2026 Outlook with Net Friends CEO

I’m approaching 2026 with more excitement and enthusiasm than ever.

‍It’s just the best time to be running a small business! Technology has never delivered more value than it does today. As much as costs are up on everything, the capabilities of our tools have dramatically improved. While there are still cyber risks, recent innovations are helping us operate more securely as businesses. Net Friends customers can rely on their technology more than ever. Our data shows that IT systems managed by Net Friends are increasingly resilient. We can deliver this confidence in the context of occasional widespread disruptions on major platforms like M365. AWS, and Cloudflare.

AI and Automation

I remain super excited about AI. Every week our team unlocks more capabilities with both automation and AI, both to make Net Friends run better and to improve our customer experience. However, all these new capabilities only raise the stakes on getting the fundamentals right. We are dedicating a good amount of time to segmenting our AI functions and improving governance controls, while creating more purpose-built tools at a granular level that excel at solving a narrowly defined task. Agentic AI can be so powerful, but only when you have the right policies and control mechanisms in place to give it guardrails.  

AI is downstream from Automation, and Automation is downstream from well-defined processes and workflow steps. Process documentation must come first! Automating our workflows is critical to our success, but so is making sure our IT experts can rigorously review, define, and test each process before and after it gets automated. The powerful tools we hold also require safe and careful use to protect our information and operations.

Cybersecurity Foundations

Speaking of safety, I call on all fellow small business owners to start treating our cybersecurity the same way we treat fire alarms and building codes: essential infrastructure to keep us safe. Cybersecurity is not optional. While there is not any one-size-fits-all cybersecurity package that can be blindly deployed to protect a business, the checklist of core items is relatively short and clear. The cost of excellent, layered cybersecurity controls has come way down as well, eliminating the excuse that it’s just too expensive or that there isn’t a ROI. In 2026, I’m committed to implementing clear minimum standards in cybersecurity for our customers. We will actively work to get every one of our small business customers aligned with a core set of cybersecurity controls. Again, cybersecurity is not optional.

Delivering Operational Excellence

The thing we’re focused on is delivering even better operations to our customers. We know that there are still things we can do to increase our response time, improve our documentation, build and bolster our processes, and open more pathways to communicate with our customers. We have several operational plans we’re rolling out in 2026 to make sure each encounter our customers have with us is exceptional and positively impactful. Operational excellence is the unsung hero in the tech world, and we know that adding AI and automation into the mix can only be a positive when it’s amplifying great existing processes and capabilities.

Identity is the New Perimeter

One prediction I would like to make is that 2026 will be the year that over 50% of all small businesses will be serverless. The explosion of Software as a Service (SaaS) tools and options, including Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, has shifted the workloads that used to be handled by a physical or virtual server. Small businesses are now embracing platforms that their distributed business and teams can access online from anywhere. What this really means is that the perimeter for most small businesses is now their Google or M365 credentials. The office network used to be the digital edge of a business a decade or so ago, but now the real digital edge is what your username can access after you authenticate.  

We see most small businesses have not fully realized just how vital it is to implement identity-based security controls. The freedom and capabilities that SaaS tools have given us comes with a need for a greater emphasis on user lifecycle management, identity governance, device compliance, and access controls. While AI is stealing all the headlines, we’re seeing malicious actors stealing credentials. More than ever, Managed Services Providers like Net Friends need to start thinking of their primary role as managing and protecting identities.  

Four Pillars of 2026

As I lead our team into 2026, I see us investing additional resources in a few key areas. First, better defining processes and documentation to ensure that our data and methods of working are codified and clear. We plan to more than double our current processes and significantly improve the management and utility of our documentation systems. Every innovation we are focusing on depends heavily on a foundation of high-quality data. Second and in parallel together, we will invest in our human capital through improved training pathways and new official Roles, such as Process Engineer and Documentation Engineer (and many others). We will also increase investments in growing our Integration Team that already focuses on automation and amplifying the capabilities of our tools. Third, we continue to expand our NetSafe line of cybersecurity products to add many more effective layers of protection for our customers. Fourth, building upon these three investments but definitely not coming in last, we will both leverage highly secure enterprise-grade AI tools like ChatGPT for Business and Microsoft Copilot, as well as continue building out our internal custom AI capabilities. These investments cover the range of fundamental strengths and novel capabilities, all of which we know will provide a better customer experience and empower our clients in countless ways.

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Read Net Friends President Neelesh Patel's 2025 Restrospective