Can an MSP make money from AI?

Of course you can! But the opportunity to make money from reselling any technology is a very low margin situation and Copilot, ChatGPT, all the other chatbots and AI apps out there are no exception to this rule. In fact, the trend seems to move toward zero dollars for a simple resale. There is, however, money to be made from AI when you wrap other services around it.

That leaves the big question of what do your MSP clients need from you as it related to AI? Read on to learn more about the considerations for adding AI to your MSP offering.

Value-add Services

AI is a new instrument of productivity that will change the world. Employers want their staff to embrace AI so they can gain the efficiency from it for their business. AI represents a big change and any time there is change, there is opportunity. There are some excellent opportunities for MSPs to build AI services for their clients.

Consultation

This opportunity is an important one. A new application is coming into the business that no current employee understands fully. This technology is brand new, and your MSP is their technology advisor. This puts you into an automatic position of authority. Business owners will have many questions and you can help them make an informed decision on which AIs to invest in.

• Which AIs have high ethical standards?
  • Which AIs protect your privacy?
• • Which AIs protect your intellectual property?
  • What is the acceptable use of AI in the business?

Not all AIs are equal, and most are being produced by very small firms, probably not much bigger than you, because it’s a brand-new marketplace. Having answers ready for your clients and offering consultation on this topic is going to be in high demand and highly valued by your clients.

Ultimately the use of AI will be about changing business processes and that type of consultive work has and always will bring high profits to your business.

Data Preparation

In order to be a true partner or a true copilot as Microsoft terms it for an employee, AI needs access to your data. Ethical Ais like Copilot, limit themselves to the permissions to data that the person making the request has. The immediate question that an MSP should be bringing to the table, is whether the permission to data is as accurate as it now needs to be.

Previously data needed to be secure only against intruders but now it needs to be permissioned in such a way that the AI accessing the data only has access to data that is relevant and accurate. This is level of data management that most businesses have not given much thought.

The data can be prepared for AI use through automated archiving to remove outdated information, by tagging data that is out of bounds for AI, and by rethinking permissions to make sure that each user is only allowed what is necessary. This removes some convenience for users and puts some management onto them to maintain the tagging, but it is necessary for AI to work safely in your network.

Data preparation is definitely a project that MSPs can sell to their clients and then include the maintenance of the data and permissions as part of their monthly recurring service.

Security and usage tracking

There’s another unsung opportunity for MSPs and its monthly task work that should fit into your monthly recurring package. Businesses will need you to track and manage which AIs are in use in the company. This is a Shadow IT task that MSPs probably have built into their management tools already so training it onto AI applications, allowing or blocking them, and producing a report should already be in the wheelhouse of every MSP.

The second task is usage tracking. At this stage, as businesses invest in AI applications, they are likely to try many in the coming years before the market settles out and they determine which AI are best for their business. This means that the business owner needs data that the MSP can provide. They will need to know who is using which of the purchased AI applications. They will also want to know what they are using it for and how often it is being used.

Leverage existing tools, MSP will be able to provide this service and differentiate themselves from others that have yet to consider AI in the workplace.

Training

Just mentioned were a couple of things that users of AI, which will soon be every employee, do not have the skills to complete yet. There’s an ongoing opportunity to help business upskill employees in AI.

• Identifying ethical issues in AI
• Checking for response errors
• Protecting business data
• Applying data tags
• Working within the AI acceptable use policy
• Prompting
• Training specific to new AI solutions approved for use in the business

Continuous learning will be needed simply because AI is so new and in flux. No business wants to be left behind by this AI train.

The AI as a Service packaging

In this document we gave an overview of the opportunity that AI as a Service can be for an MSP. Anytime there is change, there is opportunity and opportunity is money.

MSPs have opportunities to create both short term AI projects and long-term packaged AI service offerings. An MSPs AI as a service package could include:

• Consultation in choosing AI applications
• Preparing data and permissions
• Training users in AI use and business intellectual property protection
• Controlling Shadow IT
• Maintaining security

Those packaged AI service offerings should be integrated into the regular monthly recurring services that the MSP provides to every client.

In summary, yes there is a great opportunity in AI as a Service for MSPs.

If you want to add an AI offering to your MSP, take our class Developing an AI offering for your MSP. It starts up again this fall and you can reserve your space now. Developing an AI offering in your MSP