- Most SMBs using AI today have no policy governing it, and most have no formal process to review what it's doing. As the adoption and building of new AI offerings accelerate, 8os is designed to position the MIP to address the gap.
- 8os runs on Pax8's existing commerce infrastructure, serving more than 800,000 SMBs and 47,000 IT providers worldwide.
- 8bot gives partners a packaged, managed AI coworker for their clients’ employees that’s governed by the partner through 8os and designed to take on everyday tasks and deliver fast time to value.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pax8, the global AI and cloud Marketplace for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced Pax8’s 8os and 8bot at its annual Beyond EMEA conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. 8os is the first operating system for the agentic workforce, providing managed intelligence providers (MIPs) with a single place to govern the fragmented AI landscape across every SMB customer they serve. Built on a proven commerce foundation, 8os enables partners to operationalize their managed intelligence services and deliver business outcomes to their customers at predictable costs. Through 8os, partners can deploy and manage a diverse agentic workforce, including 8bot, Pax8’s packaged, managed AI coworker that helps client employees move everyday work forward. Together, 8os and 8bot give MIPs a way to govern and deploy AI centrally while bringing its value directly to the people and businesses they serve.
The Problem: Expanding and Ungoverned AI Is Already Inside Small Businesses Without an Operating System
AI is already operating inside small businesses, and the vast majority see it as a competitive advantage. But in a market with a rapidly growing number of vendors and offerings, AI is largely without oversight, creating agent sprawl and security risks that undermine that advantage. According to the Pax8 SMB AI Pulse Reports, 90% of SMBs are using or experimenting with AI, yet just 23% have a documented AI use policy, and nearly half of SMBs are finding shadow AI in the business. Until now, governance and cost-tracking tools have been widely unavailable.
The challenge is no longer simply adopting AI. It is managing the work it does. As tools and agents multiply, work and context become fragmented, costs and risks become harder to track, and businesses lack a unified way to govern AI and translate isolated productivity gains into consistent business outcomes.
- Adoption and building outpaces processes: 71% of SMBs using AI have already built at least one AI solution, but only 31% of those builders have a formal review or approval process.
- Increased fragmentation and shadow AI in the SMB: The recent proliferation of agentic solutions is driving an increasingly fractured array of agents and bots in businesses. Making operations and governance even more challenging, 47% say they've discovered some form of unsanctioned “shadow AI” inside their business in just the past six months, highlighting existing risks inside these businesses.
- Looking for trusted intelligence providers: 65% of small business leaders believe they need to move fast on AI, and 84% say they would trust an outside technology advisor to help implement it. Additionally, 70% agree they need outside partners to fully realize the technology’s value. 8os closes that gap by helping the MIP deliver AI value safely and effectively to their SMB clients.
Introducing 8os: The Operating System for the Agentic Workforce, Built for MIPs
“AI is becoming a worker, and that changes what small businesses need from their technology partners,” said Scott Chasin, CEO of Pax8. “The agentic workforce will be diverse. It will span different agents, models, tools, and providers, and all that intelligence has to be governed, managed, and turned into real business outcomes. That’s what we built 8os and 8bot to do. 8os gives our partners the operating system to manage that complexity across every customer, while 8bot gives them a managed AI coworker they can deploy, support, and monetize. Together, they make managed intelligence repeatable and scalable. This is the next chapter of the small business economy, and our partners are built to lead it.”
8os was developed to make managed intelligence structured and repeatable for partners. Built on Pax8’s existing multi-tenant, commerce, identity, and billing infrastructure, 8os delivers three things:
- One governed agentic workforce: Different agents, models, tools, and providers become one workforce under partner control with clear ownership, shared operating rules, and accountability across every client they serve.
- Compounding intelligence: Client-specific memory and context help AI workers deliver more relevant work over time.
- Predictable economics: Usage and cost are tracked per user and per customer, hard caps stop runaway bills, and the MIP sets the price with a simplified billing experience through the Pax8 relationship.
Unveiling 8bot: A Managed AI Coworker for Every Client Employee
8bot brings the value of the agentic workforce directly to SMB employees, providing an AI coworker that returns results employees and teams can review, refine, and use across the business. Operating within the governed environment of 8os, it helps MIPs make AI practical for employees and manageable as a resalable service across their small-business clients.
- Packaged employee capacity: A ready-to-deploy offering designed for fast time-to-value, helping clients add employee capacity while giving partners a service they can deploy and start earning recurring revenue in minutes.
- Governed by design: AI delivered through the client’s trusted technology relationship, with the partner managing deployment, governing its use, and supporting the service through 8os.
- Value delivered at scale: A repeatable service model partners can extend across client employees, turning individual adoption into a broader managed intelligence opportunity.
“Our partners have told us they want to deliver AI value without building a custom solution for every client,” said Libby McIlhany, Chief Product Officer at Pax8. “We built 8os and 8bot with the partner experience in mind, giving them an effective way to manage and govern the AI running inside their customers’ businesses and a pre-packaged AI coworker that’s easy to deploy. Through these solutions, they can deliver measurable outcomes to SMBs globally and turn AI into a managed recurring service at scale.”
Starting this week, Pax8 is providing limited early access to 8os and 8bot, with general availability planned for early next year.
Visit the 8os and 8bot product pages to learn more.
About Pax8
Pax8 is the global AI and cloud Marketplace for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Pax8 connects service providers and technology companies on a unified platform to discover, buy, sell, deploy, and manage technology solutions for SMBs. More than 47,000 IT partners and 800,000 SMBs rely on Pax8 for expertise, automation, and real-time insights to stay productive, protected, and prepared for the AI economy. Learn more at pax8.com.
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Media Contact:
David Stephan
PR Manager
dstephan@pax8.com
