At the Pax8 Beyond EMEA partner conference, Pax8 unveiled The Managed Intelligence Provider Playbook, a groundbreaking report designed to guide managed service providers (MSPs) in evolving into managed intelligence providers (MIPs), the driving force behind agentic, AI-powered transformation for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).
As SMBs enter the agentic economy where autonomous AI agents augment human capabilities and drive operational efficiency, Pax8 is equipping partners with the tools and frameworks to lead this shift. In addition to outlining how MIPs will monetize the next wave of SMB growth leveraging AI, the MIP Playbook describes how transformation can be delivered through five key Plays: Discover, Buy, Build, Sell and Manage. These Plays enable MSPs to monetize AI through outcome-driven services, vertical specialization and scalable agentic workflows.
“We are setting the stage for partner success in the biggest tech revolution of our time. This Playbook isn’t just about deploying AI tools,” said Scott Chasin, Pax8’s Chief Executive Officer. “It’s about empowering partners to become leaders in managed intelligence by delivering massive improvements and measurable business outcomes, not just technology, to their SMB customers.”
The MIP Playbook is a practical roadmap and a companion guide to Pax8’s The Agentic Inflection Point research paper, released in June 2025 at the Pax8 Beyond Flagship conference in Denver, Colorado. That study defined the future of SMB operations, transformed by agentic labor and the democratization of enterprise-level technology access. It introduced Managed Intelligence, a new framework that enables all stakeholders in the technology ecosystem to thrive in the agentic era.
Key Highlights from the Playbook
A key role of an MSP is to guide customers through transformation at every stage, which Pax8 recommends achieving by delivering on the following Plays:
- Discover: Evolve from trusted advisor to strategic partner by uncovering inefficiencies and assessing risk or process debt, in order to apply intelligence to solve pressing challenges and deliver measurable outcomes.
- Buy: Curate and deploy pre-vetted agents, workflows and AI-enhanced SaaS from trusted marketplaces like the Pax8 Agent Store, enabling rapid time-to-value and scalable digital labor.
- Build: Develop proprietary agent stacks and workflow automation pipelines that differentiate MIPs in vertical markets such as healthcare, finance and manufacturing, because every organization and vertical will require proprietary tools and technology for success.
- Sell: Shift from feature-based pricing to outcome-based models, tying revenue directly to client key performance indicators, like cost savings, resolution speed and customer satisfaction.
- Manage: Deliver ongoing optimization, compliance and lifecycle management to ensure agents remain secure, resilient and aligned with evolving business needs.
With global AI services spending projected to reach $644 billion in 2025 according to Gartner, and SMBs reporting up to 40% reductions in operational costs through agentic workflows, the opportunity for MIPs is both urgent and expansive. The Playbook positions MSPs to capture this momentum by offering strategic consulting, vertical expertise and outcome-centric solutions that go beyond traditional IT services.
To lead in this transformation, Pax8 is building the foundation for the agentic economy, including the Pax8 Agent Store, a Model Context Protocol integration framework, an agentic orchestration platform and much more. By driving innovation through partners and vendors into the SMB market, Pax8 aims to create an AI-driven ecosystem that will shape the next trillion-dollar economy.
To access the MIP Playbook and learn more about the Pax8 Agent Store, visit the website here.
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