In recent years, the managed service provider industry has undergone a significant transformation with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). The game-changing technology enables MSPs to not only increase the speed at which they complete business tasks and customer requests, but it also allows them to streamline operations and dedicate more time to growing a profitable business. AI is increasingly being adopted by MSPs and integrated within their help desks to improve customer support, service delivery, and employee satisfaction—all of which is helping MSPs scale.
Traditionally, MSPs have relied on human agents to provide customer support and help manage operations. However, with the rise of AI, businesses can now start to automate day-to-day tasks, freeing up their technician’s time to focus on more profit-focused projects. Implementing an AI-powered help desk enables MSPs to offer 24/7 customer support. This is a huge advantage for any customer, as the need to solve matters quickly and efficiently is paramount in today’s fast-paced business environment.
The Power of Chatbots
Often the 24/7 support will come through AI-powered chatbots. Using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, customers can now interact with businesses in real time, getting quick, uninterrupted responses to their issues. Further, since chatbots can handle a large volume of requests simultaneously, customer requests are being processed quickly and efficiently, reducing response time dramatically.
Chatbots are very clever. They can identify the customer’s issues by analyzing their language, context, and previous interaction history. In doing so, the more basic and less complex issues can be solved with little to no human interaction, improving customer satisfaction while significantly reducing the technicians’ workload on the service desk.
AI-Powered Predictive Analytics Tools
Chatbots are not the only tool that can analyze specific data. MSPs now have access to AI-powered predictive analytics tools that can pull data from their help desks to identify patterns and trends as well as predict issues. For instance, AI can analyze networks and identify any suspicious behavior that could indicate a security breach, allowing service desk technicians to proactively take steps to stop the breach from escalating. Doing so has already saved the business and the customer time and money.
Furthermore, AI-powered help desks offer improved accuracy and consistency compared with human agents. They can quickly process data and identify patterns to provide faster and more accurate solutions to customer queries. Again, this dramatically reduces the workload for the service desk technicians. By having the tools to predict problems and mitigate them before they even occur, your customers won’t need to submit a ticket and probably won’t even be aware of the problem!
Automated Ticketing
Another key benefit of AI-powered help desks is automated ticketing solutions. Using AI to analyze incoming tickets and grouping them based on urgency and complexity, the agent can resolve tickets quickly and efficiently. This will save MSPs a tremendous amount of time and money since they no longer need to use their talented techs to sift through a sea of endless tickets, a mundane and repetitive task.
With reduced ticket resolution times and insights into customer behavior and preferences, MSPs stand to win more business as a result of being able to tailor their services to meet the needs of each customer. AI is streamlining how MSPs operate, helping them enhance their businesses efficiently, accurately, and quickly—all highly sought-after qualities customers seek. As AI starts to play a larger role in how businesses operate, MSPs must lean into it if they want to remain key players in their retrospective areas.
NIC FERRARO is COO of Pia, an intelligent automation platform that integrates with existing ITSM tools to simplify processes, free up resources, and improve operational efficiencies.
