What META services buyers really want from their partners in 2026
IDC ·
IT services buyers across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META region) are making big decisions right now about their technology partners. Their business models are under pressure to transform, their technology budgets are flowing toward AI and automation, and IT services vendor partnerships are being evaluated through a new lens. That lens is AI […] The post What META services buyers really want from their partners in 2026 appeared first on IDC .
IT services buyers across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META region) are making big decisions right now about their technology partners. Their business models are under pressure to transform, their technology budgets are flowing toward AI and automation, and IT services vendor partnerships are being evaluated through a new lens. That lens is AI capability and it matters more than track record, security expertise, or cloud skills.
Here’s the problem: the IT services partners they’re evaluating are weakest on exactly this criterion.
New research across the META region shows a sharp disconnect. When services buyers rank what matters most in choosing a partner for 2026 and beyond, AI and agentic AI capabilities land at the top. Ahead of innovation track record. Ahead of security credentials. Ahead of cloud-native skills.
When those same buyers score their current partners on that same criterion, the numbers drop significantly. Satisfaction gaps open up precisely where buyers have their highest expectations.
This isn’t a positioning problem. It isn’t a pricing problem. It’s a capability gap, and it’s affecting vendor retention and deal size over the next 18 months.
73% of organisations across the META region believe their business needs to reinvent within five years just to survive. That reinvention is already happening. Application modernisation, multicloud strategy, and AI/ML deployment are topping investment roadmaps through 2027.
Budgets are flowing. 56% of organisations across the META region are planning to increase IT services spending in 2026 versus 2025. That figure rises to 79% when we look ahead to 2027. As that investment accelerates, vendor conversations are shifting. Buyers used to ask ‘should we adopt AI?’ Now they ask ‘which partner has the depth and track record to execute this?’
When services vendors sit down with buyers across the region, three questions keep coming up.
The first is straightforward: where does your AI capability actually stand? Buyers are committing real budgets to public cloud, on-premises infrastructure, and AI/ML systems. They need confidence that their partner has the maturity and the delivery history to handle work at scale. When capability gaps exist, they show up fast under budget pressure.
The second question is about delivery models. Most vendors remain primarily human-centric in how they deliver services, while a few are experimenting with fully automated alternatives that remove humans entirely from the value chain. Vendors who can articulate a more nuanced approach to this tension are winning conversations.
The third question cuts deeper: are you helping us think, or are you executing for us? Technology consulting firms have already claimed 37% of business strategy conversations across the region (IDC EMEA IT Services 2026). If your firm competes primarily on delivery execution, that advisory seat gets harder to claim as months pass.
The pattern across the region is clear. Vendors who invest in AI capability first are seeing stronger client retention and larger deal sizes. Vendors who can explain how they layer AI into delivery while keeping human expertise in control are more credible to risk-averse buyers making large bets. And vendors who’ve moved from execution conversations to strategy conversations with their clients are building stickier partnerships.
Making these shifts takes work. It means restructuring how engagements are staffed, how delivery is orchestrated, and how partnerships develop over time. But the vendors doing this now are securing better positioning with their largest META clients.
These questions – where’s your AI capability, how do you want to deliver, can you help us think – are the ones IT services buyers across the META region are asking right now. On October 6, IDC analysts Matt Wilkins and Eric Samuel are bringing these questions directly to IT services partners and technology leaders across the EMEA region. Join us for the live webinar and bring your questions.
The post What META services buyers really want from their partners in 2026 appeared first on IDC .