March 27, 2025
Hey MSPs - Do You Offer AI Consulting Services Yet?
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just a buzzword that tech businesses use to impress their stakeholders. It’s changing the way organizations operate, from informing executives’ strategic decisions to automating routine tasks within operations. Managed service providers (MSPs) have a major opportunity to capitalize on these market transformations by offering AI consulting services.
SEE ALSO: Enterprise AI Governance: Ensuring Trust and Compliance
As trusted technology providers, MSPs are in a unique position. Clients already turn to your team for advice regarding both hardware and software, and conversations about AI are likely already beginning to happen organically. By productizing AI consulting services and equipping your team with the knowledge they’ll need to have informed recommendations, you can help answer questions for your clients such as:
- Do we have the right AI strategy in place?
- Are we exposing ourselves to compliance risks?
- Are there other AI risks we aren’t aware of?
If your MSP isn’t offering AI consulting services yet, now is the time to start.
The Business Case for Offering AI Consulting Services
AI Governance Is Critical, Especially in Regulated Industries
AI adoption is accelerating across most, if not all, industries. One group of those sectors, though, faces a higher amount of AI risks than others. Organizations in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and insurance handle sensitive consumer data and often make decisions that impact patients’ and customers’ lives in significant ways.
Without a reliable, comprehensive AI risk management platform, your clients might be unknowingly exposing themselves to AI risks that can damage their reputation and their business by:
- Using AI models that store or share sensitive customer data improperly.
- Relying on AI-generated decisions without transparency or human review.
- Violating ethical AI standards, leading to reputational damage.
As an MSP, you have the opportunity to step in and help. By offering AI consulting services including compliance audits, AI security assessments, policy development, and AI monitoring, you can help clients to adopt AI safely and securely.
AI Enhances Existing MSP Services
Adding AI consulting doesn’t just expand your service offerings—it strengthens your core MSP solutions. AI can complement and enhance the IT services you already provide, including:
- Cybersecurity – AI-driven threat detection and real-time anomaly monitoring.
- Helpdesk Support – AI-powered automation, chatbots, and virtual assistants to improve response times.
- Network Management – AI-driven optimization, predictive maintenance, and proactive issue resolution.
- AI Risk Assessment & Mitigation – Analysis of the vulnerabilities introduced by AI use and the potential of correlated cyberattacks.
By integrating AI into your existing service stack, your MSP can offer greater efficiency, improved security, and proactive risk mitigation—adding even more value for your clients.
How to Get Started with AI Consulting Services
Before you begin offering AI consulting services, we recommend strategically thinking through your clients needs and how you can position AI as an extension of your existing services.
Identify Your Clients’ AI Needs
If your MSP specializes in certain industries, then considering the compliance requirements is a great place to start. However, every business has different use cases for AI. Insurance companies using AI to enhance fraud detection will have different needs than AI portfolio management in finance, and both will have different needs than a programming firm using AI to support their engineers.
After you’ve identified use cases for your clients, determine the greatest opportunities and risks they face. Automation, cybersecurity, and data analytics are a few common needs that may apply to your clients.
Partner with Trusted AI Vendors
With thousands of AI tools on the market, businesses need help choosing secure and compliant solutions. Your MSP can simplify this by vetting AI vendors and providing unbiased recommendations based on your expert assessment. While evaluating these vendors, consider the following factors:
- Does this vendor offer enterprise-grade AI monitoring features that can scale with my clients as they grow?
- Do these tools integrate well with my MSP’s existing service stack (e.g., AI-enhanced cybersecurity, IT automation, or business intelligence solutions)?
By thoroughly and thoughtfully assessing AI governance platforms before bringing them up to your clients, you’ll have the opportunity to build trust while enhancing your service offerings and growing your bottom line.
Get Ahead in AI Consulting
AI is no longer optional—it’s a critical technology that businesses need help navigating. Reach out regarding becoming a partner today.