Monday Morning Impact – March 2
Survey: Most Organizations Lack the Necessary Talent to Complete Priority Projects
Businesses are facing widening skills gaps and increased hiring complexity, according to new research from Robert Half, a Menlo Park-based recruiter and business consulting firm. Of 2,000 hiring managers surveyed, nearly two-thirds (62%) said skills gaps are more pronounced than one year ago, and just 6% reported having the talent they need to complete high-priority projects.
Talent shortages are common, and only a small percentage of managers across several key disciplines reported having the talent they need to complete priority projects.
Despite these gaps, employers are optimistic about the year ahead. More than 8 in 10 managers (83%) said they are confident in their business outlook for 2026, and of those, 43% said that they expect strong company growth. In addition, 60% said they plan to add permanent staff in the first half of 2026, and 55% said they expect to increase contract hiring to support immediate needs.
“As skills gaps continue to widen, employers aren’t standing still,” said Dawn Fay, operational president of Robert Half. “Organizations are leaning into a mix of permanent and contract hiring to close critical gaps, stay agile and keep priority initiatives moving forward.”
While hiring plans remain strong, the process itself is becoming more difficult. Nearly two-thirds of managers (65%) said hiring has become harder due to the rise in AI-generated applications, and 58% reported greater difficulty identifying truly qualified candidates compared to one year ago.
As generative AI tools enable candidates to produce highly polished resumes, applications and work samples, employers are spending more time validating qualifications and job readiness, adding friction to the hiring process and increasing the risk of misalignment.
“Generative AI has changed how employers evaluate talent,” Fay added. “When applications appear strong on the surface but don’t always reflect real capabilities, it becomes much harder to assess skills and make confident hiring decisions. More organizations are increasingly relying on partners who can rigorously evaluate talent and help them hire with greater certainty.”
The research was gathered from a survey developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm in November 2025. The survey contains responses from more than 2,000 hiring managers in the United States.
Channel Impact®
The data underscore opportunities for channel partners in helping their clients, develop, manage, navigate, and successfully complete critical business projects.
Palo Alto Networks Announces Intent to Acquire Agentic Endpoint Company
Palo Alto Networks has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Koi, a company competing in the agentic endpoint security space. The move is expected to help Palo Alto Networks protect AI-native ecosystems in which modern AI agents and tools can actively read, write, and move data. Specific exploits include authentication bypass, API-based remote code execution, and the hijacking of credentials to weaponize trusted automation.
After the close of the acquisition, Koi’s agentic endpoint security will extend to Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma AIRS, the company’s AI security platform. This integration is expected to broaden coverage across critical AI-driven operations. Concurrently, it also promises to enhance Cortex XDR’s endpoint security solution providing significant visibility into the AI attack surface to improve security policy and malware prevention.
“AI agents and tools are the ultimate insiders,” said Lee Klarich, Chief Product & Technology Officer, at Palo Alto Networks. “They have full access to your systems and data, but operate entirely outside the view of traditional security controls. By acquiring Koi, we will be closing this gap and setting a new standard for endpoint security. We will give our customers the visibility and control required to safely harness the power of AI—ensuring that every agent, plugin, and script is governed, verified, and secure.”
“We founded Koi to secure the next frontier of risk,” said Koi CEO and co-founder Amit Assaraf. “Joining forces with Palo Alto Networks will allow us to scale our technology to the world’s largest organizations, delivering protection that makes work on the modern AI-native endpoint secure by design.”
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Channel Impact®
The acquisition is intended to help eliminate the AI security gap by establishing agentic endpoint security as the next frontier of enterprise risk reduction.
Gartner Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 10.8% in 2026
Worldwide IT spending is expected to reach $6.15 trillion in 2026, up 10.8% from 2025, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.
“AI infrastructure growth remains rapid despite concerns about an AI bubble, with spending rising across AI‑related hardware and software,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Demand from hyperscale cloud providers continues to drive investment in servers optimized for AI workloads.”
Server spending is projected to accelerate in 2026, growing 36.9% year-over-year. Total data center spending is expected to increase 31.7%, surpassing $650 billion in 2026, up from nearly $500 billion the previous year.
Software spending growth for 2026 has been slightly revised downward to 14.7%, from 15.2% for both application and infrastructure software.
“Despite the modest revision, total software spending will remain above $1.4 trillion,” said Lovelock. “Projections for generative AI (GenAI) model spending in 2026 remain unchanged, with growth expected at 80.8%. GenAI models continue to experience strong growth, and their share of the software market is expected to rise by 1.8% in 2026.”
Shipments of mobile phones, PCs, and tablets continue to grow steadily. Total spending on devices is projected to reach $836 billion in 2026. However, market-demand constraints will slow growth to 6.1% in 2026.
“This slowdown is largely due to rising memory prices, which are increasing average selling prices and discouraging device replacements,” said Lovelock. “Additionally, higher memory costs are causing shortages in the lower end of the market, where profit margins are thinner. These factors are contributing to more muted growth in device shipments.”
Channel Impact®
The data spotlight specific sectors in which channel partners may choose to allocate additional resources toward higher sales and customer acquisition.
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