AI shakes up $90Bn MNS industry: Nile CEO
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — The managed network services (MNS) industry, a $90 billion market by 2028, faces an existential challenge as AI-driven networking platforms eliminate the complexity on which it thrives. Enterprises are now questioning the need for traditional MNS providers as self-configuring, self-healing networks powered by artificial intelligence redefine efficiency and cost structures.
AI networking erodes traditional MNS value proposition
In a Fast Company article, Pankaj Patel, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IT and network solutions company Nile, wrote that MNS staples such as configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, and security enforcement are becoming increasingly automated, thus requiring less human intervention.
The AI networks are very proactive, identifying and eliminating problems before they disturb performance, therefore rendering the traditional reactive approach to management obsolete.
Businesses are already questioning their contracts with MNS agencies, wondering why they need to pay them to perform tasks that can be done by AI, which can perform the same functions independently.
Market disruption forces MNS providers to evolve or decline
The issue is not whether the disruption will occur but how fast long-established competitors can reposition themselves.
Patel explains that MNS companies that think ahead are developing new functions, such as AI networks combined with the broader spectrum of IT environments or the management of hybrid environments across phases.
Adhering to the old models, they face the risk of losing customers to more dynamic ones, and even more so, to those companies that are likely to completely take network management proprietary with the help of AI solutions. The next five years will separate the innovators from the obsolete.
Future lies in strategic enablement, not maintenance
With repetitive tasks being taken over by an AI system, providers need to focus on strategic services such as data-driven application development, multi-vendor coordination, and support for digital transformation. Those who handle the shift of fixers to enablers will be the winners.
The transformation is reflective of the overall trends in IT and in which automation frees human workers to participate in partnership-based innovations.
Partners who adopt AI as an ally rather than a rival will open new sources of revenue. In the case of the MNS industry, it is a matter of survival of the fittest, where an organization either adapts to autonomy or perishes.
