By Frederick Bendius-Drennan, Director of Product Management, AI Initiatives at inforcer
Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption is accelerating rapidly with industries all over the world embracing the integration of productivity enhancing tools. Whilst this seismic shift has already changed how many businesses conduct day-to-day operations, for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) there’s a lot more to consider.
It’s important that MSPs examine how AI can benefit them individually but also bear in mind its challenges and how the market is evolving.
Why AI is crucial for MSPs
With AI now ubiquitous, customers are expecting MSPs to present an AI-ready offering. Currently, three quarters of small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) are already experimenting with AI, while high-growth SMBs show an even higher rate of AI adoption (83%). At the same time, 92% of MSPs have confirmed that their business expansion is being propelled by an increased interest in AI. MSPs not offering AI-based solutions will be losing out on a range of potential clients and revenue, as well creating a gap between them and their competitors.
Organisations must also consider the risk of Shadow AI. Even if a business decides not to use AI tools – or not to use them yet – employees can still access a plethora of AI tools to complete their tasks without their employer’s knowledge. Today, anyone can create an account on a GenAI platform and input potentially sensitive business information. To mitigate this risk, businesses should consider adopting an AI-first mindset to ensure governance and oversight.
Advantages of Copilot
As Copilot is Microsoft native, it is already integrated into the Microsoft platform and has an interface that feels familiar to many users, making it easier to use and more secure than other AI tools. It’s also advantageous for organisations to stay with Microsoft as the 365 tenant doesn’t require new security measures; it uses those that have already been configured under their existing security policy – providing more peace of mind from a security perspective.
Copilot can also drive internal efficiencies as it will automate administrative tasks, improve service delivery and reduce costs by automating daily tasks. And, an MSP offering a modern, cloud-first IT environment will be able to present a value-based offering to its customers and outline how AI driven processes will help them reach their goals.
Challenges to be aware of
SMBs often want to use Copilot immediately but don’t understand the risks or considerations involved. There is a lot of groundwork that should be completed first but is often ignored, such as ensuring risks of oversharing or exposure of sensitive data have been mitigated and ensuring security best practices are adhered to. From the point of view of the MSP, this provides numerous opportunities for project work to make customers ready, but this can also complicate the sales process as it becomes harder to articulate ROI (return on investment) and what use cases will benefit customers the most.
Once Copilot is deployed, it is essential to educate employees on the complex interactions between processes and technology which can be hard to digest for first-time users. For example, users should be aware of how Copilot integrates with the rest of their business data in Microsoft 365, and what use cases that unlocks. This is a great revenue opportunity for MSPs as they can offer this training as part of their AI service.
How to become AI ready
Before selling AI services, MSPs should gain a clear insight into what their customers are hoping to achieve with AI, and whether they are truly ready to adopt it. This includes understanding a customer’s use cases, the problems that Copilot can help to solve and what the expected ROI might be. This can be achieved by MSPs educating themselves on the customer’s business processes and goals.
MSPs should also analyse the customer’s data environment to understand whether the right data to power AI is available and readily accessible. In some cases, data can be scattered across SharePoint – or not in M365 or on-prem – and may need to be tidied up and consolidated. Once that’s done, it’s important to determine how the data will be governed, managed and how data protection measures can be implemented without negatively impacting business processes.
Once the tenant is secure enough for Copilot and that both users and devices are ready from a technical point of view, it is time to judge who can deploy Copilot first within the business. Having a smart roll-out plan will provide useful feedback, help the MSP learn what the adoption trends are amongst its client base and allow them to develop a better understanding of how they can grow revenue further.
Risks of AI from a legal perspective
Many companies still fail to understand the legal implications of using AI. A big part of this is the uncontrolled use of Shadow AI as the organisation may not be aware of how data and intellectual property is being handled and shared with AI tools. Behind the scenes, employees may give away information they don’t own or have the right to share.
Likewise, employees can accidentally breach confidentiality clauses due to a lack of understanding of the content they’re dealing with. It’s important that every AI user verifies whether the data they use is confidential or not. Businesses should also ensure every staff member is aware of privacy and HR policies and if necessary, confidentiality clauses in client facing contracts. Finally, it’s important to review legislation and guidance regularly, so that everyone can stay up to date with the ever-changing AI regulatory landscape.
The importance of MSPs being AI ready is obvious, but by acknowledging everything above, an MSP can ensure that it’s not only ready to use AI but is equipped to support, educate and adapt in ways which will yield the best results for their customers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Frederick is the Director of Product Management, AI Initiatives at inforcer. With over ten years in the MSP industry, Frederick has delivered innovative capabilities across multiple product areas, ranging from remote monitoring and management to cyber security. At inforcer, Frederick leads on driving AI innovation across the product portfolio, as well as driving initiatives to help MSPs succeed providing M365-powered AI to their customers.
