There's no shortage of AI hype in the MSP space. Every vendor has an AI story. Every conference has an AI track. But when you sit down with MSPs who are actually using this stuff in production — not demoing it, not piloting it, using it — the playbook looks very different from the marketing slides.
Here's what's working, what's not, and where the highest-leverage opportunities are right now.
I recently had the privilege of joining and speaking with roughly 100 leaders of Managed Services Providers — direct competitors, all gathered in the same room to discuss the current state, desired future state, and unknowns of leveraging Artificial Intelligence in their businesses. It's inspiring to see competitors supporting each other in this journey.
The AI conversation in the MSP space is no longer "if." It's how, where, and how fast it pays back. The FOMO is real, but so are the results.
N-able recently announced Cat-MIP, a groundbreaking initiative to standardize terminology for AI automation across the cybersecurity and IT management landscape. This is particularly relevant for anyone working with AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.