Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights

MSP AI Risk Management as Shadow AI Adoption Reshapes Trust and Automation

Jan 6, 2026

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Artificial intelligence adoption is accelerating without formal ownership as employees, customers, and patients integrate AI tools into daily decisions. Surveys from Gallup show 45% of U.S. employees use AI at work at least occasionally, while research cited by OpenAI indicates roughly 60% of American adults recently used AI for health-related questions. Zoho and Arion Research report that 41% of organizations have strengthened privacy measures after adopting AI, reflecting growing concern about data exposure and accountability. For MSPs, the shift places liability closer to the systems being used rather than the vendors supplying them.

Trust in digital media is also eroding as AI-generated content becomes harder to distinguish from authentic material. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri states that assuming photos or videos reflect real events is no longer reliable and suggests verification at the point of capture rather than labeling generated content. This approach reframes trust as a technical system rather than a social assumption. For IT providers, the issue extends beyond social platforms to security footage, compliance evidence, training data, and any asset where authenticity must be demonstrated.

At the same time, automation and AI training are converging on the same constraint: expert judgment. HireArt’s 2025 AI Trainer Compensation Report shows subject-matter experts earning $60 to more than $180 per hour, compared with under $20 for generalist data labelers, reflecting the cost of errors in regulated or technical fields. Kaseya’s 2025 EMEA MSP Benchmark Report finds that while nearly 75% of MSPs expect revenue growth, 45% face staffing and skills shortages, increasing reliance on automation built on accurate data and curated exceptions.

Major vendors are embedding judgment directly into platforms. ServiceNow’s planned $7.75 billion acquisition of Armis expands asset classification and risk scoring within workflows. Freshworks’ acquisition of FireHydrant integrates AI-driven incident management into ITSM. Google Cloud’s revamped Partner Network shifts incentives toward outcome-based tiers beginning in 2026. For MSPs and IT service leaders, these moves concentrate responsibility around interpretation, governance, and accountability, even as tools increasingly define risk and success.

Four things to know today

00:00 Surveys Show AI Adoption Is Happening Without Ownership as Employees, Customers, and Patients Lead Usage

04:50 Instagram’s CEO Says Trust Is No Longer Assumed as AI Forces Proof-of-Reality Models

07:22 AI and MSP Automation Are Converging on the Same Bottleneck: Expert Judgment

09:52 Vendors Shift From Tools to Judgement as ServiceNow, Freshworks, and Google Cloud Embed Risk, Incidents, and Outcomes

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