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Allan Krans, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst
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Allan Krans, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst2026-02-20 11:00:092026-01-29 11:18:46Skills Shortage Will Challenge the Scaling of Sovereign AI in 2026You are here: Home1 / Competitive Insights – Analyst Perspectives – TBR2 / Competitive Insights and Analyses Blog
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Allan Krans, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst
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Allan Krans, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst2026-02-20 11:00:092026-01-29 11:18:46Skills Shortage Will Challenge the Scaling of Sovereign AI in 2026
PaaS Revenue Will Outpace SaaS Revenue for Cloud Software Vendors
Enterprise customers are prioritizing the modernization of their existing SaaS estates rather than adding new applications, driven by market saturation, accumulated technical debt, and a growing imperative to become AI-ready. As IT buyers shift their focus toward modern platforms, traditional SaaS leaders should expect their PaaS segments to continue significantly outperforming their core SaaS businesses in revenue growth.
Dee Angela, Canva ProAlliances Will Extend Beyond Core Offerings as AI-driven Sales and Marketing Reshape Ecosystems
IT services companies have their limits, and clients have preferred technology vendors, leading IT services companies to look to alliances to drive new growth. We have seen this pattern before, but in 2026 we will see IT services companies extend those alliances into devices, connectivity and even silicon, requiring a multiparty alliance approach that will strain commercial models, sales strategies and alliance leaders across the ecosystem.

Consulting Will Rebound in 2026
After a period of relative softness, consulting revenues are expected to rebound to high-single- or low-double-digit growth as pervasive uncertainty pushes enterprises to seek external guidance. Demand will be particularly strong around risk mitigation, strategic planning and AI adoption, positioning forward-deployed engineers, supply chain management and people advisory services as leading revenue drivers in 2026.

Bad Debt Expenses Will Rise for CSPs in 2026
In a K-shaped economy that increasingly separates financial winners from losers, the majority of households and businesses on the lower arm of the “K” are under mounting financial strain and are finding it more difficult to pay their bills. As these economic pressures persist, communications service providers (CSPs) should expect bad debt expenses to continue rising, with the potential to meet, or even exceed, levels experienced during the Great Recession.

How Will Advanced AI Impact Pricing, Labor Practices and Client Expectations?
Advanced AI may be front and center in IT services strategy, but execution challenges remain a familiar story. Despite ongoing hype around unlocking new efficiencies and nonlinear growth, IT services firms continue to grapple with the reality of needing labor arbitrage in the short term and meeting client expectations.
Gustavo Quiroga Gaitan, Canva ProAI Alliances Will Increasingly Target OT
New and expanding partnerships are increasingly targeting the convergence of IT and OT, as system integrators (SIs) align with OEMs, manufacturing ISVs and silicon providers. This momentum is driven by the strong growth potential in high-tech manufacturing, where solutions that improve accuracy, efficiency and safety can be deployed on-site without reliance on rack-scale compute systems in neoclouds or Tier 1 clouds. As a result, while AI has long operated at the edge, these partnerships will accelerate both the sophistication of AI-driven use cases and the pace of solution framework development.

