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Managed Services Shifts from Delivery Model to Growth Engine

Managed services defies a simple definition, and in 2026, managed services will grow in both scale and breadth while becoming even harder to define clearly. In TBR’s research, “managed services” includes, but is not limited to, outsourcing internal IT operations and processes, providing specialized software support, maintaining data centers and fixing connectivity issues. TBR sees two characteristics common across all of these: people and a set-term, outcomes-based contract.  Perhaps surprisingly, many trends across the technology ecosystem increasingly push IT services companies and consultancies, in particular, toward more managed services. Complexity magnified by multiplying flavors of AI will drive consulting revenue in 2026, but longer-term trends point to managed services as the moneymakers for the companies and firms TBR covers in the professional and IT services space.

But there’s a twist: The smartest IT services companies and consultancies will act on managed services as an entrée to consulting, a complete reversal of the traditional consulting to implementation to managed services model. Everyone should benefit from the increased demand for consulting in 2026. Still, most of the top IT services companies and consultancies will leverage their managed services relationships to capture new opportunities and further cement their stickiness with clients. 

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2026 Predictions: Managed Services

Without useful data, AI is useless. Over the last few years, enterprises have struggled with AI adoption due to messy or mismanaged data. Progress in making data useful brings transparency around what AI-enabled solutions provide tangible results. Early AI use cases that did not deliver clear ROI have been abandoned, and few enterprise AI decision makers now want to take additional risks or spend more money in the absence of provable, sustainable business value. 

Although uncertainty fueled by immigration issues, tariffs, fluctuating interest rates, and political instability dampened IT services and consulting growth in 2025, TBR expects an upturn in consulting revenues in 2026 even as those underlying uncertainty conditions worsen. Navigating stormy seas demands a proven crew and trusted advisers; anyone can sail a ship in calm waters. TBR has seen a steady increase in investments into supply chain consulting, including increasing capabilities around the underlying technologies, such as blockchain and analytics.