Are SMBs driving demand for agentic AI? MSP leaders make it clear
While many MSPs are starting to see return on their AI investments, the technology still has significant room for margin growth
Agentic AI - systems capable of taking autonomous actions, reasoning through tasks, and improving through experience - has been top of mind in the channel in recent months.
Often seen as a step beyond traditional AI, this technology is set to reshape how businesses operate: faster, more automated, and more efficient.
The opportunities extend well beyond the IT world, particularly for SMBs, who view the innovation as a way to scale more quickly, broaden their capabilities, and even dream bigger.
But to seize these possibilities, they need the support of MSPs.
To assess the demand for agentic AI and whether investments made by managed service providers are proving worthwhile so far, CRN spoke with executives from Redsquid, Assured Data Protection, BCN, Flotek, Thinc and Ekco, who shared their experiences to date.
Stuart McHugh, group director of technology, Redsquid
Have you seen increased demand for agentic AI from SMBs? In which sectors, and for what use cases?
“Yes, particularly from organisations looking to remove manual processes and improve operational efficiency.
“Interest is strongest in sectors with repetitive workflows, such as professional services, legal, finance, and education.
“However, every business approaches processes differently, so there’s no plug-and-play solution.
“The real value comes from working closely with customers, mapping how they operate, and designing AI-driven workflows that fit their organisation rather than forcing a generic model.”
Are agentic AI solutions or intelligent workflows already part of your offering?
“We advise customers on the advantages of AI and how agentic AI can streamline workflows, strengthen decision-making, and improve productivity.
“We take a tailored approach, not every organisation is ready, and not every use case warrants automation.
“For us, it’s about understanding the client’s environment and co-creating solutions that deliver measurable benefit, rather than offering a one-size-fits-all product.”
Have you seen growth or early returns from your investments in agentic AI? Have you hit your growth targets yet?
“We’re seeing early signs of strong potential, particularly where agentic AI is deployed to support internal service operations and improve customer experience.
“The market is still emerging, so our focus has been on building capability and identifying repeatable use cases with real ROI.
“While it’s early to talk about growth targets being met, the trajectory is positive, and we expect adoption to accelerate significantly over the next 12 to 18 months as businesses gain confidence and maturity.”
Richard Stathers, operations director, Thinc
Have you seen increased demand for agentic AI from SMBs? In which sectors, and for what use cases?
“Demand from SMBs is rising.
“Most SMBs are very familiar with chat-based AI and are seeing enough value from it that they’re ready to explore more advanced, agentic capabilities.
“Many are already experimenting, and if you look at the typical technology-adoption curve, assistive agentic-derived AI has firmly crossed the chasm and is moving into the mainstream.
“Right now, the strongest uptake of agentic AI is for assistance-focused, workflow-accelerating tasks.
“That includes automated note-taking and minute-keeping, generating first-draft documents, summarisation and information preparation for meetings, and other simple, repeatable admin processes - occupying a similar niche to the GenAI tools they are more familiar with.
“These early use cases cut across multiple sectors - professional services, business support, tech, and operationally heavy SMBs - largely because they deliver a fast and clear return on investment.
“The bulk of demand is still relatively simple agentic AI.
“While assistive AI is now widely adopted, advanced agentic AI itself will mature in phases.
“We’re only at the beginning of that journey, and there’s significant potential for more sophisticated, multi-step, task-executing agents as SMBs build confidence.”
Are agentic AI solutions or intelligent workflows already part of your offering?
“Yes, insofar as our partners have begun integrating it into their software offering.
“Our starting point with clients is always business transformation.
“We work with them on financial system transformation, ERP implementation and optimisation, and broader business system integration.
“AI can go beyond routine task automation to more abstract, judgement-based tasks that traditional automation simply couldn’t handle.
“That shift unlocks both higher productivity and entirely new avenues for innovation.”
“We are increasingly having conversations with clients about intelligent workflows, particularly within financial systems.
