Fourth-Annual Direction of Technology Report highlights key trends shaping the IT landscape, including insights specific to geographic regions, partners and technology sectors
Singapore – 30 September 2025 – TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX), a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem, today released its Fourth Annual Direction of Technology (DoT) report which highlights how blending AI-driven transformation with resilient cybersecurity frameworks, deep specialization and automation-enabled talent drives growth despite persisting macroeconomic challenges.
Based on feedback from more than 1,400 IT solution providers and resellers across 40 countries, the report emphasizes how service-led business models are fuelling success in the age of AI. Nearly 75% of partners say AI is essential to their future, making it both a competitive necessity and a catalyst for new offerings that blend innovation with core capabilities. Combined with the growing demand for skilled talent, these shifts create an opportunity for partners to redesign workflows and operating models to drive efficiency and growth in an AI-enabled future.
“As the technology industry navigates extraordinary change, our partners are facing evolving challenges, and TD SYNNEX is here to help turn those into opportunities,” said Patrick Zammit, CEO of TD SYNNEX. “This year’s DoT report shows that leadership comes from building resilience in core technologies, while leaning into next-generation technologies, services and specialization. By structuring the report around regional perspectives and partner business models, we have created a sharper lens on how to deliver value across the global technology ecosystem.”
Six Global Trends Defining the IT Market in 2025
- AI is the foundation for market leadership – As AI adoption accelerates, partners must differentiate by offering more advanced, impactful use cases like AI-powered cybersecurity (58.4%) or AI-driven automation (54.3%), which were identified by partners as solutions likely to have significant impacts on their business.
- Cybersecurity is fundamental, but still a battleground – Security remains the price of entry to the IT ecosystem with 80% of partners offering at least one cybersecurity solution. It has also emerged as the leading growth driver for endpoint solutions over the past two years, and partners are doubling down, ranking advanced endpoint security as their second-highest priority for new offerings in the year ahead. However, challenges remain top-top-of-mind as partners identify emerging threats like AI-driven attacks (49.2%) and data breaches (41.9%) as top concerns.
- Specialization beats scale – – Industry expertise and consultation is the #1 factor that end customers look for in a partner, with exceptional customer service following closely in second. Partners are already adapting to this market expectation, with 90% planning to offer support and maintenance services, 88% planning to deliver custom IT integration and 82% planning to expand managed services in the next year.
- AIRedesigned operating models for the AI era – Nearly 70% of leaders are experiencing talent shortages, which they say directly affects AI (43%), data & analytics (41%) and cybersecurity (39%) implementations. This signals an industry-wide shift in how work gets done and serves as an opportunity for partners to redesign operating models and workflows to drive efficiency for an AI-enabled future.
- Growth amid macroeconomic challenges – Despite global headwinds, the growth outlooks remain positive in most regions with 66% of partners reporting revenue increases. Companies that combine strategic foresight with operational agility are best positioned to achieve growth.
- The new winners: service-led and future-ready – ISVs (120) and Professional Service firms (110) are pulling ahead as industry growth leaders, as demonstrated by the Net Growth Index. This is due to their efforts to build balanced portfolios, with more than half blending fast-growing capabilities like artificial intelligence and data & analytics with core offerings.
Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) Outlook
The APJ region reflects strong momentum in AI, cybersecurity, and services, alongside continued relevance of devices and hardware.
“The outlook in APJ remains positive, with significant opportunities in high-growth technologies,” said Jaideep Malhotra, President of TD SYNNEX, Asia Pacific & Japan. “AI, cybersecurity, and data and analytics are driving change across the ecosystem, and partners are investing to ensure these technologies are available to meet customer demand. Navigating this landscape involves many moving parts, and partners need a distributor who not only simplifies complexity and accelerates go-to-market but also orchestrates these elements seamlessly to deliver tailored solutions for today’s challenges. As a value-added distributor with an end-to-end portfolio, our solutions, platforms, and capabilities empower partners to scale with agility and capture growth.”
Key APJ Findings
- AI is critical for success – Partners see the greatest opportunities in AI, with 75.9% focusing on AI infrastructure and cloud and 70.9% on AI automation and data management. However, 54% cite talent shortage as the top barrier to adoption, underscoring the need for accelerated skills development.
- Cybersecurity is fundamental, but skills gaps persist – With 73.4% of partners offering or planning to offer at least one cybersecurity solution, priorities are clear: data and privacy (81%), network security (78%), and cloud/app security (77%). Yet, 48% identify skills shortages as their primary challenge, pointing to a pressing need for expertise.
- Shifting to services amid talent constraints – The region is pivoting to a service-centric model, with 83% offering consulting or professional services and 78% providing managed services. Still, challenges remain, with 49% citing workforce scalability and 41.7% talent recruitment and retention as barriers to growth.
- Endpoint and hardware remain essential – Despite the strong push into high-growth technologies, 68.5% of partners continue to offer devices and 57.6% provide hardware, above the global average, reflecting its ongoing relevance.
The full Direction of Technology Report is available here: https://ms.spr.ly/DOTN
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About TD SYNNEX
TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) is a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem. We’re an innovative partner helping more than 150,000 customers in 100+ countries to maximize the value of technology investments, demonstrate business outcomes and unlock growth opportunities. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, TD SYNNEX’s 23,000 co-workers are dedicated to uniting compelling IT products, services and solutions from 2,500+ best-in-class technology vendors. Our edge-to-cloud portfolio is anchored in some of the highest-growth technology segments including AI, cloud, cybersecurity, big data/analytics, IoT, mobility and everything as a service. TD SYNNEX is committed to serving customers and communities, and we believe we can have a positive impact on our people and our planet, intentionally acting as a respected corporate citizen. We aspire to be a diverse and inclusive employer of choice for talent across the IT ecosystem. For more information, visit www.TDSYNNEX.com , follow our newsroom or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
In Asia Pacific and Japan, TD SYNNEX goes to market as Tech Data in Asia Pacific and Tec D in Malaysia.
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