[Opinion] It's time to rethink the MSP machine

Let’s be honest for a moment — we’re all making this up as we go.

The pace of change in our industry is dizzying. One minute we’re mastering the latest Microsoft release, the next we’re elbow-deep in AI prompts, automation flows, and clients asking if Copilot can run their board meetings. There’s no playbook for what comes next, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either selling something or lying to themselves.

And yet, what a time to be alive.

The duality is real: it’s terrifying and thrilling all at once. As MSPs, we’ve always worn many hats — part technologist, part therapist, part triage nurse. But in this season, we’re also becoming architects of entirely new ways of working. That’s not a tweak to the model — that’s a tectonic shift.

At The Virtual IT Department, we’ve embraced that shift head-on. We don’t pretend to have it all figured out, but we do know one thing for sure: the business we run today won’t be the one we run 36 months from now. The entire mechanism of delivery is changing. So we’re not trying to bolt on AI and automation. We’re rethinking the machine.

Why we’re betting big on automation and AI

We’ve built an internal team we call AACE — our Automation and AI Centre of Excellence. It’s our little skunkworks for building, testing and deploying automations across our client base and internal ops. We’re not automating for novelty’s sake — we’re doing it to empower our clients to move faster, with fewer dependencies on us.

We’re building tools and self-serve platforms that let clients initiate their own user onboardings, permission changes and routine tasks without waiting on a technician. That’s not just more efficient — it’s transformational. We are doing this because we deeply believe the future of successful MSPs lies in enabling clients to be the catalyst of action in their business, not passengers on the IT bus.

But what about value?

If you are reading the above and thinking…”but what will be our role?”, you aren’t alone. Of course, the moment you make things feel “too easy” for clients, the value conversation starts shifting. We have been looking in the mirror and asking some hard questions: If we’re not defined by tickets, how do we prove our worth? The answer lies in outcomes — business enablement, productivity gains, and our ability to connect with the human beyond the technology.

We’ve turned our focus to culture. We live by the mantra “high tech, high touch” — because when the tech gets more complex, our relationships have to get stronger. That human layer of trust, communication and strategic guidance is the value clients will always need, no matter how many bots we deploy.

Looking ahead — (…as far as we can see)

We’re also beginning to explore the next horizon — AI agents. We’re not there yet (and we’re not pretending to be), but we believe that within a few years, delivering workforce capability to our clients through AI agents will become a core part of our offering.

These agents won’t replace our clients’ people — but they’ll augment teams, take on repetitive tasks, and provide consistent value in a multitude of ways. It’s early days, but the direction is firm: an AI agent for every staff member. Capable, embedded, business-savvy agents helping SMEs punch above their weight.

To my fellow MSPs reading this

If it feels overwhelming, that’s because it is. If you’re not sure where to start, neither were we. The trick isn’t to have a 10-year plan. It’s to start with curiosity, carve out space to experiment, and back your team to grow with you. In my opinion there has never been a more important time to foster creativity, play and vision in our businesses to see our teams rally behind one of the most transformational times in our industries history.

This is a time to be bold, to build with heart and deliver with guts. I am convinced that the MSPs that thrive in this new world won’t be the ones who know all the answers — they’ll be the ones who aren’t afraid to keep asking better questions.

Let’s get to work.

Anna Furlong is Executive Director of Melbourne-based MSP The Virtual IT Department. Hear her share how the business has automated more than 50 workflows and saved 160+ hours per month, freeing up staff to focus on higher-value work; and the firm's plans to take this further for customers with AI agents, at the Pipeline conference on August 14.

Pipeline is Australia's premier conference for IT channel partners and takes place from 12th to 14th August, 2025, at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Gold Coast, Queensland. See the Pipeline agenda and register for your ticket.