Most MSPs think they need more techs to fix their helpdesk problems. They don’t. The real issue isn’t headcount, it’s how the work gets done.
Too many teams are drowning in repetitive tickets, stuck in reactive mode, and burning good engineers on bad work.
But what if your Tier 1 tickets could be handled faster, cheaper, and more accurately, without hiring anyone?
That’s exactly what’s already happening inside some forward-thinking MSPs. They’re not guessing or experimenting. They’re using AI to triage, categorise, and even resolve tickets before a human ever gets involved.
This is a wake up call: if you don’t start using AI on your helpdesk, your competitors will. And they’ll be doing it with fewer staff, better margins, and happier clients.
Let’s break down how they’re doing it, and how you can too.
Contents:
FREE Download: Your MSP Will Fall Behind If You Ignore AI
AI Isn’t the Future. It’s Already Eating Your Tickets
The average MSP’s helpdesk is clogged with the same issues showing up over and over again. Outlook’s not syncing, printers won’t print, password resets, new user setups, MFA issues, VPN access. You know the list.
None of these problems are complex. They don’t require deep investigation or senior engineers. But they do require time, attention, and repetition. And that’s where the real cost sits.
These tickets aren’t hard. But they’re relentless. And every one of them is eating time your techs could be using to work on revenue‑driving projects, client escalations, documentation, automation, or even just improving the way your service desk runs.
Your most valuable people are stuck firefighting the same issues they solved yesterday. And the day before, and the day before that.
- "20% of the problems are probably 80% of the volume. So, if you can automate 20% of the work, that takes a massive chunk of your volume off the table."
That one sentence explains why AI matters more than almost any other technology shift we’ve seen in years. You don’t need to automate everything or have a perfect system, you just need to remove the high‑volume / low‑value work that’s clogging the pipes.
Most of those high-volume tickets don’t need human intervention anymore. Not with the AI tools available today.
AI doesn’t get tired of password resets, forget steps or misclassify tickets, because it’s rushing to clear the queue before lunch. It does the boring, repetitive work consistently – and that consistency is what most service desks are missing.
If you’re not taking that load off your techs now, you’re not just falling behind … you’re actively choosing inefficiency.
Stop Wasting People on Problems AI Can Handle
MSPs are built on people. But that doesn’t mean people should be doing everything.
Your engineers are some of the smartest problem solvers in your business. So why are they still the ones manually tagging tickets? Why are they deciding if something is low or high priority? Or worse, digging through vague client emails to figure out what the issue is?
Don’t burn out your best engineers by asking them to do bad work. Not because the work is beneath them, but because it shouldn’t require a human at all.
Tasks like classification, ticket routing, tagging, prioritising, and categorising don’t need insight or empathy. They need consistency and speed. And no matter how good your techs are, they’ll never beat software at that.
It’s not just the time those tasks take, it’s the opportunity cost.
- “Even if you don’t have dispatchers, someone’s still doing dispatch. Probably your Level 1 techs. So you’re burning your engineers just to process ticket info. That’s a huge waste.”
If your Level 1s are stuck doing admin, they’re not growing. They won’t be evolving into Level 2s or future leaders. You’re just paying them to be slow, expensive middleware gluing together a system that should be able to run without them.
And don’t forget, this isn’t just a tech issue, it’s a culture issue.
If smart people spend their days doing repetitive admin, they don’t feel challenged. They don’t feel valued, they check out, and turnover increases. Morale drops. And you end up in a cycle of hiring, training, and losing people just to keep up with work that software could do for a fraction of the cost.
Want to scale without just adding heads?
Let machines handle the mechanical stuff so humans can focus on complexity, nuance, and relationships, the work only they can do. Give your engineers more time to close the tough tickets. Let them build automation. Document systems. Deliver wow moments for clients.
That’s the kind of work that builds retention, improves margins, and actually grows the business.
Start with Triage, It’s the AI No-Brainer
Before you chase shiny new tools and overcomplicated AI workflows, start with the one thing that will fix 70% of your ticketing chaos – triage.
And no, that doesn’t mean buying a chatbot or plugging ChatGPT into your PSA and hoping for the best.
