Your MSP and Your AI Partner: Who to Call for What
Dallon Robinette
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6 min
Managed service providers keep your systems running. An AI transformation partner helps your people get more out of AI. Here's how the two differ, how each gets paid, and who to call for which problem.
If you've ever tried to explain your job at a family barbecue, you know the moment. Someone nods, says "Oh, so you're like a...," and finishes the sentence wrong. For us, that sentence usually ends with "an MSP."
It's an understandable guess, and some of it comes from our own branding. We say we're tool neutral and vendor neutral and happy to work with whatever stack you've got. To anyone who has spent years with IT providers, that sounds an awful lot like a reseller. So here's how the two differ, and who to call for what.
Plenty of the companies we work with have an MSP they like, and they should keep them. The two jobs fit together well.
What an MSP does
A managed service provider, in TechTarget's definition, is "a third-party company that remotely manages a customer's information technology (IT) infrastructure and end-user systems." Day to day, that usually means network management, security monitoring, help desk support, backups, device setup, user accounts, and compliance support.
Most MSPs charge a recurring fee, often monthly and often per user or per device. Many also resell software licenses through vendor partner programs, which lets them roll everything into one bill. It's a sensible setup. Your systems need to work every day, and it's nice to have one number to call when they don't.
IT is also an essential service. Nobody debates whether email needs to work or laptops need security patches, which goes a long way toward explaining why MSP relationships tend to last for years.
What an AI transformation partner does
Our work starts with how your business runs day to day. We map how work moves through the company, task by task, and look for the places where AI could save time or make the work better. We help you pick tools for the problems we find. When nothing off the shelf fits, we build it, from simple workflows to more involved agents and integrations wired into the systems you already use. Then we train your team on what we've built and stick around for the questions.
The goal is for your team to run things on their own. We stay useful by bringing in improvements as the tools change, and the relationship lasts as long as that's worth it to you.
Put simply, we help you pick the right tools, put them to work, and make sure your people use them.
Side by side
Here's the short version.
Managed service provider (MSP) | AI transformation partner (Avolis) | |
|---|---|---|
Main job | Keeps your IT systems secure, available, and supported day to day | Helps your people work better with AI, and builds what's needed to support that |
How they usually get paid | Recurring fee per user, per device, or per service tier; often license resale through vendor programs | Project and partnership fees; no vendor commissions or reseller margins |
Who picks the tools | The MSP, usually from the platforms it supports and partners with | You, with our recommendation, from whatever tools fit your work and budget |
What success looks like | Uptime, fast ticket resolution, no security incidents | Hours saved, better work, and a team that uses the tools on its own |
After go-live | Ongoing monitoring and support | Training, coaching, and regular improvements, with the goal of your team running it |
Main focus | Your systems | Your people and how they work |
Why the business model matters
How a partner gets paid tends to shape the advice you get. That's true of financial advisors, car dealerships, and IT providers, and nobody is a villain for it. It's just worth knowing.
Vendor partnerships are a normal part of how MSPs run. They bring better pricing, training, and support on the platforms the MSP manages, and they naturally center the MSP's expertise on those platforms. For infrastructure, that works well. Standardizing on a few well-supported tools makes everything easier to secure and maintain.
AI moves faster than that. The best tool for a given job can change within a few months, sometimes within one product announcement. So we've chosen to stay tool and vendor neutral. We have no partnerships tied to particular products, and we take no vendor commissions. We recommend whatever fits your business, including tools we don't personally love.
There's a practical side, too. Most companies still treat AI as a discretionary line in the budget, so we can't count on being an essential service. We keep clients by being useful.
Knowing which tools to use has also become the easiest part. A consultant, an AI assistant, or our own blog will give you roughly the same list, and we'll happily share ours. The harder work is helping a team change how it operates and staying involved until the change holds.
Who to call for what
Your MSP is who you call when the printer seems possessed, a new hire needs a laptop by Monday, or someone clicked a link they definitely shouldn't have. We're who you call when your team has AI tools and mostly uses them to rewrite emails, or when you'd like quoting to take ten minutes instead of an afternoon.
Call your MSP when:
A laptop won't connect, a printer is down, or someone's locked out of their account
You're onboarding a new hire who needs a computer, accounts, and access
You need backups, security patching, or threat monitoring
You're working through a compliance requirement on your IT systems
Call an AI partner when:
Your team has AI tools but mostly uses them like a search engine
You want to know where AI could save real time in your operation, and what to tackle first
You want to automate a specific process, like quoting, scheduling, intake, or reporting
You've rolled out an AI tool before and adoption stalled
You need training built around each role's actual work
Bring both in when:
A new AI tool needs access to company data, accounts, or permissions
You need a security review before connecting AI to your systems
An automation touches infrastructure your MSP manages
That last group comes up a lot, and it's where the two partners work best together. Boston Consulting Group's research found that about 70 percent of the challenges companies face with AI come from people and process, 20 percent from technology, and 10 percent from the algorithms. A good MSP is a great partner on the technology part: data, access, security, and reliability. We spend most of our time on the people and process side, and we're glad to share the work with your MSP on the rest.
The short version
Your MSP keeps your systems running. We help your people get more out of AI and build what's needed to make that work. Plenty of companies that get real value from AI end up with both, and everyone gets along fine.
If you're not sure which kind of help you need right now, our AI Readiness Evaluation is a good place to start. It shows where AI could make a difference in your operation, and if there's nothing worth automating, we'll tell you.
Sources
TechTarget, "What is a managed service provider (MSP)?": https://www.techtarget.com/searchitchannel/definition/managed-service-provider
Boston Consulting Group, "AI Adoption in 2024: 74% of Companies Struggle to Achieve and Scale Value" (October 24, 2024): https://www.bcg.com/press/24october2024-ai-adoption-in-2024-74-of-companies-struggle-to-achieve-and-scale-value
Avolis, "How It Works": https://www.avolis.ai/how-it-works
Avolis, "Why Avolis": https://www.avolis.ai/why-avolis
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