TBR’s Business Insights

New Growth in Consulting Is Emerging from an Unexpected Place: Managed Services

03.18.26

A scaled managed services practice trained in spotting consulting opportunities and armed with AI-enabled solutions will unquestionably win some management consulting market share. More significantly, from TBR’s objective view, is whether the Big Four firms can manage their staffing, brand promise and technology alliances to take advantage of the managed services practices they’ve already built and use those opportunities to return to robust management consulting growth. Maybe, but probably not all four. The next two years will be telling, and TBR expects the existing differences between the Big Four will become even more pronounced.

Skills Shortage Will Challenge the Scaling of Sovereign AI in 2026

02.20.26

AI-related skills will remain scarce across both buyers and ecosystem partners as the rapid pace of innovation and the technical complexity required to enable sovereign AI continue to hinder adoption. These challenges, combined with a lack of clearly defined and compliant use cases among sovereign customers, gaps in sovereign cloud infrastructure availability and steep AI learning curve faced by ecosystem partners, will constrain meaningful investment and implementation of sovereign AI throughout 2026.

PaaS Revenue Will Outpace SaaS Revenue for Cloud Software Vendors

02.17.26

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.

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Alliances Will Extend Beyond Core Offerings as AI-driven Sales and Marketing Reshape Ecosystems

02.12.26

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

02.10.26

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

02.06.26

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?

02.05.26

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.

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AI Alliances Will Increasingly Target OT

02.03.26

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

01.29.26

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.

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How AI Is Revolutionizing Cost Efficiency and Customer Experience in Telecom

08.05.24/by Chris Antlitz, Principal Analyst

TBR’s latest telecom research indicates customer care, which includes contact centers, will be profoundly transformed by AI. Though traditional AI has been utilized in customer care for many years (e.g., chatbots and interactive voice response), GenAI will take customer care to an advanced state. TBR estimates that GenAI could reduce the costs of running contact centers by up to 80%, and this is an area telecom operators are keenly interested in as they remain focused on cutting expenses across their businesses.

Competitive Benchmarking: A Strategic Guide

06.28.24/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior Analyst

Discover the power of competitive benchmarking in the IT services market. Learn how it can help IT services vendors outperform their peers and drive business growth strategies.

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Is India the Right Growth Market for Global Consultancies?

06.21.24/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

TBR looks at the question: If India is on track to become the third largest economy, will it also be the third largest revenue source for the Big Four, Accenture, IBM and Capgemini, or only for the firms that act first and implement the optimal strategies?

GenAI in Telecom: Transforming Operations from Front to Back Office

06.14.24/by Chris Antlitz, Principal Analyst

Explore the wide range of use cases for generative AI (GenAI) in the telecom industry and discover how CSPs can benefit from this emerging technology.

U.S. Telecom Market Outlook: Public Sector Revenue Growth for 2024 [Infographic]

05.14.24/by Steve Vachon, Senior Analyst

TBR estimates public sector revenue from U.S.-based service providers grew 6.1% year-to-year in 4Q23 to $5.4 billion. Total public sector revenue growth was driven by wireless revenue, which increased 9% year-to-year to an estimated $2.8 billion. First responder initiatives such as AT&T FirstNet and Verizon Frontline are the main drivers of public sector wireless revenue growth as these units are attracting public safety agencies seeking enhanced reliability to support mission-critical workloads and use cases.

IT Services Market in 2024: Key Success Factors for Vendors

04.22.24/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior Analyst

While macroeconomic uncertainty challenges year-to-year revenue growth in the IT services sector, the trajectory beyond 2024 appears promising, largely due to the resilience of managed services bookings. Despite macroeconomic uncertainty the revenue growth trajectory beyond 2024 is promising, driven by the resilience of managed services bookings.

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2024: A Transitional Year for GenAI and PC Markets

04.16.24/by TBR

Explore how 2024 marks a pivotal year for GenAI and the PC market. Discover the latest AI applications, market trends, and the evolving role of AI PCs in driving industry conversations and addressing privacy concerns.

The Critical Role of Competitive Intelligence in Strategy Planning

04.11.24/by Kelly Lesiczka, Senior Analyst

Learn how competitive intelligence is essential for strategy planning. Discover the benefits, best practices and key considerations for integrating market knowledge and competitor analysis into your strategic framework.

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3 Ways AI Is Transforming the Cloud Industry in 2024

04.10.24/by Allan Krans, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst

Hyperscalers and SaaS providers are clearly on the front lines of GenAI monetization, but the availability of GenAI services through cloud delivery methods will also accelerate the development of the market.