OpenText released the findings of its third annual Global Managed Security Survey. The study shows that while AI is unlocking major growth opportunities for managed service providers (MSPs), many are struggling to keep pace with customer expectations for readiness, security, and simplicity.
The survey of more than 1,000 MSPs found that 92% are experiencing growth driven by AI interest, and 96% expect that trend to continue this year. Yet only about half feel prepared to guide small and mid-sized business (SMB) customers in adopting AI tools, citing limited resources, tool sprawl, and the challenge of standardizing services across customer environments. This marks a sharp decline from last year, when 90% of MSPs felt ready to meet AI-related security needs—highlighting that the readiness gap is rapidly widening, not closing.
"MSPs are under pressure to match the pace of AI adoption by their SMB customers," says Michael DePalma, Vice President of Business Development at OpenText Cybersecurity. "They need security partners who can deliver integrated, scalable services that reduce tool fatigue and simplify operations. That's exactly, what OpenText Secure Cloud platform provides – flexible bundles, simplified deployment, and a channel team with deep industry expertise to help MSPs achieve scalable, profitable growth that meets the accelerating demands of AI-driven security."
Key survey findings include:
AI demand is surging, but MSP AI readiness lags:
- 92% of MSPs report business growth from AI interest, and 96% expect growth this year.
- Despite these findings, only about half feel ready to guide SMBs in deploying AI tools, down 90% in 2024.
- Less than half have built or deployed AI cybersecurity agents for SMB customers.
- Many are using AI internally to build expertise: 67% use it for customer support, 66% for technical support/ticket triage, and 58% for threat detection and response.
- AI expertise has become the third most important MSP attribute for SMBs, following threat prevention and 24/7 support.
Simplicity outweighs costs as SMBs battle tool fatigue:
- Customers citing cost savings as a primary challenge dropped from 28% in 2023 to just 17% in 2025.
- Bundled security packages are gaining traction: 71% of SMBs prefer all-in-one prevention, detection and response bundles; followed by 45% preferring endpoint, network and email security bundles.
- Ease of integration ranks as "extremely important" for 78% of MSPs, outranking vendor count.
- Nearly half of MSPs (44%) cite strength of security solutions as the leading factor in purchasing decisions, compared to just 8% citing price.
Service expansion becomes the new engine for growth:
- 95% of MSPs plan to expand managed service offerings in the next year, and 57% are actively developing new services.
- Priorities for these new services include integration across tools (38%) followed by high attach-rate with core services (18%), and broad applicability across SMB verticals (16%).
- Referrals are the leading source of new SMB customers (32%), followed by online search and digital ads (29%) and technology marketplaces (25%).
