According to the 2026 State of IT report previewed by Spiceworks, computer and IT occupations are projected to grow by 9% from 2024 to 2034, significantly outpacing the 3% growth expected for all jobs. This positive trend comes despite concerns about artificial intelligence potentially replacing human roles in tech, particularly in coding. The report reveals that cybersecurity skills are critical, with 92% of IT professionals emphasizing their importance amidst rising AI initiatives. Additionally, IT budgets are set to increase by 11% year-on-year, with 55% of organizations planning to allocate more funds to IT, driven largely by a heightened focus on cybersecurity.
Seventy-four percent of IT leaders anticipate an increase in budgets for 2026, yet over half report insufficient internal resources to resolve issues promptly or foster innovation. This insight comes from the 2026 Data Infrastructure Survey Report conducted by DataStrike, which surveyed 280 IT leaders to identify the primary challenges facing IT teams in the upcoming year. The report reveals that 60 percent of organizations are now relying on managed service providers to oversee their data infrastructure, a significant rise from previous years. Rob Brown, President and COO of DataStrike, noted that IT teams are shifting their focus from merely adopting cloud technology to optimizing existing systems and developing robust data strategies, essential for capitalizing on artificial intelligence investments. Additionally, the survey highlighted the ongoing struggle with modernization and technical debt, with 46 percent of respondents identifying legacy system upgrades as a major hurdle for 2026.
IT spending in Europe is projected to rise by 11 percent next year, reaching $1.4 trillion, driven by a growing demand for cloud sovereignty, according to Gartner. This growth follows an increase of 11.6 percent over the past year, with investments in generative AI models expected to surge by 78 percent as organizations prioritize advancements in AI, cloud services, and cybersecurity. A recent survey revealed that 61 percent of Chief Information Officers in Western Europe are looking to boost their reliance on local cloud providers, with 53 percent citing geopolitical factors as a reason to limit their use of global services. John-David Lovelock, a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner, noted that the European economy’s unique challenges, including slow GDP recovery and global trade uncertainties, are prompting businesses to seek local technological solutions.
At IT Nation Connect 2025, the urgent need for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to prioritize customer-centric strategies and embrace automation was a theme. With 79% of small and medium-sized businesses planning to utilize agents within 12 to 18 months, according to Microsoft, the emphasis on effective data management and real task automation is becoming increasingly critical. During the conference, ConnectWise reported that organic managed services growth has stabilized at around 10.6%, following a dip to 2% in late 2022. Attendees were encouraged to reinvest about 14% of their gross margin in marketing efforts to drive growth further.
Why do we care?
every signal says demand for IT is going up — budgets are growing, AI investments are exploding, and internal teams can’t cover the gap. But none of that automatically turns into growth for MSPs unless you evolve what you actually deliver.
Customers don’t need another vendor to manage tickets and patch servers. They need someone to help them untangle ten years of technical debt so they can actually use AI. They need data strategy, automation, sovereignty choices, and real modernization plans. And they need it because their internal teams are overwhelmed. That’s where the opportunity is.
And look at the ConnectWise messaging — customer-centricity, automation, reinvesting in growth. This is the market telling MSPs to get serious about strategy, not just operations. Because the companies that do will win the modernization budgets. The ones that don’t will be stuck maintaining outdated systems while the strategic spend goes somewhere else.
So why do we care? Because the money is shifting toward modernization, data, and automation — and MSPs are perfectly positioned to lead that shift if they decide to. This is the moment to step up, not coast on legacy services. The market is handing providers a real opportunity — but only if you move beyond support and into outcomes.