There is a technology movement happening with Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is being fueled by the constant drive to unlock more operational efficiency. Once you get past the fear of AI, the opportunity to get our teams out of highly monotonous work is tremendous. AI is rapidly changing how we must expand our thinking around what this technology can do to streamline our business operations. That starts with knowing what solutions exist. I’ve created this blog so that the industry has a single source to know all the AI providers that are solving MSP challenges. I will also dive deeper into the nuances of AI technology and ways that it can apply to MSP service management.
Competitive differentiation in the MSP space has been challenging for years. How do you prove you have the best support or have selected the best technology stack? Some have been successful in their pitches to differentiate in these areas, but for most it is challenging to cast meaningful differences against a competitor that has built a comparable business. Many have used business model differences to create separation, such as all-in pricing, dedicated technology CIO support, and hardware as a service. 15 years ago, people debated the merits of a PSA. Today, everyone knows that a PSA is required to manage a growing MSP business. If all your competition is using a PSA how can you compete without one and how do you differentiate when your competitor has the same operational tools?
I’m going to focus on AI, but this applies to other technology innovations too. Think back to those that made the PSA decision early in the adoption curve (2005 - 2010), they have been reaping the benefits for years. That same thing applies to all business process innovation you evaluate. Applying AI in your business is the next area of opportunity to differentiate. There are several emerging AI based products serving the MSP industry. There is so much opportunity in AI that none of us working on AI solutions are competing with each other, so I’ve taken the time to provide a brief overview of each product that is in the market. I hope this helps you in your journey to evaluate solutions and find the next opportunity for operational differentiation.
Pia has taken an AI-first approached to automate the resolution of service desk tickets. Their cutting-edge aiDesk product will read service tickets and identifies opportunities for automated assistance. AI-enhanced technicians are capable of closing 50+ tickets per day. The types of service tickets that aiDesk can automate can be found here.
CrushBank has built an AI engine that reviews ticket data and suggests knowledge base articles, technical manuals, and user guides to help technology teams access key issue resolution information quickly.
Invarosoft has created a customized mobile app and site that MSPs can white label and provide to their end users for support. They recently launched a bot that can run inside their support panel and provide issue remediation suggestions to end clients when they submit help requests.
The company is lead by Daniel Wang. Daniel is also a partner in the national MSP Intelligent Technical Solutions and remains involved in finding ways to automate operational problems at ITS. MSPbots has released two products, their Alert and Escalation bot and a product called NextTicket. The escalation bot is designed to guide techs through the job requirements of their role. Such as, ensuring that time entry is happening properly with every ticket. This product is integrated into Teams so that the bot is communicating and guiding techs in an application they live in daily. NextTicket is designed to allow an MSP to setup criteria that scores each open ticket. The system will evaluate the score of all open tickets and will assign the next ticket that a tech needs to work.