It means setting up automation that categorises incoming tickets, prioritises them based on urgency and impact, and routes them to the right queue without manual input. Done right, it creates flow, but done manually, it creates drag.
Every ticket that hits your queue needs to go through a decision tree:
1. What kind of problem is this?
2. How urgent is it?
3. Which team should handle it?
4. Is it a recurring issue or a new one?
If a human is answering those questions every time, your helpdesk is already behind.
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“If you're trying to figure out where to start with AI, think about triage. Prioritising tickets, then categorising them.
Just that alone makes a huge impact.”
This one move fixes a lot of hidden problems: slow response times, poor ticket reporting, missed SLAs, even overwhelmed techs chasing the wrong tasks.
If your current system still relies on a human looking at every incoming ticket and manually choosing a category or priority, you’re basically in the stone age.
Once triage is automated, everything else becomes easier. Tickets land in the right place. Priorities match the actual urgency. Reporting becomes meaningful. You get a real sense of what’s breaking and where your volume is coming from.
When that foundation is in place, you’re in a perfect spot to add more automation like self-healing scripts, customer-facing bots, or AI agents that can answer common questions.
Triage automation improves speed, accuracy, and reporting but it also sets the stage for everything else. It’s the domino that knocks over the rest.
Start there, and you’ll thank yourself in three months’ time. Better still, your team and your clients will thank you too.
Dispatch Is Dead. Long Live the Dispatcher?
Here’s a dirty secret of the MSP world: dispatch isn’t gone, you just moved it.
A lot of MSPs will proudly say, “We don’t use dispatchers anymore.” What they usually mean is they’ve shifted that job onto their Level 1s. Or worse, onto no one at all. The role hasn’t disappeared, it’s just been quietly absorbed into the chaos.
And the symptoms are everywhere:
- Tickets piling up in the wrong queues
- Priorities that don’t match reality
- Techs bouncing between tasks they shouldn’t be touching
- Clients waiting days for something that should’ve been done in an hour
The result? Delays, misrouted tickets, wrong priorities, unhappy clients. And a helpdesk that looks busy but isn’t actually moving the needle.
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“A lot of MSPs say, ‘We don’t have dispatchers,’ and think that’s a good thing, but then who’s doing the work? No one.
That’s why your tickets are mislabelled and your clients are complaining about slow response.”
It’s not that you don’t need dispatch anymore, you just need it done smarter. Manually sorting and assigning tickets doesn’t scale. It’s slow, inconsistent, and expensive. And when it’s not done at all, it becomes everyone’s problem.
AI can read a ticket, understand the intent, match it to a category, apply the correct priority, and route it to the right team, all before a human ever touches it.
It doesn’t guess or skip steps, and it doesn’t need a coffee break.
When you remove that friction, your techs get to do what they were actually hired to do, solve problems, not sort them.
You don’t need to replace your staff, you just need to repurposes them.
Instead of burning your engineers on dispatch, you free them up for escalations, strategic projects, and process improvement. You make room for growth both in your business and in your team.
Dispatch is still essential. But it doesn’t need to be manual anymore. Let software do what it’s best at, so your humans can do the stuff that actually moves the business forward.
Don’t Chase Perfection. Go After the 20%
Trying to automate EVERY ticket is a trap.
It sounds appealing, one system to handle everything, zero-touch resolution across the board. But that kind of perfection just doesn’t exist and chasing it will keep you stuck in planning mode while others are already getting results.
You don’t need full coverage to get a massive return. You just need traction. And that starts with the 20% of tickets that show up again and again.
Start by automating the most repetitive issues. The ones that never change and never actually need a human brain involved:
- Password resets
- MFA setup guides
- Wi-Fi not working
- VPN credentials
- Printer issues
- Locked accounts
- Microsoft 365 onboarding
Automating just those categories can clear a path for faster SLA hits and happier clients. That’s the 20% Bobby’s talking about, the low effort, high volume stuff that clogs up your queue and chews through your team’s time.
- “Automating Level 1 doesn't mean doing everything. If you can automate 20% of tasks, that's still a huge volume win.”
And when you knock out that 20%? You free up capacity. You reduce stress. Your SLAs stop slipping. And suddenly, your service desk starts to breathe again.
