2025 review: The main themes in the channel

Artificial intelligence

AI was a technology area that affected the channel both internally – being deployed across businesses and processes – as well as externally with customers. Beyond that, the usual topics of consolidation and security come up, but it was also a year of milestones for some channel players. 

AI internal

AI is a technology that is both used and sold by the channel. Starting with how it is being used, the year saw plenty of reports on AI use cases that had improved productivity, such as Advania, which gave its staff access to Copilot and saw its engineers use it to quickly navigate through product manuals.

Others were keen to use the technology in marketing and customer-facing areas, while distribution deployed more AI-fuelled automation to make it smoother for partners to gain support, while vendors made similar moves to make special bid processes quicker.

It became clear over the year that AI is not the panacea to every problem, however, but there is an expectation from customers that those promoting AI should have a track record of using it themselves.

AI external

At a customer level, the promises of AI focused on better productivity and improved efficiencies, often translating into cost savings. The ambition was to free staff of the mundane tasks so they could be more productive elsewhere, and that was accelerated with the deployment of agentic AI tools. More heavy lifting was carried by bots that would deal with customer queries before they got to a human.

The likes of Salesforce pushed a message of enabling users to become more powerful and customers to enjoy even better experiences. At the same time, there were raised fears of risk exposure, with customers expecting the channel to use the latest AI security tools to counter that threat.

If last year was meant to be one of project evaluation, and 20205 one of deployment, then that process has only just started and will continue into the next year and beyond as more use cases emerge.

Sustainability

Sustainability has taken a beating this year, with US president Donald Trump resetting the agenda, refuting the need for ESG and challenging climate change. As a result, many firms pushed their DEI and sustainability efforts into the background.

At the same time, the reality of the vast amounts of power AI uses and the negative consequences on carbon emissions made many hyperscalers rewrite the pledges they had made to hit net-zero goals in the next few years and decades.

Despite that, the issue of sustainability continued to matter across the UK channel and the growth in the number of hardware vendors offering remanufactured options was an example of the commitment to the planet remaining in place.

Partner programmes

One of the more contentious themes of the year was around partner programmes. Criticised for the lazy pack-and-plaque approach for so long, this was the moment that changed. Microsoft led the field – and garnered criticism – for its shift to reward value and support to the customer over the life cycle of a product, rather than just the traditional revenue and certifications metrics.

The vendor was not alone, with Cisco among those rolling out plans for a fresh approach. The changes caused concerns by challenging long-standing approaches that had previously guaranteed success. There is no doubt programmes had to evolve to meet changing demands of partners, but the debate was more around how that was done, and this debate will continue to dominate discussions in 2026.

Windows 11

One of the great hopes of 2025 was that the end-of-life support for Windows 10 in October would drive a hardware refresh as users upgraded. That happened, much to the relief of the hardware players and their channel partners, with figures from various analysts indicating that sales had risen because of Windows 11 migrations.

Interestingly, however, the hardware vendors haven’t just been pitching a new machine because of its OS, but also because of its AI features. Despite the rising number of options with savvy neural chips and AI tools installed, it appeared to have a limited impact on user spending. The challenge for the PC world is to ensure the shift to an AI-capable machine is more of a factor as Windows 11 inevitably fizzles out over the course of next year.

Ransomware

The channel, particularly managed service providers (MSPs), have long been warned that they are targets for cyber criminals. Headlines were grabbed by the attacks on M&S and the Co-op, but it was the ransomware incident that hit Ingram Micro earlier this summer that bought the threat home to the channel. Although the distributor responded quickly and got systems back online in a matter of days, the disruption was public and the impact one that sent a chilling reminder across the channel to make sure defences are high.

The government also added to the pressure by calling on MSPs to improve security under the requirements of the Cyber Security Bill. No one wants the sort of headlines Ingram generated, and hopefully that won’t be repeated in 2026.

Challenges

This was meant to be a better year after a tough 2024, but the resistance of customers to spend continued as geopolitical issues in Ukraine and the Middle East caused concerns. There were also economic headwinds, with the year closing out with inflation and employment still causing headaches for the government.

Nottingham-based IT firm Agilitas IT Solutions slipping into administration in October is a more recent example of the challenges faced from a channel perspective. A buzzword that cropped up in numerous financial results was ‘resilience’, as firms congratulated their staff on getting them through another quarter or full year. 

There are hopes that even if things don’t change significantly next year, the channel and their customers will least know how to navigate strained conditions and continue to get through.

Managed services

The managed services model continues to be the most popular one for the channel, with examples of firms going all-in on being an MSP. Redcentric is a recent example, choosing to focus on managed services after announcing the sale of its datacentre business.

There was evolution even with the managed services world, however, with the phrase ‘outcome as a service’ floated by a few as they looked to distinguish themselves from the competition.

What was clear at various points through 2025, underscored by research, was just how critical MSPs were in supporting SME customers. The first signs of agentic AI’s influence could be seen with customer-facing bots, and more MSPs will look to use automation to unlock greater efficiencies in the year ahead.

Consolidation

The first summary of consolidation in 2025 is that moves were made to bolster managed services offerings. A close secondary summary is that M&A was used to expand geographically, widening the presence in the UK or growing a foothold in Europe and the US.

From the very first week of the year until even now, the deals have kept coming. Even the previously non-acquisitive Softcat made its first deal, picking up Oakland Group Services, a specialist data and AI consultancy, in April, with its CEO ending the year hinting at more activity to come.

Anniversaries

The year saw significant anniversaries recorded by players in the market, with some of the most well-known names in the industry reaching major milestone.

SCC marked 50 years in business, hiring a fresh CEO to start the next phase of growth. Westcon-Comstor celebrated its 40^th birthday, and was keen to acknowledge the efforts made to get there while also keeping an eye on the future trends shaping the channel, such as cloud and security.

Various other channel players hit 20-, 25- and 30-year anniversaries as the industry continued to mature and reward those able to evolve and react to changing market conditions and customer demands.