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AI and Agentic-Enabled Managed Services: Pricing and Penalties

David Tapper — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses different pricing models that organizations prefer when procuring managed services using AI and agentic AI. The document also analyzes an array of market and industry factors influencing the optimal portfolio of pricing models that managed services providers (SPs) should target against the backdrop of types of operating models for AI. Factors assessed involve structuring defensible contracts, driving scalability of comparable outcomes, orchestrating external systems, adapting to changing inputs, adjusting to exogenous triggers, controlling cost structure and operating leverage, and managing financial downside.

"Effective use of outcome-based pricing for managed services using AI and agentic AI requires managed SPs to address a wide array of exogenous and endogenous factors shaping the risks associated with each type of pricing model, particularly outcome-based pricing," says David Tapper, program VP, Outsourcing and Managed Cloud Services at IDC. "Critical investments that managed SPs need to pursue involve building a robust governance structure, aligning use of pricing models across operating models, using portfolio risk management for pricing models, implementing repricing structure as a means of adapting to change, investing in an autonomous operations platform to assess pricing impacts, developing a road map to scale outcomes, structuring pricing arrangements with partner ecosystem, and architecting AI-enabled managed services based on risk to overall business."

Case Study: How a Cement Production Company Deployed Robotics to Reduce Maintenance Costs

Ramon T. Llamas — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective presents a case study for robot deployment on a factory floor. Swiss company Vigier looked to ANYbotics for a robot that could autonomously inspect and independently navigate its way around the factory and collect critical maintenance information from its machines. The data would then inform the team which areas to prioritize and monitor. This provided the team with consistent and reliable data while allowing maintenance personnel to focus on other projects instead of walking the factory floor. Vigier estimated that it has saved hundreds of thousands of euros by deploying ANYbotics' robot and plans to expand to other parts of its factory.

"This case study presents the immediate impact that robotics can have on the frontlines of a business, particularly when it comes to asset inspection," says Ramon T. Llamas, research director, IDC's Robotics Program. He adds, "By carefully outlining the business case, costs associated with it, and data needed to make informed decisions, a robot could routinely and safely collect all the necessary information for a company to examine and trend. From there, its software platform can analyze what the data is saying and schedule maintenance. This case study is what Vigier wanted and how ANYbotics was able to deliver. It concludes with advice for the technology buyers interested in deploying robots for autonomous inspections."

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Container Data and Infrastructure Management Software 2026 Vendor Assessment

Johnny Yu — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC study is an evaluation of prominent container data and infrastructure management software vendors on a worldwide basis. While it offers details on each vendor's capabilities and offerings, it is not meant to be a buyer's guide. Instead, this evaluation is intended to help IT leaders differentiate between vendor solutions and narrow down candidates that align with their stage of Kubernetes adoption, level of Kubernetes expertise, agentic AI workload deployment, and long-term goals of their application infrastructure.

"Many organizations are accelerating their agentic AI deployment, which is also driving them toward container and Kubernetes infrastructure," said Johnny Yu, research manager, Infrastructure Software Platforms at IDC. "The result is greater demand for container data and infrastructure management software to not only protect Kubernetes application data but also bring in elements of AI data governance and control."

IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: AI-Fueled Financial Services Organization Worldwide, 2026

Dr. Chris Marshall, Jerry Silva, Nigel Wallis, Claudia Medina — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC MaturityScape Benchmark presents results from IDC's May 2026 worldwide MaturityScape Benchmark AI Survey, drawing on a financial services subsample of 178 institutions out of 1,900 organizations surveyed.

"Financial services institutions have long led on AI in fraud and risk management, and that head start shows up clearly in governance, the most mature of the four dimensions we measured this year," said Jerry Silva, program vice president, IDC Financial Insights. "But leadership in governance is not the same as leadership everywhere; technology remains the industry's weakest link, and as agentic AI moves from pilots into production, institutions that have not modernized their data and platform foundations will find that governance maturity alone cannot carry the transformation."

