Automated attacks are evolving faster than hiring cycles. Here is how MSSPs can close the gap without burning out their teams or blowing up their margins.
By WatchGuard Technologies | October 2026 | Est. reading time: 5 Minutes
At WatchGuard IMPACT PARTNER CONFERENCE North America 2026 in Nashville this October, one theme surfaced in nearly every conversation happening in the hallways, the general sessions, and the partner roundtables: MSPs are being asked to do more with the same number of people, against threats that are no longer waiting for a human operator to click send.
The term most practitioners reached for was agentic attacks. AI-driven threat actors that assess, adapt, and execute across environments continuously, without a human in the loop. And they are arriving at exactly the wrong moment for MSSPs that are still running security operations models built around analyst headcount and manual workflows.
The math does not work. You cannot out-hire an automated threat. But you can out-operate it, if you build your practice around the right capabilities. The conversations at IMPACT pointed to five concrete places to start.
Missed Nashville? The IMPACT keynotes are available to watch online. Catch the full sessions and partner announcements at the IMPACT PARTNER CONFERENCE 2026 recap page.
1. Stop Treating AI as a Copilot and Start Treating It as a Shift
Most MSSP operators have been sold on AI as something that makes analysts faster. A better alert summary. A suggested next step. Useful, but it preserves the fundamental bottleneck: a human being still has to be present for every decision.
The more durable shift is treating AI as an operational layer that can run assessments, investigate incidents, prioritize response, and escalate intelligently, without waiting for an analyst to initiate the workflow. Think of it as a second shift that runs continuously across every customer environment, not a productivity tool for the shift that is already on the clock.
"We need to stop measuring capacity in analyst seats and start measuring it in environments covered and outcomes delivered." — IMPACT PARTNER CONFERENCE 2026 partner session
2. Automate Client Reporting Before It Consumes Another QBR
Ask any senior analyst what drains their week and customer reporting will be somewhere near the top of the list. QBR preparation, incident summaries, posture reviews, compliance documentation. These tasks are important, but they are also highly repeatable, which makes them strong candidates for automation.
MSSPs that are still building these deliverables by hand are leaving two problems unresolved: they are burning skilled staff on low-value work, and they are creating inconsistency across client deliverables that erodes the perception of quality over time. A client who receives a sharp, data-backed security summary every month retains at higher rates and generates more expansion revenue. A client who gets a patchwork report because the analyst was stretched thin is a churn risk.
One theme that came up repeatedly at IMPACT was the idea of AI-driven customer success, where automated reporting and proactive risk communications go out without an analyst having to build each one from scratch. Clients should be hearing from you on security posture every month, not just at the annual renewal conversation. Automating that cadence is how you make it financially viable.
3. Turn Your Network Visibility Gap Into a Revenue Line
The firewall has been declared dead so many times that many MSSPs have quietly stopped investing in network security depth. That is a mistake, and it is one that attackers have been exploiting through lateral movement, rogue devices, and application-layer risks that endpoint and identity tools simply do not catch.
A recurring conversation at IMPACT centered on a more productive framing: the network layer has not declined, it has evolved. It is no longer just a perimeter control, it is an intelligence source. Clients want to know what is on their network, what applications are running, where vulnerabilities exist, and what the risk profile looks like in real time. MSSPs who can deliver that visibility are selling something meaningfully different from a managed firewall renewal.
Think about how you are currently packaging network security for SMB clients. Is it a box and a monitoring dashboard, or is it a continuous visibility service that surfaces device risk, application exposure, and active vulnerabilities? The latter commands a higher price and creates a stickier engagement. The former is a commodity.
4. Make Secure Access a Proactive Service, Not a Support Ticket
Here is a number worth sitting with: only 22% of employees use MFA everywhere it is available. That gap is not a user education problem. It is a usability problem, and MSSPs who keep trying to solve it with awareness training are fighting an uphill battle.
When authentication is frustrating, employees route around it. They reuse passwords, ignore MFA prompts, and share credentials to avoid friction. The result is an identity attack surface that keeps growing regardless of how many security awareness emails go out.
At IMPACT, the discussion around secure access kept returning to the same point: when strong authentication is also the easiest path, adoption follows without a change management campaign. For MSSPs, that translates to fewer password reset tickets, fewer credential-related incidents, and a more defensible access posture to present in client reviews. Secure access should be on every MSSP service menu as a proactive managed offering, not something that surfaces as a remediation line item after a breach.
The MFA adoption gap is a business development conversation waiting to happen with almost every SMB client you serve.
5. Price for Operational Density, Not Just Seat Count
The traditional MSSP pricing model, per-device or per-user licensing tied to a fixed service tier, was built for a world where your cost structure was also fixed. A certain number of analysts handling a certain number of environments. Linear, predictable, and increasingly misaligned with how modern security operations actually work.
Several partner sessions at IMPACT touched on this directly. As AI-driven capabilities take on more of the investigation, assessment, and reporting work, the cost structure of a well-run MSSP practice starts to decouple from headcount. More environments, covered more thoroughly, by fewer analysts with better tooling. That is a margin story, but only if pricing reflects the value delivered rather than the inputs consumed.
MSSPs that pilot consumption-based or outcome-based pricing structures for AI-intensive services will capture more margin as they scale. Those that keep pricing on seat count alone will find competitors eroding the model from below. The right client segments to test this with are the ones already asking you to demonstrate security outcomes, not just report on activity.
The Window Is Shorter Than It Looks
Agentic attacks are not a future threat. They are a current one, and they are scaling faster than most MSSP practices are currently positioned to match. The conversations at IMPACT made clear that the industry is at an inflection point, not approaching one.
The practices that will win in this environment are not necessarily the largest ones. They are the ones that build operational density, automate intelligently, and package security as an ongoing business outcome rather than a monthly invoice. The technology to do that is available now. The question is whether your practice is organized to take advantage of it.
Watch the IMPACT PARTNER CONFERENCE 2026 keynotes on demand and explore the full partner announcements at WatchGuard.com.
Expanding the Platform: WatchGuard Switches - Coming Spring 2027
Coming Spring 2027, WatchGuard is expanding its Unified Security Platform by introducing WatchGuard switches to their portfolio. This offering will give partners new opportunities to grow their footprint within existing accounts, deliver a broader solution from a trusted vendor, and simplify network management for their customers. By extending the platform beyond security and wireless, WatchGuard is helping partners reduce complexity, strengthen customer relationships, and capture more value across the network. More details on the switch portfolio, availability, and partner enablement through WatchGuardONE will be shared in the months leading up to launch.
About WatchGuard Technologies
WatchGuard Technologies is a global leader in unified cybersecurity for managed service providers. The WatchGuard Unified Security Platform delivers AI-driven security operations, network protection, and secure access through a single integrated platform purpose-built for MSPs and MSSPs. Learn more at watchguard.com.