“Agentic capabilities allow businesses to manage more complex workflows and move from rule-based processes to more dynamic, adaptive ones.
“But our clients still want to speak to a human who can help them understand the art of the possible: how these technologies fit into their business, what to prioritise, and how the transformation should unfold.”
Have you seen growth or early returns from your investments in agentic AI? Have you hit your growth targets yet?
“I think it's too early to say! Definitely promising but ask me again in 12 months.”
Stewart Parkin, global CTO, Assured Data Protection
Have you seen increased demand for agentic AI from SMBs? In which sectors, and for what use cases?
“Interest is rising, though it’s not uniform. SMBs are curious, but they’re approaching agentic AI with more pragmatism than fanfare.
“The strongest demand is coming from sectors already under pressure to automate or secure processes: legal, financial services, insurance and mid-market retail, areas where demand has been outstripping ability to deliver for several years.
“Typical use cases revolve around workflow automation, compliance documentation, anomaly detection and summarisation of operational data.
“Customers aren’t asking for ‘agentic AI’ by name, they’re asking for outcomes such as faster onboarding, reduced administrative overhead or improved threat-hunting.
“AI becomes relevant when it serves a clearly defined operational need.”
Are agentic AI solutions or intelligent workflows already part of your offering?
“We’re already using intelligent automation across our internal platforms, particularly in data-protection telemetry analysis, threat-hunting, and service-delivery processes.
“What we’re not doing – yet- is marketing this as an ‘agentic AI’ product in its own right.
“Our position is that AI must be safe, predictable, and auditable before it’s packaged commercially.
“For a data-protection provider, this bar is higher than in many parts of the channel.
“We’re experimenting, integrating, and validating before formalising anything customer-facing.”
Have you seen growth or early returns from your investments in agentic AI? Have you hit your growth targets yet?
“The early returns are operational rather than financial.
“Internal workflows are faster, engineers spend less time on low-value triage, and threat-hunting is more scalable.
“As for growth targets: we don’t attach revenue targets to technology categories this early.
“AI is an enabler of efficiency, not yet a standalone profit centre for us. That may change in the medium term as customer-ready offerings mature.”
Fraser Dear, head of AI and innovation, BCN
Have you seen increased demand for agentic AI from SMBs? In which sectors, and for what use cases?
“Yes! Demand has accelerated sharply across manufacturing, environmental services, social housing, healthcare, financial services and professional services.
“Recent examples include: a manufacturing programme where we’re applying data and AI patterns and Microsoft stack integration to streamline operations and service efficiency.
“We’ve been working in industrial engineering as clients ask for agents that can reason over documentation, monitor workflows, and trigger actions in line-of-business systems.
“In environmental services, we are building agents to sit inside Microsoft 365 and assist teams with governed, in-context decision support.
“Housing associations are engaging in research-led roadmaps and adoption support, highlighting trust, skills, and governance themes before scaling intelligent workflows.
“Common asks include intelligent document automation, Service Desk triage and summarisation, CRM copilots that act across systems, procurement and supply chain optimisation, and governed knowledge assistants embedded in Microsoft 365 - areas that align with our data and AI and modern workplace services.”
Are agentic AI solutions or intelligent workflows already part of your offering?
“They are.
“BCN’s AI Pathfinder lets organisations assess readiness, prioritise use cases, and build a safe, costed roadmap.
“We then implement agents in Microsoft Copilot / Copilot Studio and in Microsoft AI Foundry, designed to operate inside a customer’s Microsoft 365 estate with guardrails, auditability, and role-based access.
“Our services are underpinned by our status as a Microsoft Solutions Partner across all six designations, plus the new Support Services designation - placing BCN among the most comprehensively accredited UK partners.
“We also help clients with strategy and governance by design (EU AI Act readiness, ISO/IEC 42001 alignment) and pragmatic tool policies, an approach we’ve articulated consistently in our media responses (‘treat AI agents with the same rigour as human employees’).
