ConnectWise Exec: ‘We Are In The Period Of AI Implementation’

‘We are in the installation phase of hyperautomation at this point in time,’ says Jake Varghese, executive vice president and general manager of business management for ConnectWise. ‘There are going to be winners and there are going to be losers—there is no in between.’

As more and more IT companies experiment with AI and automation tools, this will be the year where AI goes from experimentation to implementation, said one ConnectWise executive.

“We are in the installation phase of hyperautomation at this point in time,” said Jake Varghese, executive vice president and general manager of business management for Tampa, Fla.-based MSP platform vendor ConnectWise. “There are going to be winners and there are going to be losers—there is no in between. You cannot sit on the fence and say, ‘Let this person go figure it out, I’ll come by later.’

This year marks the next phase in AI, he said.

“In 2023 we were in the age of experimentation, and in 2024 we are in the period of implementation,” he added.

Varghese spoke Sunday to a room of solution providers at CRN parent The Channel Company’s XChange 2024 event, taking place this week in Orlando, Fla.

Hyperautomation is currently in its installation phase, he said, and businesses must lean in to enhance productivity, creativity and efficiency.

What AI has started to do is solve complex problems, and the next phase of innovation is humans and AI complementing each other, according to Varghese. AI is also making multilingual performance a reality.

It also is helping to promote critical thinking, enhance micro-productivity practices and help with knowledge fragmentation, he said.

Varghese spotlighted ConnectWise Sidekick, an AI companion launched in November 2023 designed for faster problem resolution, automation of complex tasks and increased efficiency for every role inside an MSP.

“It’s all about driving productivity, unlocking creativity and just boosting efficiency for you,” he said.

When ConnectWise thinks about AI, he said, it’s divided into three categories.

“The first one is taking your data and augmenting it to give you insight,” he said. “The second piece is now building company insight and predicting certain outcomes on your behalf. The third one, and this is where the magic truly happens, is where we take the power of AI combined with the power of RPA [robotic process automation] and with the power of intelligent workflows be able to run workflows on your behalf and with your approval.”

And the vendor isn’t done there. In the future, MSPs can expect to build their own RPA bots and work with AI-driven language processing workflows, he said. ConnectWise is also implementing a new form designer, a new integration service and additional security controls.

Tom Wyant, co-founder of Traverse City, Mich.-based MSP Wyant Technologies, said the investments ConnectWise is making in AI look impressive.

“If it’s as easy as they say it is, it’s going to be a game-changer for their partners,” he told CRN. “I’m interested to see how this plays out because the way they roll it in where it’s one solution instead of having to bolt on pieces to make it work looks to be pretty powerful.”

He’s also eager to see, as Varghese mentioned, how AI will soon adapt to how the user works rather than the other way around.

“We’ve spent years working around the systems,” he said. “It’s always been, ‘What will the system do, and how do we make it do what we want?’ It’ll be interesting to see how the AI adapts. It’ll be nice to be able to work the way you want to work instead of having to work the way AI or other systems want you to work.”