In two sessions at the 2026 MSP Summit Tuesday, AI strategist and trainer Bethanie Nonami said AI is a new world for IT teams. And that can be profitable, but also scary and dangerous.
Nonami addressed AI in her marquee keynote and also in a deep dive breakout along with Marcial Velez of MSP 501 company Xperteks.
“The challenge is that buying AI is very different from buying software,” Nonami said. “There are so many more layers, from the psychology and fear of it to shadow AI. People are afraid to tell anyone what they're using, even when there's PII or client-confidential data involved. They're not thinking about whether it puts the company at risk. They're thinking about whether they'll keep their job. If I use it, do I look weak, or do I look like a rock star? Leaders don't know how to communicate about that either. All this uncertainty is uncomfortable. If you're a Type A person who wants step one, step two, step three, this instead feels like falling off a cliff into a gray abyss where maybe something lifts you up and maybe it doesn't.
“But being open and transparent helps: ‘Listen, we're still figuring this out. We're trying to figure out how to use it in our own business. But I want you to be aware of some of the things I'm seeing.’"
She pointed out with software such as Microsoft Office apps and certifications, people could establish credentials as experts. “And there's none of that with AI. It's not what we're used to, and I'm not comfortable looking stupid,” Nonomi said. “In some cases I don't have the right answer, and I don't know how to sugarcoat that with my clients, if I'm being honest.”
AI even changes the rules of governance, she said.
“For many companies, governance comes after buying the tool, and it needs to come before [with AI,]” Nonami said. “They don't know that because there was no governance policy when they bought Office or Zoom. So even just educating them that this is different is a start. It isn't just a tool.
“Then think about agents. Now you're introducing things that reason, make decisions, and try to improve and optimize, but could be wrong. How do you go from ‘get better at email’ to controlling an agentic workforce that they have to be accountable for to make sure it acts safely and ethically? We're not thinking about that when 97 people are asking whether they can have ChatGPT and we say, ‘Yes, here, take it.’"
When an MSP in the audience expressed worry that AI could turn his company into a software developer, Nonami pointed out there are tools that could help him avoid that.
“I don't think you have to build all the time,” she said. “There are so many solutions already on the market. There's a website called There's an AI for That, which is overwhelming, and you have to be specific. Don't say ‘sales,’ or you'll get 400,000 solutions. But there are lots of prebuilt solutions that make good starting points. Marblism is one. I don't have time to build an agent whose job is to go through my inbox and calendar, and I don't need to, because it's built. I'll pay more for it because it's built for me and my data is in that system. So I don't think you necessarily need to be a software developer.”
Another area where AI can change the game is how MSPs price their services.
“We have to be careful about pricing on time and materials when we're really pricing better outcomes and bigger problems solved, which have far more value than just building a solution,” she said. “We've been conditioned to think it's our time and materials. This is different. I'm solving business problems for a customer that has never been able to solve them, and there's an ROI to that, some quantitative and some qualitative.”
In the interactive deep dive session, MSPs in the audience also added their own tips for using AI.
“MSPs are becoming more effective business strategists than we've ever been,” said Ahmed Mahmood, CEO of Ocean Solutions (No. 84 on the 2026 MSP 501). “We're not just solving technology problems. Use AI: upload your ICP [ideal customer profile] and ask it to teach you about your client's business, their challenges, how they make money, how they meet customers, how they leak revenue, how they lose relationships, what's eating them from the inside. Learn their business. Cybersecurity elevated us to talk to CFOs and CEOs, and AI is promoting us to sit with boards and CEOs. We need to speak to their business as part of it. If we don't know how their business runs, we'll just sit there talking irrelevant technology chatter that goes nowhere.”
Nonami agreed with that tip. “And AI can help you know their business better than they do,” she said. “They don't know what they don't know, and neither do we, but we have more resources now than ever, and we figured out harder things with fewer resources. If you solve a problem within a business, it's your IP. You can license it and sell it to other businesses if you want to.”