Resistance is Futile

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On this podcast we explore what’s happening with AI, business automation & culture and ask - where on earth is this all going? How will A.I. develop and where should we celebrate? Alternatively, where should we hit the ESC key and unplug? If we can. Because maybe, Resistance is Futile! As long as you're human, you can subscribe :)

  1. Sep 15

    MSPs Don't Know How to Deliver AI

    Jamie, who runs both an MSP and an AI automation company, said something that I think a lot of people in the managed services world need to hear. Every single client he works with on AI already has an MSP. Not one of them went to their MSP when they decided they wanted to do something with AI. They went to Jamie.He asked some of them why. The answers ranged from 'well, they did talk to us about Copilot' to 'I don't really think that's the kind of thing they do. The reason, Jamie argues, is structural. MSPs were built on break-fix. Infrastructure. Help desk. Monthly recurring revenue from repeatable technical work. The skills that model requires - and rewards - are technical and operational.AI requires something different. Business analysis. Change management. An understanding of how people actually work and what they're afraid of. These are not the same skills, and the MSP model as currently built does not select for them. Soeren von Varchmin, who has spent the past three months interviewing CIOs at large European businesses for the MSP Global state of the industry survey, added another layer. The AI conversation has moved on. A year ago, companies were still working out what to do. Now they have strategies. The question is execution: who owns the budget, who manages the programme, and how do you know if it worked? That last question matters more than most MSPs realise. Jamie's largest client has a CFO who, in Jamie's words, 'doesn't want b******t.' He wants hard numbers. Not 'we saved you ten hours a week.' Exactly how much did this save, and how do we know?The MSPs that will survive and grow through this period, in Jamie's view, are the ones who shift from being the IT company to being the trusted adviser. And there is a practical first step: Help your clients build an AI community inside their business. Pull together people from every level. Ask them what they like, what they're scared of, what they've already tried on their own. Share it. Run a Teams call once a month or visit the site once a quarter. Do that, and you start hearing what clients actually want. Not Copilot licences. Invoice processing that takes too long. Monthly reporting that takes three weeks to produce. Real problems. Real opportunities. That's the shovel. And the ground is right there.The full conversation with Jamie and Soeren is out now. If you're in the managed services world, or you work with MSPs, I think you'll find it worth your time.

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On this podcast we explore what’s happening with AI, business automation & culture and ask - where on earth is this all going? How will A.I. develop and where should we celebrate? Alternatively, where should we hit the ESC key and unplug? If we can. Because maybe, Resistance is Futile! As long as you're human, you can subscribe :)