The latest in the line of “as a service” offerings entering the MSP space, AI as a Service shows promise as a new revenue stream. In short, AI as a Service consists of MSPs utilizing their AI knowledge to help automate and accelerate their clients’ businesses with AI.
Jason Amgar, director of procurement and Microsoft partnership at Solulan, an IT services company in Quebec, describes AI as a Service as “MSPs teaching [clients] what AI is and what it means for them in their business. What it will become is a very different story, but for now, it’s enablement. It’s a tool. We’re really trying to teach our customers that AI is not something to be scared of. It’s not going to overtake your job; it is a tool that can enhance your work experience and make you more efficient and potentially alleviate time to do other tasks.”
Corey Kirkendoll, president and CEO at 5K Technical Services, an MSP in Plano, Texas, anticipates that “as it goes forward, AI as a Service will be where you have created a large language model or some reference point using AI that a customer leverages. Then you provide that support on a monthly recurring basis with any upgrades, maintenance, or training—like developing a product. In order to do that, you’d have to figure out what critical business issue you’re trying to resolve, then create that solution.”
AI-Enhanced Cybersecurity
Many MSPs are already using AI to enhance security, whether internally or with AI-empowered tech stack products. AI as a Service can amplify that protection, while ensuring that MSPs are being paid fairly for the additional work they’re providing. “From a security standpoint, I think [AI as a Service] is an incredibly powerful tool,” says Amgar. “I think the key point is having that in place as an MSP. It’s critical; the more powerful AI gets, the quicker it’s going to outpace us. It’s already outpacing us in terms of what we can get done in a day, the amount of analytics it can create, how fast it can detect something and respond to it. I think AI as a Service, from a security standpoint, is essential at this point.”
Kirkendoll agrees, saying, “If you have your environment set up correctly and have the right tools in place, AI is a great tool to leverage all that information to identify and pinpoint issues before, during, and after [a breach]. Hopefully it will help predict incidents on the before side, but if it’s during, it helps you have a better view of where the attack vector is, to be able to defend appropriately.”
Obstacles To Offering AI
Before an MSP can get started offering AI as a Service to their clients, they need to first be proficient in AI themselves. Kirkendoll says, “First thing, you have to educate yourself on what’s out there—between machine learning, edge AI, automation, etc. There are a lot of buzz words and things out there that confuse the customer. Once we did that, we had to play with [AI] in-house to understand what it could do for our business and what problems it could solve, which made it easier for us to have those conversations with our customers.”
Beyond a lack of knowledge, another potential roadblock is some people’s wariness regarding AI, Amgar notes. “For us, AI as a Service launched with the arrival of Microsoft Copilot,” he says. While Microsoft’s marketing generated a lot of buzz and interest from customers, Solulan has also faced pushback. “There is a genuine fear with customers that at some point, they’re going to find themselves no longer needed.” Amgar explains that because there will always be a necessary human element in AI, that concern is unfounded. Instead, learning how to use AI now grants people the opportunity to hone their skills and position themselves as experts. “Once people understand that, they start pivoting a little bit.”
Starting The Conversation
After educating themselves on the intricacies of AI, how should MSPs get started offering AI as a Service? Kirkendoll recommends first probing customers to see where they are with their vendors and in their industry. This gives MSPs insight into what their customers might need from AI, and what gaps it can fill in their business. “Look at what’s happening in the industry… you want to be listening to your customers,” agrees Amgar.
Additionally, MSPs need to shift their perspective. “If you come at this with the traditional, managed service perspective, you’re coming at it from the wrong direction. You have to almost put a software development/consultant hat on,” Kirkendoll says. This is because to offer AI to clients, MSPs must first diagnose what the underlying problems are. Then, they’ll need to solve those problems with software that they don’t personally own or maintain.
“This is definitely one of the things that breaks the MSP model. It’s going to be a project that will evolve into a recurring revenue, rather than a recurring revenue with projects spawning off of it,” Kirkendoll says.
As an added bonus, discussing AI with your clients can potentially kickstart other projects. Kirkendoll says, “The other piece is that you want to go in and start the AI conversation, because of all the other projects that have been stalled. What we’re seeing is that when I have the AI conversation, all these other projects like security and data protection come to light because [the client] wants AI. They’re willing to push those projects forward in order to get it. Therefore, it’s a great opportunity to unhinge all the roadblocks that have been there in the past.”
Advice For Other MSPs
When it comes to AI, the most common piece of advice for MSPs who haven’t hopped on the bandwagon yet is: Just start. “I know it’s tough for some MSPs, but get it. Start playing with it,” says Amgar. “Every so often in the IT industry, there is a wave of something that comes through that changes how we do it. This is one of them. You’ll wish you had jumped on sooner, five or 10 years from now. Don’t be scared. Just start somewhere. It’ll grow into its own benefit, and it’ll be worth the effort down the road.”
Additionally, MSPs that partner with companies like Microsoft, Pax8, and others have access to educational content about AI. From webinars to playbooks, the material is out there for MSPs eager to learn. What are you waiting for?
Learn more about the current state of AI and how to get started in one of our recent articles here.
