The AI stack MSPs are deploying in 2026

There’s no doubt that stacks have changed significantly since AI shook up the channel. Here’s a closer look at what AI-mature MSPs prioritize in their stacks, what it means for vendors to integrate AI deeply into their products and what you can do to get ahead.

What mature AI adoption looks like today

Mature AI adoption at this stage means “integrating it not just into your tool stack, but also having it look at things within your environment,” says Charles Henson, Owner of Nashville Computer. Using AI to check dashboards and flag if action is needed allows MSPs to stay focused on tasks that need human attention, rather than spending time on mundane tasks that can be automated.

Other things AI can alert you to include: when tickets are about to exceed your SLA, when tickets have been waiting on a customer for an extended period of time, which clients or end users are putting in the most tickets, etc., Henson says. “People think that you’re going to create this tool and it’s going to do this job for you. [Instead, AI] is reading dashboards, SLAs and workflows, making sure that we give our clients the best experience we can.”

Another hallmark of mature AI adoption is direct resolution, says Sam Suglio, President of DMA Tech Solutions. “Not just a note-taking summarization tool—those are pretty commonplace at this point—but if the AI can assess a particular issue a customer reports, then implement a fix, that’s the most powerful form [of AI adoption]. It’s the most immediate resolution on the customer’s behalf and the least amount of cost on the MSP side of things. That’s what we’re working towards.”

How stacks are evolving with AI

Since AI became so prevalent, stacks have evolved considerably—refining data flow, increasing efficiency, and strengthening security.

“There are tools to leverage AI for good and for bad. If somebody can use it to produce an authentic-looking impersonation, we can also leverage the same tools to provide more robust verification standards,” Suglio says. “As the threat potential increases, the security and defense potential increase simultaneously.

In terms of what AI tools MSPs are adding into their stack today, Henson says Deep Instinct and Neo have been helpful to mitigate attacks and dispatch tickets, respectively. Suglio’s MSP has focused on custom development of text and voice AI tools.

Vendors integrating AI into their products

But MSPs don’t have to look far to find tools with deep AI integrations these days. Many vendors, including Kaseya, are innovating products and dashboards with AI baked in, not added as an afterthought.

For example, Kaseya Intelligence is able to streamline operational workloads by “alleviating many of the repetitive tasks MSPs have to do, but doing it in a way that aligns to the MSPs operations,” says Brad Veregin, Director of Product Marketing at Kaseya. “The biggest advantage that Kaseya has is the breadth of our product line and the depth of our data. There’s not another vendor that has our data set and the context that comes with it. AI that’s baked into data that already exists doesn’t need you to provide context every time; it can use historical context to make decisions.”

“The breadth of Kaseya’s solutions allows to have a rich data set to replace some of those mundane tasks MSPs do,” says Wendy Har, Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Kaseya. Examples of this include the recent launch of Datto’s Digital Specialists for ticket triage and IT Glue’s Kaseya Assist feature, which allows users to query in plain English and quickly find information on features, troubleshooting, and more. “The majority of MSPs are using maybe 20–30% of their products that they own,” says Har. “Having that capability helps them leverage their tools more.”

Where MSPs are seeing measurable ROI from AI

There are a few places where these early AI adopters are seeing measurable ROI from their AI investments.

“Dispatching tickets used to be a full-time position; now that person dispatches technicians to go on site, but they also do marketing work and other admin activities in the office,” says Henson.

AI is also saving technicians time, enabling them to work more efficiently and move through more tickets per day. “Our technicians are not taking notes in tickets or having to listen to voicemail messages and make callbacks. It can vary based on volumes, but multiple hours per technician per week are saved with just those basic tools implemented,” says Suglio.

The improved client experience AI has made possible has also helped Henson’s MSP retain clients, though that ROI is more difficult to track. “With our SLAs not being missed, I know we are keeping our clients happy. I know they’re not looking for service with other providers because we’re not missing targets or deadlines, or because they’re unhappy with our service,” he says. “The business intelligence summary we get helps us ensure the clients are happy.”

Advice for MSPs looking to take the next step

There’s a difference between checking a box to say you’re using AI, and truly taking automation to the next level. “You can use AI to rewrite your emails, but when you have it integrate with your system and look at the tickets and workflows, now you’re not just ticking a box. Now you’re actually integrating AI into your environment,” says Henson.

For any MSPs who aren’t sure how to move beyond basic AI adoption, Henson says to “roll up your sleeves and dive deep into it. Understand what you can do. And if you’re not sure what AI can do, don’t be afraid to ask it how you can use it better. It can be used for so many different parts of the business that we work in day in and day out. You don’t have to overcomplicate it. My advice is to start adopting it, but don’t believe it 100%. You have to understand that it does hallucinate; you need to check and verify most everything that it does and tells you.”

Suglio anticipates that customer expectations are going to evolve as more MSPs—including your competitors—move to an AI-integrated model. “For example, there used to be a standard of a Monday through Friday, 8-5pm coverage experience. I think that is going to quickly change to a 24/7 support experience that customers are expecting. Because it’s not only possible to implement that, but it’s going to be increasingly easy,” he says.

Additionally, keeping up with vendor tools as they evolve will be critical. “We also need to leverage backend tools as they develop,” says Suglio, “to take full advantage of any new capabilities they have—increased memory, enhanced context, increased speeds when doing compute or look up functions.”

Related: AI will change your business. Humanity will grow it.