PartnerOptimizer Founder and CEO Dina Moskowitz joins GTIA’s Scott Campbell on GTIA On Location
Most conversations about MSP growth start with opinions. This one starts with evidence.
Following her keynote and Deep Dive sessions at MSP Summit 2026, PartnerOptimizer Founder and CEO Dina Moskowitz sat down with Scott Campbell of GTIA to unpack one of the largest MSP research efforts in the industry. Using NeuralPartner, PartnerOptimizer analyzed the 2026 MSP 501 winners alongside more than 46,000 service providers across the broader sector, and tracked how both groups changed between August 2025 and September 2026.
The conversation covers the habits and strategies that separate elite MSPs from everyone else, the growth challenges most MSPs share, and how positioning, AI adoption and operational maturity are shaping who wins next.
Why this research is different
Most MSP strategy runs on lagging indicators and small surveys. This research looks outward instead. It measures how tens of thousands of MSPs actually present themselves in the market today, then tracks how that picture moves over time. The result is a clear view of where the leaders are investing, and how far the rest of the sector has to go.
Highlights from the research behind the interview
1. Elite MSPs are pulling away on security and recovery. The 2026 MSP 501 most outpaces the sector in core protection practices. 86% of winners lead with email security, compared with 42% of the broader sector. Winners show endpoint device management at 4.3 times the sector rate.
2. AI readiness is accelerating at the top. 52% of 2026 MSP 501 winners have reached Frontier status on PartnerOptimizer’s AI readiness measure, up from 40% a year earlier. Across the broader sector, that number is 19%. The gap is widening, and the leaders are still moving.
3. The AI assistant race is wide open. Among the same group of MSP 501 winners, mentions of Claude grew from 4.9% to 29.6% in twelve months, a 6x increase. Gemini grew 4x. Copilot and ChatGPT still have the widest reach. For MSPs, the takeaway is practical: if you deliver these products to clients, name them.
4. Positioning wins. Most leaders focus. 77% of MSP 501 winners build their market story around one or two industries. Specialization gives buyers a clear reason to choose, and gives the MSP a defensible lane in a crowded local market.
5. Operational maturity shows up in the details. Leading MSPs make their security operations and compliance credentials visible: SOC capabilities, HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001 and CMMC. Emerging MSPs often have the capability but have not yet built the public proof. That gap costs them deals they are qualified to win.
6. The right benchmark changes the story. Compared with the full sector, almost any strong MSP looks good. Compared with true peers in the same industry and the same market, the picture gets sharper and far more useful. In our Deep Dive with ProdigyTeks CEO Paco Lebron, the cybersecurity gap between MSP 501 winners and the sector was 37.5 points. Among legal-focused MSPs, it shrank to 12.5. Context matters.
What this means for MSPs
Growth follows clarity. The MSPs setting the pace know which industries they serve, make their security and compliance strength visible, and show clients exactly which technologies they stand behind, AI included. The fastest way to close the gap is to see where you stand today against the companies you actually compete with.
What this means for vendors and distributors
Partner fit is now visible, partner by partner. Vendors can see which MSPs are aligned with their ecosystem, which ones already deliver adjacent products, and which are ready for what they are building next. That changes how partner programs recruit, prioritize and activate.
Watch the full interview
Dina’s conversation with Scott Campbell is part of GTIA’s On Location series from MSP Summit 2026. Watch the full interview on YouTube.
Get the research
The keynote deck and the Deep Dive deck from MSP Summit 2026 are available at no cost. MSPs can also request a complimentary MSP IQ Benchmark Report, which compares your technology practices, industry focus, vendor alignment, compliance frameworks and AI readiness against the 2026 MSP 501, the broader sector, MSPs in your industry and MSPs in your local market.
Request your complimentary copies
Thank you to GTIA and Scott Campbell for the conversation, MSP Summit, Robert DeMarzo, David Raffo, Stephanie Paro, Kelly Danziger and the entire MSP Summit team for their partnership and great work on the MSP 501 Awards, and to Paco Lebron and ProdigyTeks for opening their business to a room full of MSP peers.