SAP TechEd 2026: Managed Platform as a Service and Metered Context for Agentic Developers

Adam Reeves — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

At SAP TechEd on October 27, 2026, SAP expanded SAP Business AI Platform, its platform as a service (PaaS) for building, contextualizing, and governing agentic solutions, with updates to Joule Work, Joule Studio, SAP Knowledge Graph, agent governance, and detailed action-based pricing for agentic consumption. Taken together, the announcements show SAP presenting a managed, Joule-fronted platform that absorbs the integration work of a large portfolio while metering access to its business context.

Agentic Commerce Approaches a Tipping Point: Brands Race to Prepare

Gerry Murray — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective discusses how agentic commerce is moving faster than most marketing organizations can adapt. IDC projects that agentic shopping will grow from 3% of U.S. retail digital commerce transaction value in 2026 to 50% by 2033, while the platform capabilities that enable it are already shipping. CMOs should treat brand preference, machine-readable product evidence, governed real-time offers, and contractual control over customer data as one integrated discipline. Brands that benchmark their agent inclusion, verify transaction paths, and secure data rights now will be reliably selectable when agents make decisions.

"An agent can only recommend what it can verify and only buy what a brand can honor at decision time. The winners will pair human preference with machine-readable proof, then back both with offers, inventory, and authorizations that execute inside the agent's decision window" — Gerry Murray, research director, Enterprise Marketing Applications and Agents, IDC

FabCon and SQLCon Europe 2026: Microsoft Makes Context Open, Reusable, and Interoperable

Megha Kumar — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective examines the key announcements from Microsoft's FabCon and SQLCon Europe 2026, held in Barcelona from September 28 to October 1, 2026. Microsoft positioned governed semantic models, ontologies, and live signals as the control point for AI, applications, and planning, supported by Fabric IQ in Microsoft Copilot, Fabric Apps, Planning, Real-Time Intelligence, and new agent and observability capabilities.

"Microsoft's approach to AI context builds on two core assets, namely its data and analytics platform, Microsoft Fabric, and the millions of semantic models that run in Power BI. The vendor's commitment to openness, interoperability, and governance aims to give organizations a reason to standardize and ground their AI context on Fabric as AI agents scale across organizations," says Megha Kumar, research vice president, Analytics and AI, IDC.

IDC ProductScape: U.S. Care Coordination Applications, 2026

Jennifer Eaton — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

The IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of care coordination applications, featuring products from Arcadia, Cedar Gate, Cognizant, EXL, Health Catalyst, HealthEdge, Innovaccer, Lightbeam, Optum, Oracle, Persivia, Salesforce, ZeOmega, and Zyter. The status of each functionality is categorized as fully supported, partially supported, partner provided, road map, or not supported, aiding technology purchasers in quickly identifying which vendors align with their changing requirements.

IDC ProductScape: U.S. Patient Engagement and Enablement, 2026 —Technology Supplier Solution Functionality

Jennifer Eaton — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This IDC ProductScape offers a comprehensive guide on the key functionalities of patient engagement and enablement applications, featuring products from Cognizant, Health Catalyst, Lightbeam, Optum, Personify Health, Salesforce, ZeOmega, and Zyter. The status of each functionality is categorized as fully supported, partially supported, partner provided, road map, or not supported, aiding technology purchasers in quickly identifying which vendors align with their changing requirements.

GitHub Universe 2026: Copilot Fusion Raises the Stakes for AI Coding Economics

Adam Resnick — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 05:00:00 GMT

At GitHub Universe 2026, GitHub made Copilot Fusion generally available, expanded the Copilot app, and introduced Copilot Projects in public preview. Fusion packages decisions about how models from several providers contribute to a task, giving customers access to coordination expertise without having to build and maintain the orchestration themselves. IDC expects routing and orchestration to become standard capabilities, with platforms increasingly competing on the quality, cost, and speed of results. GitHub's opportunity is to make this sophistication accessible through clear starting points and practical paths to greater delegation for customers at different stages of AI adoption.