Virtualization Technology News and Information
Article
RSS
Hughes Network Systems 2025 Predictions: GenAI to provide transformational value for MSPs

vmblog-predictions-2025 

Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2025.  Read them in this 17th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

By Frank Kelly, VP and Chief Technology Officer, Hughes Network Systems

Organizations spanning many industries have spent recent years launching programs to investigate what AI technology can do. Managed service providers (MSPs) have given special attention to pilot projects that can improve the customer experience while optimizing internal workflows. Test-driving all the latest tools hasn't delivered as much real business value as some enterprises hoped, despite devoting significant time and financial resources to deploying AI across numerous operational areas. Many programs, such as anomaly detection and auto-remediation of simpler scenarios, have indeed proven immensely useful, while others missed the mark, leaving them short on results as we find the right blend of AI capabilities and real-world use cases.

Moving into 2025, MSPs will have more options to find a productive path forward by leveraging AI in ways that demonstrate tangible value in practical applications.

GenAI will enable greater use of unstructured data to tackle more nuanced business needs

GenAI will enable businesses to take unstructured data and make it more relational in terms of having a multi-dimensional model to generate complex relational models. That will empower MSP help desks to use AI to automatically identify characteristics of customer calls based on words used and the tone of the voice through the journey of the call. AI can leverage clustering and relationships to generate patterns that indicate why some calls are long and sometimes do not result in positive resolutions whereas others are short and a solution is clear. How can we reduce those long calls and potentially use other tools like self-service or other automated options to eliminate short calls? Customer calls generally break down into initial problem definition and information gathering phases. Then there is a correction phase, followed by the crucial validation phase to confirm the problem was fixed. Companies can look forward to dealing with customer service calls through new, innovative methods driven by GenAI to quickly identify and analyze the journey, the actions taken, and the information needed. That can be partnered with agentic AI to drive the resolution journey without burdening the customer with decision-making, using machine-learned processes to quickly and accurately identify the root cause and drive corrective actions to resolve the issue.

Customers will trust AI more as it demonstrates consistent value in MSPs' processes

MSPs have already implemented AI to help identify the causes of problems. The industry is also using AI to deploy fixes after getting the go-ahead from the customer. In 2025, we expect to move further along that spectrum to the point where customers will say, "Every time you bothered me with that issue in the past, you fixed it without causing problems. So now just go fix it for me, don't even ask." Many MSP customers want AI because it can save time and result in higher network resilience, but the early days were a little rocky, and it's taken a while to earn people's trust. MSPs have worked hard to build that trust through consistent execution and through customers seeing the success of that execution.

Outbound chatbots will deliver more proactive value from AI

Historically, MSPs have waited for users to call in if they need something or if something has gone wrong. Today, chatbots often field those incoming user calls, asking questions and trying to provide answers. MSPs will be developing outbound chatbots, flipping that around and functioning proactively. From a customer service standpoint, that's already what many people think of when envisioning agentic AI-a system that reaches out to alert customers to a problem before they even know something is wrong and seeks approval to implement a fix. MSPs will be able to build orchestration within AI and take multi-stage actions to head off problems before they take hold. The outbound chatbot can then contact the customer to confirm the problem is fixed. MSPs will be identifying and then proactively isolating, investigating, and resolving anomalies before they become events. AI is progressing toward eliminating disruptive events by detecting anomalies very early and taking proactive actions.

More businesses will focus their AI use cases on finding practical solutions to fix real problems

IT teams have been challenged to direct their resources strategically because the AI world is moving so fast, and most companies don't have enough people to do everything they want to do with it. Forward-looking organizations will focus on those areas where AI can have a tangible positive impact, using their experts to train these AI models and validate that they do the right things. People have lost trust in AI partly because the models are being developed so quickly, and they're learning so fast that there's a lot of noise coming out of them. We need people with the knowledge to do checks and balances on AI outputs, apply context and human perspective on the technology, and confirm that the experts agree with what the machines tell us.

As part of the transition toward more strategic implementations of AI, human expertise within IT will be even more critical in 2025 and beyond. Enterprises will increasingly focus on ensuring the technology supports the overall business goals, and strong technical and operational experience will be key to achieving success. The additional clarity gained by IT and business leaders in recent years will both enable and motivate organizations to move away from experimental programs and instead prioritize practical applications of AI, where it can help solve real problems.

##

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frank-Kelly 

Frank Kelly, Vice president at Hughes Network Systems, LLC, is the chief technology officer for Hughes Business Solutions, responsible for identifying innovation and technology to improve service effectiveness and efficiency for enterprise services. In this capacity, he oversees the strategic direction and implementation of machine learning and artificial intelligence, in addition to applying agile development and service delivery techniques and integrating DevOps technologies into Hughes services. Mr. Kelly earned a master's degree in information technology from Hood College, Maryland, with a focus on network management. He also holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science from the University of Maryland.

Published Thursday, January 30, 2025 7:37 AM by David Marshall
Comments
There are no comments for this post.
To post a comment, you must be a registered user. Registration is free and easy! Sign up now!
Calendar
<January 2025>
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
2930311234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930311
2345678