N-able Pursues AI-Powered Automation for MSP Operations

N-able is working with managed service providers (MSPs) to make their operations more efficient using artificial intelligence agents. The company’s goal is to move beyond simple tasks and toward fully automated IT management, while still having humans oversee security, compliance, and critical business processes.

The idea behind this approach is for AI to generate a new revenue stream rather than just being used on individual projects. According to Laura Dubois, group vice president of product management at N-able, the industry has yet to widely adopt AI as an ongoing service. ‘We’ve not fully moved into using AI as a continuous service,’ she said.

Right now, many MSPs use AI for customer education and policy development, often in one-off projects with tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. But Dubois believes the biggest opportunity lies in turning these capabilities into regular services that help businesses transition from project-based work to steady revenue streams.

One example of how N-able’s technology can make MSPs’ jobs easier is an AI agent that analyzes information across multiple systems and generates a quarterly business review summary in just minutes. This shows how N-able’s tech can cut down the time spent on repetitive tasks for MSPs, freeing them up to focus on other areas.

N-able’s approach focuses on creating an ‘autonomous control plane’ by combining AI agents with procedures, integrations, and governance. This allows MSPs to manage AI across different systems. The company is also working on adding AI detection into its products so that businesses can see how customers are using these tools.

For instance, if a customer standardizes on Microsoft Copilot but uses ChatGPT for sensitive data, the AI agent will notice this and alert the business to potential security risks. Dubois emphasized that understanding what’s visible and in use is key both for the MSPs and their clients. ‘Knowing what you can see and how your tools are being used – whether it’s part of your normal operations or outside of expected patterns – is really important,’ she said.

N-able aims to give businesses a clear path from experimenting with AI towards fully controlled automation, which will eventually lead to new services based on the outcomes generated by these technologies. This could create opportunities for MSPs as vendors build marketplaces where they can find and deploy agents.

Chelsea Skinner, president and CEO of Oversee My IT, believes that this shift in focus on ‘agentic AI’ might encourage more businesses to start building their own AI-powered tools and moving forward in this area. Her team has already tested internally with developing AI for tasks such as dispatching tickets and reviewing emails.

N-able’s vision marks a fundamental change towards automating IT operations, but still having humans oversee critical processes that require oversight. As the industry evolves further, it will be interesting to see how businesses adapt to this new environment – and leverage these tools to simplify their services even more.

The impact of N-able’s initiative could extend beyond just MSPs, as vendors create marketplaces for deploying agents. This shift towards controlled automation using AI-driven outcomes will continue to shape the industry in significant ways.