How MSPs can learn to stop worrying and love AI

“I’m both a Boomer and a Doomer.”

That’s how actor, author, and technology nerd Stephen Fry described his take on artificial intelligence (AI) in an appearance this week at ChannelCon EMEA in London.

The reason for Fry’s pessimism, he said, lies in how AI is exploited by the owners of social media platforms, who appear to shrug off all responsibility for their influence on children, and how they resist even the slightest suggestion of guardrails or caution.

“As with every major technology before it, AI will inevitably be exploited: by states seeking power and control, by militaries for warfare and dominance, by corporations chasing profit, and by criminals pursuing wealth and influence through illegal means,” he noted.

That said, Fry is hopeful that AI can also provide the tools needed to confront those threats. He contends that AI holds the power to end some of humanity’s most devastating diseases, and tackle problems as immense as climate change.

“That’s the paradox: the same force that threatens us may also be our best hope for survival,” he said.

Fry’s speech to IT service providers (ITSPs) could easily be applied to where channel partners currently sit. Tech vendors continue to beat the AI drum to the point that the noise drowns out everything else. Partners are told they need to embrace the technology or risk being left behind by their competitors. The pace at which AI is evolving is catching even seasoned tech veterans by surprise.

How, then, can ITSPs manage to grab the reins of the speeding horse that is AI? How can they fulfil the demands of their clients (who may not be entirely sure of their demands, beyond ‘needing’ AI), and how do they best implement AI within their own businesses to capture the opportunities it promises?

How can AI generate revenues for the channel?

Unsurprisingly, how AI can be put to use by ITSPs was a key talking point of ChannelCon, which emphasised ‘Human Intelligence’ as a theme.

“AI is clearly one of the undeniable forces in our industry beyond today,” said Carolyn April, vice president of research and market intelligence at the Global Technology Industry Association (GTIA), which hosted the event.

“ITSPs in the UK and Ireland are starting to figure out how to generate revenue from AI,” she said.

“It’s no longer simply an internal solution that they’re using in their businesses, but they’re starting to figure out how to make money, whether that’s through consulting, whether that’s through some sort of product sale, but they’re beginning to see some headway there. I know that it’s been a very challenging – and almost scary couple of years – trying to figure out how to do that.”

According to GTIA figures, 55% of ITSPs in the UK and Ireland say AI will be a significant revenue driver this year, versus 37% that said so in 2024. For some, what began as internal tinkering – automating ticket triage, speeding remediation, generating content – has started to turn outward into sellable revenue lines that scale beyond hourly labour.

For many MSPs, AI may still be a small slice of total revenue (think 2% becoming 4%), but the growth rate and direction are heading in the right direction.

The big question for ITSPs is what to sell: simple licence resale, like Microsoft Copilot, or higher-end, outcome-led solutions that blend models, data, workflow automation, and change management? The smart money is on the latter, particularly where providers can codify what works internally into repeatable IP for clients.

One of the key messages from the GTIA is that providers who frame themselves as ‘business solutions firms’ (not just tech services) are seeing growing demand for application development and low-code work – often inside verticals like manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.

“Every single individual here in the audience is going to figure out a different way to incorporate AI into their business,” April told attendees.

AI put to work in sales and marketing

The number one way in which those firms are using generative AI today is as a sales and marketing tool, according to the GTIA. They are leveraging it for lead-gen augmentation, marketing ops, sales intelligence, and AI-assisted analytics.

However, in a session designed to advise MSPs on using AI in their sales and marketing, the message was this: AI can automate, but only humans can connect. Sales leader Tara-Jane Sloane issued a warning to partners to be cautious about relying solely on AI for sales and marketing.

She said that while AI is not going away and can be useful for automating repetitive, low-level tasks, it cannot replace the human element required for high-value, consultative selling.

“AI is not human intervention,” she added. “It has a loss of nuance. It has no tone of voice. It does not understand the psychology or end user space it's playing in, but also, more importantly for MSPs, unless you have resources internally to monitor and mentor it and work it, which is a full-time job, you are putting your business at a disservice.”

Her advice was that MSPs should use AI to support and streamline certain processes, but always ensure that human oversight, emotional connection, and personalised engagement remain central to their sales and marketing strategies.

It’s still early days for AI

That all said, it’s time for a reality check: we’re only in the early stages of the AI era. In a ‘State of the Channel’ session, GTIA board director Tracey Pound said, “AI is still so much in its infancy that to say ‘this is what I’m doing, I’m an expert in it’ – tomorrow, it’s going to be different. The AI tools will be different. Whatever is building them will be different.”

AI is tracking the cloud playbook: initial hype, inevitable reality checks, and a more durable wave that rewards operators who learn fast and ship outcomes rather than shiny objects.

Fry’s “Boomer and Doomer” paradox lands squarely in the channel’s lap. The fact is that AI is both an accelerant and a risk multiplier: it will widen margins through automation and new solution IP, and it will widen attack surfaces if security is an afterthought.

The winners won’t be those who simply resell licences or flood the funnel with AI-written emails; they’ll be the ITSPs that package repeatable, governed, and secure outcomes, grounded in a client’s data, workflows, and sector realities, and price them with confidence.