The research finds that 51% of managed service providers view governance and compliance challenges as their top obstacle to AI adoption, surpassing concerns over data security management (14%), value realization (14%) and technical expertise gaps (13%). This highlights that operational frameworks, rather than purely technical capabilities, are the critical bottleneck for MSPs supporting AI initiatives.

MSPs are moving away from point solutions, with 49% calling for a complete, fully integrated platform and 91% insisting on combined backup and recovery tools to enforce stronger data governance. This shift underscores the urgency for unified systems that streamline policy enforcement and reduce manual configuration across multi-tenant environments.

While 94% of MSPs commit to automating AI data readiness and compliance services, only 43% report high maturity in delivering AI-ready environments to customers. Operational complexity—driven by configuration differences, policy drift and integration challenges across multiple tenants—remains the leading barrier to scaling these services effectively.

AvePoint promotes its Confidence Platform – Elements Edition, which offers unified data protection controls, centralized oversight and repeatable governance frameworks to help MSPs automate compliance at scale. With the global partner opportunity tied to AI services projected to reach $276 billion by 2030 and compliance services expected to grow 21% in 2026, MSPs adopting these solutions are positioned to capture significant market share.