I’ve been thinking about a question that might make some MSPs uncomfortable.
Should the next technology revolution be guided by the same people who have spent the last twenty years building businesses that depend on things staying exactly the way they are?
That sounds harsh, but hear me out.
Every major technology shift creates winners and losers. Cloud changed the value of servers. Microsoft 365 changed the value of maintaining Exchange on-premises. Remote monitoring and management changed the need for technicians driving between customer sites. AI is now doing the same thing to knowledge work.
Yet when I talk to some MSPs about AI, I often hear the same response.
“It’s not ready.”
“Our clients aren’t asking for it.”
“We’ll wait and see.”
“They still need us to do the basics.”
Maybe. But that’s exactly what people said about cloud computing.
The Incentive Problem
The challenge isn’t that MSPs don’t understand technology. Most understand it very well.
The challenge is incentives.
If you’ve built a successful business around selling licences, managing devices, responding to support tickets and charging for technical expertise, then AI creates a problem. The more capable AI becomes, the more it starts consuming activities that have traditionally generated revenue.
If a Microsoft 365 Copilot prompt can analyse a meeting, draft a proposal and create an action plan in minutes, what happens to the hours previously spent doing that work?
If an AI agent can resolve basic support requests, summarise conversations and retrieve information from SharePoint or Teams, what happens to the service model built around handling those requests?
It’s understandable that some MSPs look at this and feel uncomfortable.
But technology has never cared about existing business models.
History Doesn’t Reward Defenders
I’ve seen this pattern before.
Businesses often spend more energy trying to protect the old revenue stream than understanding the new opportunity. They look at disruption as something to resist rather than something to harness.
The problem is that customers rarely share that loyalty to the old model.
Business owners don’t wake up in the morning hoping to buy more support hours. They want outcomes. They want faster decisions. They want less administration. They want their staff spending more time serving customers and less time managing information.
Today, a growing number of those outcomes can be delivered through AI.
Whether MSPs like it or not.
The Risk of Becoming the Blocker
One of the dangers for traditional MSPs is becoming the organisation that says no.
No, you shouldn’t use AI yet.
No, you shouldn’t change your process.
No, your existing approach is good enough.
Meanwhile, another adviser walks in and shows the client how Microsoft 365 Copilot can reduce the time spent preparing for meetings in Teams, drafting emails in Outlook and analysing information in Excel.
Guess which adviser the client sees as helping them move forward?
I’ve always believed that our role as technology professionals is not to preserve the status quo. It’s to help customers navigate change safely and effectively.
That doesn’t mean blindly embracing every new feature that appears. Governance still matters. Security still matters. Data quality still matters. AI without preparation can create as many problems as it solves.
But that’s very different from pretending the change isn’t happening.
The MSP Opportunity
Ironically, AI may create one of the biggest opportunities MSPs have seen in years.
Most businesses have no idea how to prepare their data, secure their environment or establish the governance needed to use AI safely. They need guidance. They need strategy. They need trusted advisers.
That’s where MSPs can create enormous value.
But only if they’re willing to evolve.
The conversation can’t stay focused on devices, licences and tickets. It needs to move towards business processes, information management, knowledge discovery and AI readiness.
That’s where the real opportunity sits.
Final Thoughts
I don’t think AI should be entrusted solely to old-school MSPs who want everything to stay the same. Equally, I don’t think businesses should rush headlong into AI without experienced technology advisers.
The answer lies somewhere in the middle.
The MSPs that thrive over the next decade won’t be the ones defending the past. They’ll be the ones helping clients prepare for the future.
Because AI isn’t interested in protecting anyone’s business model.
It’s simply moving forward.
And the question every MSP needs to answer is whether they’ll be leading that change or explaining to clients why they missed it.
CIAOPS 