IT Nation Connect: MSPs Called to Embrace AI, Hyperautomation for Future Prosperity

CONNECTWISE IT NATION CONNECT — On day one of IT Nation Connect, ConnectWise CEO Jason Magee issued a challenge to MSPs to reimagine their futures, and take full advantage of innovations such as hyperautomation and artificial intelligence (AI).

ConnectWise unveiled the evolution and future of its Asio platform, and ConnectWise Sidekick, an AI companion to enhance efficiency and ingenuity for TSPs and SMBs.

Magee highlighted robotic process automation (RPA), a new service that offers hyperautomation to simplify the creation, deployment and management of software robots that mimic human actions when interacting with digital systems and software.

Magee said partners are the "cornerstone of everything we do."

"ConnectWise is here to help you realize your vision of success, whatever that may be," he said. "And when you grow, we grow. It's that simple."

For the past three years, ConnectWise has been on a mission to deliver more innovation to TSPs faster. The ConnectWise Asio platform is a platform-as-a-service solution for the IT channel ecosystem. It consolidates multiple products into a user experience with a centralized dataset and hyperautomation through RPA, with security, extensibility and unlimited scale.

ConnectWise RPA

ConnectWise RPA curbs labor costs by enabling teams to automate more of the repetitive, time-consuming processes that take up valuable time, the company said. The ability to automate process flows between products and remove manual, repetitive tasks is pivotal to enabling team efficiency and driving customer satisfaction. ConnectWise RPA reduces manual efforts, presenting an opportunity not just for cost savings, but also allowing smaller companies to become more competitive.

The IT channel ecosystem can see and try the newly enhanced Asio platform during IT Nation Connect.

"Hyperautomation is a concept that is far more powerful than the name suggests," Magee said. "It is not simply automation, robotics or AI replacing repetitive tasks to gain efficiency. It is the orchestration and application of AI, robotics and machine learning (ML) that makes it so impactful."

ConnectWise Sidekick

ConnectWise Sidekick leverages ConnectWise's generative AI models and large language models (LLMs) to enable TSPs and their SMB clients to utilize natural-language prompts for automation and timesaving. It automates tasks such as generating PowerShell scripts, ticket categorization, summarization, providing resolutions and automated responses to end users.

ConnectWise Sidekick is immediately available across business management, and unified monitoring management solution portfolios.

ConnectWise's Raghu Bongula

“Imagine a world where manual tasks fade, and customer issues are met with seamless responses and without the need to add more resources — this is the power of ConnectWise Sidekick,” said Raghu Bongula, ConnectWise's CTO. “We are enabling more intelligent and more innovative ways for TSPs to support and drive greater satisfaction to SMBs. ConnectWise Sidekick is the only purpose-built solution that provides value for every persona/role across the TSP.”

ConnectWise is launching a jump-start program for the first 200 MSPs that subscribe to ConnectWise RPA and/or ConnectWise Sidekick. Those who subscribe will "immediately begin to eliminate the tedious tasks and focus your teams on higher-value initiatives, delivering amazing customer experiences through enhanced visibility and faster resolution," Magee said.

"You'll start saving real dollars and begin your journey to that 50% profitability improvement to allow you to reinvest in your growth of your business," he said.

Challenge for MSPs

Magee said ConnectWise is counting on the MSPs of the future to embrace the movement and the opportunities that come with rapidly changing innovation, "where everything will be centered around upskilling, embracing education, and growing into your capacity and capabilities."

"MSPs, you are the torchbearers of this movement, and SMBs globally are counting on you to guide them," he said. "That's your opportunity. We're in the midst of a hype cycle, and that hype is all about hyperautomation. You feel it and you know it's different. It's because a new generation is emerging and it may be the greatest thing to impact your business, your career and mankind."

With hyperautomation, the roles of human intelligence and AI will become symbiotic and it will deliver with immediate impact, even at a baseline level, Magee said.

"You've probably heard about how you can leverage this intelligence to improve the service delivery side of your business, the customer-facing aspect of what we all do," he said. "But ... it's way more than that. It's your HR function through things like AI to generate your job descriptions and screening candidates. It's the GA and management functions like client profitability, collections escalations and others. It's sales and account management, like proposal quoting, QBR readiness and recommendations to name a few. It's your entire organization."

No team is excluded from participating in this "revolution" or from the opportunity that comes along with it, Magee said.

"MSPs who embrace and adopt this revolution will realize several benefits like elevated speed and precision, enhanced productivity, operational maturity and excellence," he said. "And I'm not talking about this happening in 10 years from now. I'm talking about this happening within months. Now, for MSPs who embrace it, it can mean improvement to your bottom line. For MSP employees, it could mean new career opportunities and a boost in compensation."