“Where Microsoft product changes create risk (e.g., AI Builder credits retirement), we provide migration services and cost optimisation pathways.”
Have you seen growth or early returns from your investments in agentic AI? Have you hit your growth targets yet?
“We’re seeing early revenue and strong pipeline conversion - for example, agentic projects moving from pilots to production.
“Internally, our agentic workforce is delivering clear growth and efficiency gains.
“Momentum is ahead of plan and supported by Microsoft’s FY26 partner incentives across Security, AI, Azure, and Modern Work, which we leverage to accelerate time-to-value for customers.”
Craig Jones, IT director, Flotek
Have you seen increased demand for agentic AI from SMBs? In which sectors, and for what use cases?
“Yes, Flotek has observed a clear uptick in interest from SMBs regarding agentic AI, particularly over the past year.
“The demand is strongest in sectors such as professional services, legal and finance, where automation and intelligent workflows can deliver immediate operational efficiencies.
“Common use cases include automating content into CRM systems, streamlining document creation, and enhancing data analysis within familiar platforms like Microsoft 365.
“For example, our adoption of agentic AI in ticket automation has reduced manual workload for IT teams and improved response times for end users.”
Are agentic AI solutions or intelligent workflows already part of your offering?
“Absolutely. As an MSP, agentic AI solutions and intelligent workflows are now a core part of Flotek’s service portfolio.
“We’ve integrated agentic capabilities into Microsoft 365 Copilot, enabling advanced document creation, data modelling, and workflow automation directly within Office applications.
“Our partners benefit from AI-driven collaboration, with features like Agent Mode in Excel and Word, and Office Agent in Copilot chat, which empower users to manage complex, multi-step tasks with ease.”
Have you seen growth or early returns from your investments in agentic AI? Have you hit your growth targets yet?
“We are already seeing tangible returns from our investments in agentic AI.
“Early adopters among our partners have reported significant productivity gains and cost savings, particularly in automating repetitive tasks and improving data-driven decision-making.
“While we are on track with our growth targets, the full potential of agentic AI is still unfolding as more partners embrace these solutions and as the technology matures.”
Colin Riddle, UK chief product officer, Ekco
Have you seen increased demand for agentic AI from SMBs? In which sectors, and for what use cases?
“Yes. Interest among SMBs has grown substantially over the past 12 months.
“Part of that is supply-driven: the technology has come a very long way in the last year and is now much more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.
“Just last month, Microsoft announced that it’s working to embed AI agents in the apps people use every day.
“The shift from ‘passive assistant’ to ‘digital coworker’ is very much underway and I think this could be the launchpad for a wave of agentic democratisation where we see new use cases emerge rapidly across industries.
“Demand has increased in legal and financial startups in particular.
“These are organisations with relatively few members of staff and they stand to benefit hugely from the efficiency gains promised by agentic AI.
“However, they’ve previously been slower to adopt than others due to the highly regulated nature of their industry.
“In short, they felt they couldn’t trust AI agents to follow the rules.
“As 2026 approaches, the tech has matured. There are still challenges to navigate around AI governance and security, but this is where MSPs can help guide adoption.”
Are agentic AI solutions or intelligent workflows already part of your offering?
“Yes, we have a really close relationship with Microsoft, and we’re really excited about the huge agentic upgrade to Copilot announced at Ignites last month.
“Overstretched IT teams can benefit enormously from an AI agent’s resource optimisation, deployment management and even threat detection capabilities.
“However, it’s not just about pointing businesses towards an agentic AI tool and waving them off. AI agents are really only as good as your underlying infrastructure.
“If you’re working in an under-secured, opaque environment, Copilot or other tools won’t be able to help properly.
“Where MSPs can really add value is by helping lay that groundwork so that businesses aren’t layering a shiny new tool on top of legacy systems that aren’t optimised for automation – or worse, lack the necessary security guardrails to keep sensitive data secure.”