Agentic AI Adoption Is Pressuring Security Architectures to Converge
The emerging pattern of multicloud security consolidation has direct implications for both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft, as enterprises reassess detection pipelines, governance models and operating frameworks heading into 2026. Although AWS remains well positioned in analytics-heavy workloads, the company needs to reevaluate its long-established “building block” approach, especially as peers deliver more integrated platforms. For Microsoft, its strengths will continue to be with organizations where Microsoft 365 already anchors their identity and collaboration strategies.
Saitharn, Getty Images via Canva ProThe U.S. doesn’t have a Spectrum Shortage — It has a Utilization Problem
The mobile industry continues to beat the drum for more spectrum, but it should instead focus on fully utilizing the spectrum already allocated. TBR notes there are vast tranches of spectrum in the U.S. market that are broadly underutilized, either for technical or economic reasons. And challenges will only worsen as the industry aims to bring upper midband frequencies into the fray, which have greater propagation challenges and are less suited for macro coverage.
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TBR Case Study: Price Benchmarking
/by TBRExplore this competitive pricing example from TBR’s Tailored Services team, which helped this global Top 3 hardware OEM capitalize on their investment in pricing research.
Saudi Arabia’s Message to Global Firms: Deliver Real Value or Step Aside
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystBottom line upfront: Understand that this is a Saudi story, not a PwC story, although undoubtedly it doesn’t feel that way in PwC’s corridors right now. Saudi Arabia has an opportunity to send some critical messages to players in the country, in the region and globally, and the kingdom is taking advantage.
SaaS Vendors Bet on AI Agents to Unlock New Revenue Streams
/by Alex Demeule, Senior AnalystFor SaaS vendors, the long-term opportunity lies in the ability to upsell GenAI solutions integrated directly into their existing workflows. While all major SaaS providers have made such solutions generally available, revenue from GenAI tools has not been enough to offset the slowing top-line growth many vendors are experiencing. Issues like cost, reliability, data governance and use-case validation remain obstacles to broader adoption, preventing the technology from becoming the growth driver vendors had hoped. Nevertheless, enterprise SaaS vendors continue to hold an optimistic long-term outlook, with many believing the technology will become a strategic necessary.
Who Is the Market Leader in IT Services?
/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior AnalystEight of the top 10 IT services revenue leaders in TBR’s IT Services Vendor Benchmark reported accelerated positive trailing 12-month (TTM) revenue growth year-to-year in U.S. dollars (USD) during 3Q25, indicating vendors are capturing pockets of growth opportunities despite lingering growth challenges caused by macroeconomic uncertainty, tight discretionary spending, and constrained spending in the U.S. federal sector.
The Middle East’s Economic Transformation: A Real Decoupling or Persistent Uncertainty?
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystThe long-sought-after growth of strong non-oil economies, the eventual weaning of these pivotal Middle East countries from subservience to the price of oil is happening now and happening quickly. And should a trade war break out between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) or the U.S. and China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — and the rest of the Middle East economies — will suffer. A production surge by the world’s largest oil producer — the U.S. — would further dampen oil prices, constraining Middle East governments’ budgets. Not everything is perfect, but certainly the big picture looks promising: Non-oil economies in oil-led countries have shown persistent, seemingly lasting growth.
New IT Services Vertical Revenue Data Shows TCS’ Public Sector Surge and Market Shifts
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystLearn about TBR’s new IT Services Vertical Revenue Data Excel file. This proprietary data stream, in conjunction with our qualitative analysis of these firms, including their partners and how they operate, offers unprecedented intelligence on which companies are growing or maintaining their revenue or experiencing declines within industry verticals and allows for partner adjustments and competitive maneuvering.
Fujitsu Expands Kozuchi AI Platform and Strengthens Partnerships to Drive Digital Transformation
/by Kelly Lesiczka, Senior AnalystFujitsu’s investments in Fujitsu Kozuchi have equipped the company well to appeal to clients’ needs around the technology, providing opportunities to supply analytics with associated text, vision and trust in support of business operations. While AI technology evolves rapidly to include new capabilities, Fujitsu’s approach to developing the platform and leveraging partners and internal capabilities gives it an advantage in offering a wider set of services.
New Solutions Drive New Revenue Streams for Atos’ Manufacturing Clients
/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior AnalystAtos has established expertise around delivering predictive maintenance solutions and is applying its skills across industries. The company is working with multiple clients in the theme park and attractions industry, utilizing data and AI as well as edge server technologies to reduce the downtime of rides and improve customer satisfaction.
Federal IT Spending Poised for Another Strong Year in Fiscal 2025
/by John Caucis, Senior AnalystThe new federal fiscal year began with a continuing resolution (CR) that extended government funding until Dec. 20, when a subsequent CR was enacted to fund federal operations until March 14, 2025. Further CR extensions in federal fiscal year 2025 (FFY2025) would cause budget delays that could impede the ability of federal IT contractors to convert backlog into revenue, but most vendors expect revenue growth to remain on a solidly upward growth trajectory in FFY25.
Robots Protecting Themselves From Robots: The Future of AI Security and Vendor Differentiation
/by Bozhidar Hristov, Principal AnalystDemand for analytics services has reached an inflection point, with new opportunities around the development and implementation of secure, industry-aligned agentic AI solutions refueling growth.