That change alone creates momentum. Clients notice the faster response. Techs feel less pressure. Your team has time to work on more strategic issues. It becomes a virtuous cycle.
Getting that first 20% right builds confidence in the process. It gives you proof that automation works, not in theory, but in your own environment, with your clients, and your team.
Automation Is Not the Enemy of Experience
Still worried that automation will hurt the customer experience? You’re looking at it wrong.
AI isn’t about replacing human experience; it’s about removing friction.
Think of it like self-service at a supermarket. Most people don’t want to talk to a cashier for milk and bread. They want to get in, get out, and move on with their day. But if the machine doesn’t scan, or something goes wrong? That’s when they want a person. Not before.
And your clients are no different.
They don’t need a tech for every single ticket and they definitely don’t want to submit a request and wait hours for something that could’ve been solved in seconds. They want speed for the basics and smart, clear support when things get complicated.
That’s why when automation is done right, it improves the customer experience. It gives clients the option to resolve their own issues faster. It reduces wait times. It eliminates the “I’ve raised a ticket but haven’t heard anything back” anxiety.
But here’s the catch:
- “If the experience isn't awesome, they won’t use it. You build all this tech, and then they just go back to calling because it’s faster.”
If your AI solution isn’t snappy, helpful, and intuitive – your clients will ignore it. You need automation that actually feels like help.
That means:
- Right answers, delivered quickly
- Clear pathways to escalate when needed
- No dead ends and confusing interfaces
- No “please try again later” loops
Build automation that feels like a concierge, not a maze. Give users control but make sure there’s always a way to reach a human if they need it. This balance is what wins.
If automation makes your clients feel more empowered, not more frustrated, that’s when it becomes a business advantage and not just a tool.
You’re Not Replacing People. You’re Redeploying Them
Implementing AI doesn’t mean you’re getting rid of your team, you’re just using it to level them up.
The fear is understandable. As soon as you mention automation, people assume it means layoffs. But the reality is completely different.
If you’ve got smart dispatchers, Level 1s, or ticket processors, you don’t need to fire them. You need to repurpose them and turn them into:
- Automation leads
- AI product owners
- Internal QA specialists
- Documentation champions
- Client enablement
These are the people who understand your systems, processes, and clients. They know where the gaps are. They’ve lived the pain of repetitive tickets and manual triage. This knowledge is gold. So use it.
When someone knows your stack inside out, they’re in the perfect position to improve it.
- “You don’t want to lose those people. They know your systems, they’re part of your culture. Place them in a new area, one that had no value last year but will next year.”
Think about what you’d pay to hire someone who already understands your clients, your service desk, your tools, and your team. Now realise you already have that person, they just need a new seat at the table.
In other words, train your future ops leads, not your past ticket pushers.
This approach also creates a better culture. Your team sees that AI doesn’t mean layoffs, it means opportunity. They’re not being replaced, they’re being re-skilled. That keeps morale high and turnover low.
If you don’t offer these people a path forward, someone else will. Your best engineers are already getting curious about automation. They’re playing with tools on the side. If they don’t see a future with you, they’ll find one elsewhere.
Your Clients Will Demand This Before You’re Ready
The scariest part? Your clients will be ready for AI before you are.
They’re already experimenting with it. Playing with ChatGPT. Using Microsoft Copilot. It’s already happening in nearly every industry.
And it won’t be long before those same clients turn to their MSP and ask the obvious question: “Can you help us do this properly?”.
If your answer is “We’re still looking into it,” they won’t wait. They’ll find someone who already knows how. Because from their perspective, this isn’t rocket science innovation anymore, it’s just smart business.
- “The future of the MSP is not just managing tickets. It’s helping end users deploy their own AI agents inside their businesses.”
Let that sink in. You’re not just supporting endpoints or patching servers anymore. You’re becoming a trusted guide for clients trying to navigate a tech-heavy world where AI isn’t optional.
Your clients want to see it working, they’re not interested in the theory of it all.
They don’t want a partner who’s AI-curious. They want someone who’s AI-capable.
You need to be the expert who says, “Here’s how you do it right.”
Not the one who says, “We’re not sure about that AI stuff yet.”
Because the question isn’t if clients will ask. It’s whether they’ll ask you, or someone else. And if they don’t see you as the one leading them through this shift, they’ll assume you’re being left behind.
