Artificial intelligence is creating a two-sided security challenge for managed service providers, channel leaders warned at GTIA ChannelCon 2026: Cybercriminals are using the technology to make familiar attacks more convincing, while customers are adopting AI tools that can expose sensitive business data.
For MSPs, responding will require more than adding security products. Providers must help customers govern AI use, strengthen trust and access controls, and prepare for AI-enabled attacks without adding unmanageable complexity to their technology environments.
AI makes familiar security threats harder to detect
AI has not replaced established attack methods such as phishing. Instead, it has helped attackers execute them at greater scale and with fewer warning signs.
David Setzer, founder and CEO of Mailprotector, characterized AI as “human intelligence at scale.” In email security, he said, that scale allows attackers to create messages with polished language, accurate branding and none of the grammatical errors users have historically been trained to identify.
“AI creates the perfect phishing message—with perfect grammar, perfect colloquialisms and perfect fake logos. If you look at phishing messages now, you cannot distinguish them from a message from a real company,” Setzer said.
Sandellyo Kauba, a cybersecurity professor at Wake Technical Community College and MSP founder, similarly warned that AI is reshaping how quickly threat actors can impact businesses.
“AI has the ability for less-sophisticated threat actors to launch attacks that seem so clearly real to potential victims,” Kauba said, emphasizing the need for MSPs and security professionals who can explain why businesses need to strengthen trust layers and verify information more heavily moving forward.
Customer AI adoption creates new data risks
AI also introduces risk from inside customer organizations.
During ChannelCon’s Visionaries Panel, executives warned that an employee can introduce a third-party AI platform with access to company data simply by purchasing a subscription. That makes visibility, accountability and data governance central to the MSP’s role.
“An employee may have access to the company’s proprietary information, but they’re using their personal laptop and their own personal ChatGPT. We have new concerns about old problems,” Kauba told Channel Insider after the panel.
MJ Shoer, chief community officer at GTIA, said the central AI challenge remains familiar territory for technology providers.
“The biggest issue with AI is an issue that we’re all very familiar with: security,” Shoer said. “It’s all about security and data.”
“The vendors are going to take care of themselves in terms of building AI into their product offerings. Where we’re really focusing is at the organizational level: How do we help companies make this shift?” Shoer continued.
MSPs must balance stronger security with operational simplicity
The expanding threat landscape comes as many MSPs are already managing crowded vendor portfolios and limited technical resources.
Demetrios Georgiou, vice president of global MSP at Coro, said providers face many of the same staffing pressures, rising costs and economic uncertainty as their customers. AI can help automate ticket handling and reduce operational demands, but MSPs should apply it to defined business problems instead of pursuing AI for its own sake.
That focus on outcomes will be especially important as MSPs add security controls. Each new product can increase administrative work, training requirements and alert volume. Providers therefore need technologies that integrate with the existing stack and reduce noise rather than creating another management burden.
The technology may be changing the battlefield, but the underlying MSP responsibility has not: establish trust, control access to customer data and be ready when defenses fail.
“Do your tabletop exercises. Do your disaster planning. Be ready for something to happen,” Setzer said.