Artificial intelligence (AI) is the hot topic in 2023 and the latest rage for individuals and businesses worldwide. With so many ongoing innovations in AI technology, consumers and businesses are looking for ways to use the tools to help them try innovative things and grow. 

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More than 90 percent of top companies today spend on AI resources to support their business.  

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With every business hopping on the bandwagon to benefit from the artificial intelligence boom, MSPs operating in a competitive and dynamic market landscape powered by customer demands and technology trends are no exception. 

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AI can help MSPs stay ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and keep up with increasing customer needs and services efficiently.

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In this article, we'll dive deep into ways AI can help your MSPs reach maximum efficiency.

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How Can MSPs Use AI?

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The IT service management (ITSM) sector is one among the many industries that are significantly benefitting from AI and machine learning. As a matter of fact, vendors providing managed services are already leveraging artificial intelligence and ML algorithms in their offerings as part of their ITSM tools.

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AI is helping MSPs automate a range of functionalities and help users solve problems, like predicting anomalies, automatically categorizing tickets, and suggesting solutions for user issues.

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In this dynamic market, MSPs must ensure they stay ahead of the game and competitors to win new businesses. By leveraging AI-powered software, MSPs can create personalized sales materials, such as proposals, which enables them to customize their content based on the unique needs of prospective customers. MSPs can use AI to automate regular, recurring tasks to expand their team's capacity for other work and optimize employees' time for client-facing work.

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So, let us learn what AI means for MSPs and how it can help them achieve operational excellence and profitability.

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7 Ways How AI is Helping MSPs Drive Success

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While there are several ways to use artificial intelligence across business processes, let’s look at how MSPs can succeed with it: 

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1. AI-Powered Proposal Builder 

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AI-enabled proposal automation software helps you to be more efficient, responsive, and effective, whether you're sending a proactive proposal, an initial offer to a prospect or responding to an RFP. Create customized proposals in half the time.

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With the help of proposal software, you can,

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• Streamline sales process
• Reduce errors
• Improve close rates
• Boost effectiveness and reduce time

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You can enable your sales teams with self-service personalized proposal templates, boost win rates with consistent, appropriate proposal content and collaborate with sales, marketing, and SME leaderships. 

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Using automation for proposal management software will empower you with excellent efficiency, control and visibility so you can spend more time winning new business than on repetitive tasks.

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2. Automate Repetitive Tasks

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MSPs relying on manual processes are generally held back by laborious, repetitive tasks that eat into their resources. Identifying operations and processes that can be automated allows MSPs to direct their employees towards vital functions such as data analysis, strategy building, decision-making, and so on.

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Using an automated system helps convert resolution emails to articles or templates, which can be documented to create an extensive source of incident solutions for your MSP.

Billing and invoicing is another vital area of business that can benefit significantly from automation. Automation can streamline your billing process accurately and precisely and avoid revenue leakage. 

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AI and ML-based systems can comb through the repository every time a new request is received to look for similar tickets and offer a resolution appropriate for the issue at hand. In fact, you will reduce the time to devise a resolution from scratch and increase the efficacy of your solution.

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You can allocate incoming tickets to suitable agents based on their skill set and workload by automating resource allocation. Moreover, chatbots can also assist in resolving common queries with minimal human intervention.

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3. Refine Operations 

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Automation simplifies your business operations, playing a significant role in time management. With bots playing an instrumental role, it's easy to identify obstacles in the workforce, eliminate bottlenecks, and save precious time. 

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Automated systems can perform tasks quicker with fewer errors, which lets your technicians focus more on strategic initiatives than spending their time on operational tasks. The main goal of AI and automation is to help MSPs free up resources to redirect toward core parts of their jobs.

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Chatbots lending hands in sorting incident tickets in an ITSM environment makes it easier for MSPs to respond to client requests. Suppose a client was to raise a ticket to resolve a specific query; the bots instantly revert to a virtual agent who would categorize the incident and accordingly direct them to the concerned team.  

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With the help of ML-based models, AI and automation equip businesses with data mining abilities that offer an advantage in a range of IT service delivery aspects. It can also automate a range of IT operations, from dispatching regular firmware upgrades to leveraging AI-based predictions to prevent outages and downtime.