Productise the Solution Before You Pitch It
Don’t pitch the tool. Pitch the outcome. That’s how you sell AI services.
Most MSPs make the mistake of starting with the tech, but your clients don’t care about that. They don’t want to hear about the tool, they want to see what it does.
Show them something real, build a working prototype for a client type you serve often, then show them how an AI assistant can help with real tasks: onboarding new clients, answering repetitive questions, booking appointments.
- “Don’t ask your clients what they want from AI. Show them what’s possible,” Bobby says. “If you work with dentists, build an AI that understands their software. Then say: ‘Click this. See what it does.’”
Clients don’t want to imagine the potential. They want to experience it. They want something that looks polished, solves a real problem, and doesn’t feel like an experiment. And when you show them a tailored, working solution, it builds trust fast.
Here’s how to do it:
- Build one use case
- Make it repeatable
- Wrap it in a clear, simple offer with a set monthly price
- Turn it into a product
- Sell it.
The best part? That product becomes a wedge. It opens the door for deeper discussions around automation strategy, infrastructure upgrades, data security, and long-term enablement. You’re not just fixing tickets anymore. You’re driving transformation.
That’s where real MSP growth lives now, not in selling more endpoints, but in solving higher-value business problems with practical AI.
The ROI Is Real (And Fast)
Still on the fence? Let’s talk results.
This isn’t theory anymore. It’s happening in live environments, with real MSPs, solving real problems and seeing measurable wins.
Thread had one MSP partner cut their resolution time by 36% using just customer facing automations. No overhauls, mass layoffs or major restructuring. Just smart use of tools that take the repeat tickets off their plate.
Another MSP reduced internal ticket traffic by 50% just by automating FAQs and triage. That’s hundreds of tickets each month that never needed to be seen by a human. Gone. Solved. Done.
These are real numbers from MSPs already putting AI to work.
These are basic implementations: automating ticket routing, answering the same five client questions, reducing misclassified tickets, and freeing up tech time.
You don’t need a two year roadmap or a giant change management process to see value. In fact, the biggest ROI tends to come from the simplest use cases, because that’s where the volume lives.
The tools are there. The impact is measurable. The cost of delay is obvious.
Every week you delay is another week your helpdesk stays clogged, your engineers stay overwhelmed, and your margins stay under pressure.
Start small. Measure fast. Scale what works.
You Don’t Need a 5-Year Plan. You Need a 12-Month Goal
You don’t need a 5-year roadmap. You need a 12-month objective and a tactical plan to get there.
What you need is a clear, achievable target you can start hitting this year.
Pick one outcome:
- Faster resolution times
- Fewer tickets per endpoint
- More clients per tech
- Better reporting
- Lower overhead
Then work backward from that point and ask: what’s the simplest automation I could implement to move that number?
Small wins become huge advantages later. Automate one category of tickets today and by next quarter, you’ve reduced workload, improved speed, and opened the door to the next automation. Do that again. Then again.
- “Even if you don’t have dispatchers, someone’s still doing dispatch. Probably your Level 1 techs. So you’re burning your engineers just to process ticket info. That’s a huge waste.”
Each step makes the next one easier.
So where do you start?
One use case. One process. One client. Then scale.
Pick something that’s easy to repeat, test quickly, and prove value. Don’t wait until you can automate everything, start with the 20% that moves the needle now.
Twelve months from now, you’ll either be an MSP that talks about AI, or one that profits from it.
It’s your call.
FREE Download: Your MSP Will Fall Behind If You Ignore AI
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Start With High Volume Wins
Automate the 20% of tickets you see every day and free up your team instantly. -
Use AI to Level Up, Not Lay off
Redeploy smart people into automation, QA, and enablement roles. Evolve the talent you already have in your team. -
Triage Before You Scale
Set strong automation foundations with AI-powered ticket triage. Smarter routing means faster fixes, better SLA', and happier clients.
scaleUP Podcast: Listen to the Full Episode
This blog scratches the surface of what Bobby Jacobs shared with us. If you want to hear the full discussion, including real-world examples, practical frameworks, and future insights – check out the full episode of scaleUP below.
