Crayon study: SMBs look to third-party providers to drive AI adoption

SMBs are leveraging third-party providers that offer strategic and technological expertise to maximize AI’s value in the cloud and kickstart their initiatives.

While cloud adoption remained a key priority for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in 2023, a study revealed that SMBs are now shifting strategies to focus on AI expansion. The Future of Operations: Advancing AI-Driven Innovation and Cloud Agility for SMBs study by Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Crayon for the Asia Pacific region revealed that bold shift in the APAC region.

With over 670 SMB decision-makers across ANZ, Southeast Asia, and India surveyed, the study revealed that SMBs are no longer in early experimentation mode with AI and cloud. Specifically, SMBs are aware of the importance and benefits of AI expansion, with 21% of decision-makers identifying cloud as the leading infrastructure for AI workloads.

In terms of adoption, 61% of decision-makers plan to implement or expand AI within their organization in the next 24 months. 60% of SMBs surveyed also plan to increase their organization’s AI investment by over 10% in the next two years.

Interestingly, the study also revealed that 30% of SMBs are interested in adopting third-party AI tools, while 26% are focused on AI platforms to drive both business and technology outcomes. This includes prioritizing tech-enabled experimentation (72%), unlocking full value of their data (70%) and raising budgets for third-party service expertise (87%).

With AI now clearly on the agenda, SMBs are looking to integrate AI-enabled and GenAI applications into business operations and applications as well as modernizing their infrastructure for AI implementation. 83% of SMBs are also experimenting with free AI tools and pilot programs.

Overcoming hurdles in AI adoption

Despite the intent on AI expansion, SMBs remain challenged with several hurdles that can hinder their AI adoption journey. Naturally, the biggest hurdle is the lack of talent needed to develop the technology.

However, a bigger challenge would be having the right infrastructure to support AI development and deployment. The study revealed that 42% struggle with data preparation for AI workloads, while 40% face ongoing performance issues with AI models and difficulties managing compute, network, and storage resources across AI workloads in the cloud.

45% of decision-makers also report high costs for data storage and transfers when AI data is not stored in the cloud, while 28% point to unpredictable costs tied to consumption-based pricing models when operationalizing AI in the cloud. While third-party solution providers can help with these, complications on third-party risks with black-box AI models and regulatory pressures for cloud localization remain a concern.

An opportunity for partners

“While cloud priorities persist, there has been a pivotal shift toward AI-driven third-party initiatives in 2025, especially in areas like user training, adoption, and readiness assessments. These initiatives are vital in the early stage of AI adoption among SMBs, as they support SMBs in laying the foundation for AI implementations,” the report stated.

With third-party service providers key to SMB’s AI adoption, the report also highlighted that SMBs must modify their cloud strategy to include AI. This enabled SMBs to not only update their cloud operating model but also be able to integrate the necessary AI capabilities.

SMBs should also look to build cloud-related AI capabilities and talent and choose the right partners to fill skill and technology gaps. This includes picking third-party partners with multifaceted expertise in AI infrastructure, strategy, operations, and technical skills can help accelerate AI adoption and scale effective

For Rhonda Robati, EVP APAC at Crayon, the intent showed by SMBs towards AI adoption with third party service providers is a positive sign despite the concerns. Robati believes that part of being a distributor that is truly on its partners’ side is investing in helping them stay ahead of changes in customer buying behavior.

“AI has definitely changed the IT landscape, and we want our partners to understand from fresh insight which solutions, services and capabilities are in hot demand,” said Robati.

Providing SMBs capabilities to help shape strategy, integrate AI, optimize infrastructure, and accelerate time to value, are among the initiatives partners can provide. Robati also pointed out that partners who can bridge business and technology priorities are better positioned for long-term relevance.

“This is a moment of alignment. Partners who listen, who lead with insight, and who help businesses grow, those are the ones that will win. And that’s what Crayon’s partnership model is here to support,” added Robati.