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By automating tasks like backup and recovery, patch management, and network monitoring, MSPs can provide their services with better accuracy, consistency and speed. The consumers stay faithful to your business and might even spread the word to their family and friends when they know their problems will be treated seriously.

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Thanks to Zomentum you can gain complete control and visibility over your operations, revamping your workflow like never before. Find out how Neotech Network LLP improved its sales workflow with Zomentum.

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4. Improve Cybersecurity

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Cybersecurity is one of the key areas where AI and automation have had a major impact. With modern businesses becoming so data-driven and adopting remote, digital-first solutions, there is a massive upsurge in cyber threats. This has made companies of all verticals worldwide vulnerable to various digital threats such as malware, ransomware, and more. More often than not, customers claim cybersecurity as their primary challenge in IT.

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ML and AI play a vital role in restricting cyber-attacks with the help of automated security technology that identifies vulnerable accounts and allows businesses to develop corrective measures to trigger protective action.

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Apart from prevention, AI bots also help businesses respond to cyber-attacks by securing systems the minute an account is compromised. If anybody is affected by the defect, they are informed immediately, ensuring businesses avoid further harm.

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MSPs handle customer portfolios comprising sensitive data and IT infrastructure, which has to be protected from rising cyber-attacks. Hence, MSPs need advanced security tools to protect against the cyber threats. These tools curb cyber-attacks with the help of automated security technology that identifies anomalies and malicious activities and allows businesses to develop corrective measures to trigger protective action. Automation plays a massive role in bridging the gap between detection and mitigation.

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Automation can also deal with the compliance process, and MSPs can turn to automation to ensure compliance across industries based on the standards. MSPs should use automation and cybersecurity to improve safety, mitigate risks, and offer end-to-end protection to build a strong foundation for the customers' complete IT infrastructure.

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5. Data Collection

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There are several aspects of business that are simple yet time-consuming. This is the best time to consider AI's potential value, where you would not like to waste precious hours of your employees' time.

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Data collection is one such role for AI that could be massively beneficial for MSPs. Using AI-powered software, you can tap into your customers' Internet of Things (IoT) and easily organize their data, like hardware health, network performance, and overall user behavior.

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Once recorded and tracked, AI can evaluate the data and provide insights to help you make strategic and informed business decisions. AI can also analyze individual customer data to identify improvement areas and recommend solutions that lead to openings for you to upsell and cross-sell your services.

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You can improve resource allocation using AI data analysis. For instance, AI can identify which customers utilize maximum resources and recommend ways to optimize resource allocation to increase efficiency and decrease costs. That way, your team can provide the high-priority clients with the attention they need.

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6. Predictive Maintenance

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With sufficient data and a reliable way to analyze it, you can use AI to provide predictive maintenance, which addresses issues and prevents costly downtime.

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AI-based automation can analyze historical data and predict future trends, allowing MSPs to identify potential problems and risks before they occur. It can also predict the subsequent failure across devices or customer networks. They can replace the failing component proactively, preventing needless wait times for the customer. 

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Early detection allows MSPs to prevent problems from escalating, giving them an upper hand. By preventing downtime, you can avoid costly emergency repairs and maintain service availability; proactive AI maintenance saves time and money for your MSP.

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7. Manage Assets

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Managing your clientele's assets is one of the core functions of MSPs. Keeping track of the assets manually and handling them is a lot of work. Monitoring your hardware and software assets guarantees you are on top of your cybersecurity issues.

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Managing your IT assets is complex and prone to risks and errors, mainly if you handle assets at scale. Additionally, there's an added task of keeping checks on future asset necessities and contract renewals.

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Automating the process of handling your IT assets offers visibility into your hardware and software. It enables you to acquire thorough reports on your asset inventory across departments and remote locations.

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Wrapping Up

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In today's technology-driven world, it's more necessary than ever for MSPs to stay relevant and offer the latest technologies to their customers. AI paves a new path for business efficiency and can be a powerful tool for MSPs, especially when incorporated with current workflows. With the appropriate practices, MSPs can protect their business and prevent private data from being compromised.

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By embracing AI-driven technology, MSPs can position themselves to deliver innovative resolutions and drive business growth in the competitive and dynamic managed services industry. 

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Zomentum is the ideal revenue platform for MSPs looking to transform their businesses. Our exciting range of features streamlines everything from payment collection to vendor management. 

‍Book a demo with Zomentum today to unlock the true potential of automation.