How artificial intelligence is revolutionising RMM for MSPs in Australia

Australian businesses are embracing artificial intelligence (AI), and managed service providers (MSPs) need to as well. With AI, MSPs can improve client service, cut costs and reduce complexity. They can get more done with less.

That’s particularly true in the realm of remote monitoring and management (RMM), the technology that set MSPs free and enabled them to move from a break-fix model to providing cloud-based services. Several types of AI are converging to reshape RMM. Some are in place and others are still emerging, but MSPs that want to maximise both profit and efficiency need to be ready to embrace them all or risk falling behind competitors and losing clients.

Enthusiasm for AI in Australia is strong, and MSPs need to be on the bandwagon. A recent Canva study revealed that 81% of Australian businesses consider AI crucial to their long-term strategic plans — the highest percentage of any country in the world.

The Australian Industry Group recently found that 52% of businesses already report adopting AI, with service providers leading the charge.

MSPs that don’t adopt AI are likely to fall behind their competitors and have trouble bringing in new clients. But how can MSPs take advantage of AI now so they won’t fall behind? What can they do to improve operations, boost client services and increase profitability?

For starters, AI-based scripting in RMM solutions generates and edits administrative scripts in seconds for remote endpoint management. And there are two new AI-based features in the latest version of Acronis RMM:

This capability lets you reduce patching risks and protect uptime with AI-driven insights. You can avoid client disruptions by flagging unstable patches for testing or delay and automatically detect emerging issues through open-source intelligence.

With Acronis Copilot, an assistant based on generative AI enables you to simplify complex software rollouts with AI-powered automation. Copilot instantly generates install and uninstall commands, return codes and package metadata.

But even with those advancements, the combination of AI and RMM is still in its infancy. As it emerges, the combination of AI and RMM will open a wide set of new capabilities for MSPs, including:

• Automation at scale: AI will enable MSPs to automate complex workflows end to end, including IT operations, supply chain management and customer support.
• Service differentiation: MSPs can already differentiate their services by improving client service using capabilities such as AI-based scripting. As it continues to develop, AI will enable forward-looking MSPs to offer automated services that are faster and more reliable.
• Digital labour transformation: With AI-based automation, hiring expertise to run clients’ systems will cease to be a major issue, and technicians will increasingly be able to focus on tasks other than responding reactively to client issues.
• Risk and governance: AI will enable MSPs to improve their ability to deliver oversight, risk management and compliance.

ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms have grabbed headlines, but other fields of AI are emerging and converging.

Gartner notes that one of the leading trends in AI for IT is composite AI, which is actually a combination of several AI fields: The breakthrough is that multiple forms of AI working together are more powerful, accurate and reliable than a single form of AI working alone.

As its name suggests, agentic AI enables MSPs to establish virtual “agents” that can recognise and resolve issues proactively and without MSP intervention. Unlike generative AI, Agentic AI can autonomously make decisions and take actions to achieve complex goals with minimal or no human supervision. Agentic AI infused in RMM will empower MSPs to get more done with fewer resources. It will also drastically improve client protection by making it proactive rather than reactive.

While AI as a driving element of RMM is still an emerging concept, MSPs — particularly in Australia, where AI is popular — need to know now where AI can take them both today and in the future.

Acronis RMM already embraces AI with automated scripting, among other capabilities. MSPs can be confident that the solution will continue to be on the forefront of the combination of AI and RMM.