery standpoint, we need to to get more efficient,” said Clayman. 

From there, he wants to see Netrio continue to also identify use cases for AI within everything from sales and marketing to legal contract work. Then, he says, the provider plans to productize their internal uses to bring expertise and guidance to its clients as they seek similar efficiencies in their own operations.

“I never really think about planning in such a binary between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. It’s really day in and day out in services,” Clayman said. “Over the next few quarters, though, I think we will contine to get smarter and more efficient in bringing productized AI solutions to our customers.”

As he notes, all of these actions are to some extent occurring simultaneously, but Clayman sees this productization of AI as a key opportunity to deliver that strategic value to clients he sees as the future for IT services.

“We’re doing everything we can to make our customers aware of all of the ways we can help them,” said Clayman.