SMB maturity in AI and cloud sees need for external service providers

Small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are ramping up efforts in AI and cloud solutions, moving out of early experimentation mode with these technologies and leaning on third-party providers.

This is according to The Future Of Operations: Advancing AI-Driven Innovation and Cloud Agility For Small And Medium-Sized Businesses report from Forrester, commissioned by Crayon.

The report surveyed 637 senior leaders with responsibility or influence over cloud solutions and strategies in Australia, New Zealand, India and Southeast Asia.

About 31 per cent of respondents noted their plans to combine in-house teams with third-party providers to advance AI capabilities in the next year, with 72 per cent indicating they are prioritising tech-enabled experimentation.

The top three strategic cloud priorities all revolve around AI, with 30 per cent said they are prioritising the integration of third-party tools on cloud. Meanwhile, the next two priorities (both 26 per cent), focus on adopting AI and machine learning platforms and adopting cloud-based AI-specific tools like AutoML, explainable AI and collaboration tools.

Forrester reported there was also interest in AI among those who don’t even plan to implement the technology in the next two years, as 83 per cent said organisations are experimenting with free AI tools and pilot programs.

The key challenges facing SMBs in their AI implementations include the lack of a clear AI strategy, poor stakeholder management and skills gaps, said the report.

As for cloud, nearly half of those surveyed, at 47 per cent, said they planned to manage their organisation’s workloads on hybrid cloud over the next two years.

Additionally, an average 66 per cent of respondents place a high to critical priority on PKIs that align and link technology investments and initiatives to strategic business objectives and metrics.

Biggest spending SMBs to pay for more

Overall, third party service providers are considered a “key pillar” for SMBs, with 87 per cent of respondents raising their budgets for third-party service expertise.

Within the report, Forrester broke down SMBs that plan to increase spending over the next 24 months on third-party services into three groups: those that plan to increase their spending from 1 per cent to 10 per cent, then those that are looking to spend more with an increase of 11 per cent to 20 per cent, followed by the businesses that are really planning to ramp up their spending with an increase of over 20 per cent.

The survey found 14 per cent of SMBs fall into the third category – up from 2023’s 4 per cent and 2021’s 8 per cent.

However, the proportion of business leaders from the first two categories were down on 2023’s figures, which sat at 25 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.

Despite this, 2025’s first two groups are larger than those surveyed in 2021, which had 22 per cent in the first group and 26 per cent in the second.

“To overcome these obstacles, SMBs turn to third-party service providers for support in crucial areas like stakeholder management, strategy alignment, technology innovation, compliance and time-to-market acceleration for AI solutions — all of which address the challenges SMBs face on their AI and cloud transformation journeys,” the report noted.

Crayon said there is a “broader evolution in the partner–customer relationship” taking place, with SMBs wanting help in shaping strategy, integrating AI, optimising infrastructure and accelerating time to value.

“Partners who can bridge business and technology priorities are better positioned for long-term relevance,” the company said.

The distributor’s Asia Pacific executive vice president, Rhonda Robati, added that the current business landscape was experiencing a moment of alignment.

“Partners who listen, who lead with insight and who help businesses grow; those are the ones that will win,” she said.

Crayon has previously expressed its commitment to its partners amid disruption from AI and data innovations.

While SMBs in the region are set to ramp up their third-party spending, the Australian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) tech sector is grappling with an increasingly tough economic climate.