Pax8 used its Beyond 2026 conference to unveil a series of agentic AI offerings. During the conference in Salt Lake City, the company laid out several strategies to help MSPs build recurring revenue around AI services. The company also can assist MSPs in guiding their customers through AI adoption.
Highlights among Pax8’s announcements were:
- The new Managed Intelligence Provider (MIP) Program
- Managed Intelligence Services
- The Agent Store
Using these as a framework, MSPs can help small businesses turn AI investments into measurable business outcomes. Pax8 CEO Scott Chasin expanded on these opportunities in his Visionary Keynote on June 8. He called MSPs “the last mile of the global economy.”
“You serve the world’s small businesses. You are the muscle, the marrow, the momentum of productivity because none of it reaches the 400 million small businesses that need it the most without you.”
At the center of Pax8’s strategy is its vision of MSPs evolving into managed intelligence providers. Rather than focusing primarily on infrastructure and support, partners must help customers identify AI use cases, deploy AI-powered workflows, establish governance policies and measure business outcomes.
Making the case for operationalizing AI
The announcements coincided with the release of a new Pax8 report suggesting that AI is fundamentally changing how small businesses grow. According to The Agentic Workforce Economy report:
- AI services in the managed services sector are growing at 59% annually. That compared 13% for traditional managed services.
- 84% of SMBs said they would trust an outside technology advisor to guide their AI implementation. Plus, 70% agreed that outside partnerships are necessary to fully benefit from AI, the Pax8 Pulse SMB Technology Report revealed.
“This is a ground-level look at what’s happening inside the SMB economy right now, built on external research, best-in-class industry insights, aggregated market data and our own proprietary data from across the Pax8 ecosystem,” said Nick Heddy, Pax8 president and chief commerce officer, during his Community Keynote.
New offerings for MSPs
On June 8, Pax8 unveiled several programs and services aimed at helping partners transition to building and scaling AI practices.
Managed Intelligence Provider Program
The Managed Intelligence Provider Program helps MSPs develop repeatable AI services businesses. Following an AI maturity assessment, partners receive role-based training and guidance on identifying opportunities, deploying AI solutions and delivering measurable business outcomes. Pax8 said the program provides a structured framework for turning AI engagements into recurring revenue.
Heddy argued that AI is pushing MSPs beyond traditional technical support and infrastructure management roles toward more strategic advisory positions.
Nick Heddy
“The most valuable move you can make for your clients right now is to help them make decisions faster,” Heddy said. “The role is changing. You’re becoming the intelligence layer that guides, not just the team that executes.”
Managed Intelligence Services
Pax8 also launched Managed Intelligence Services, a portfolio of outcome-based offerings delivered through Pax8 Professional Services. Partners can sell the services directly or use them as a white-label extension of their teams while maintaining ownership of customer relationships.
Initial offerings include:
- Copilot Readiness Assessment
- Transformation Discovery Assessment Agent
- Workflow Automation and Agent Builds
- Microsoft 365 Data Protection
The services are intended to help partners pursue AI opportunities immediately without first building all of the required expertise in-house.
“The level of insight [Managed Intelligence Services] delivers is what we’d normally only achieve after several hours of in-person workshops,” Chris Pottrell, managing director at Pax8 partner Nebula IT, said in a prepared statement. “By automating that discovery and capturing more honest, individual input, it gives us a clearer, more objective starting point. That not only shortens the sales cycle, but also helps us move faster into real transformation conversations, supporting our customers on their journey to becoming a frontier firm.”
Agent Store
Pax8 launched general availability for its Agent Store. It is positioned as an entry point for partners looking to deploy AI solutions for SMB customers. Available offerings include Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, ConnectWise Sidekick, and Rewst RoboRewsty, all through the Pax8 platform.
The goal is to simplify AI adoption by providing partners with vetted solutions, streamlined procurement and consolidated billing.
“One of the clearest signals we’ve heard from partners was AI is not the problem; the access point is the problem,” Heddy revealed. “You know what you want to do. You can picture the workflow [and] see the outcomes. But assembling the right agents integrating the right tools and managing the deployment seamlessly, that’s where it usually breaks down.
“So we built a front door. That’s the Pax8 Agent Store.”
Agent Gateway and orchestration roadmap
Pax8 also previewed future offerings designed to help partners govern and scale AI deployments.
The company’s Agent Gateway, currently in preview, is intended to give MSPs centralized visibility and control over AI agents running across customer environments. Pax8 said the platform will provide governance capabilities, spending controls, and access to multiple AI models through a single management layer.
The company is also developing an orchestration and commercialization platform that would allow partners to build an AI agent once and deploy it across multiple customers while tracking usage and revenue. The platform is expected to enter closed beta later this year.
Why Pax8 sees an opportunity
The announcements are backed by the company’s latest research on AI adoption among SMBs. While AI adoption continues to accelerate, Pax8 argues that many organizations remain stuck between experimentation and execution.
The report cites data showing that businesses realize significantly greater returns as AI becomes more deeply integrated into operations. Yet many SMBs have not moved beyond basic adoption.
Pax8 sees an opportunity for MSPs to help their customers close that gap while creating new revenue streams around AI strategy, deployment, governance and optimization.
Security concerns grow alongside AI adoption
The report also highlights a growing security challenge. As businesses deploy more AI agents and automated workflows, they expand their attack surface at the same time they increase productivity.
Scott Chasin
Pax8 cites research showing that AI-powered cyberattacks increased sharply in 2025, while many SMBs still lack formal policies governing AI use. The company said nearly half of SMBs have not established AI-specific security policies despite widespread concerns about increased risk.
For MSPs, the company sees immediate opportunities in AI governance assessments, vertical-specific AI deployments and AI projects focused on back-office operations where data and workflows are already established.
“Machine speed attacks will require machine speed remediation,” Chasin said during his keynote. “Building toward that defense agent by agent, client by client is exactly what you’re built for.
“You are not here to resell AI. You’re here to manage intelligence — to secure it, govern it, make it useful and to make it human.”
The Agent Store, Managed Intelligence Provider Program and Managed Intelligence Services are available now for Beyond attendees. Broader availability is scheduled for July.
Anjali Fluker is senior channel editor for The ChannelPro Network, where she covers news, trends, and best practices for the MSP community. She specializes in telling the stories that matter to IT providers serving the SMB market. When she’s not reporting on the latest in managed services, she’s connecting with channel pros at industry events across the country.
Images: Anjali Fluker/ChannelPro, Pax8
