Former Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola, now Simpro Group CEO, has written a book on AI. In The Coming Disruption: How AI First Will Force Organizations to Change Everything or Face Destruction, Voccola urges business to adopt an "AI-first" approach to capitalize on AI’s benefits and avoid being left behind.
He claims AI is doubling business productivity in six to 12 months and explains that AI-first organizations are already seeing 70% to 110% worker productivity gains in a single year. That shift is faster than the Industrial or Internet revolutions.
You can read an excerpt of the book here. We interviewed Voccola to get his insights on what AI means to businesses, how it will impact jobs and what he thinks about fears of an AI bubble.
MSP Summit: In your book, you write that AI is the most powerful disruption in history. What makes it different, even compared to the internet and the cloud?
Voccola: Because AI doesn’t just move information faster, it actually does the work. The internet connected people and the cloud made computing cheaper, faster, and more scalable. AI replaces large portions of human effort itself. That’s the fundamental difference.
We’ve never had a tool that can take cognitive work, analysis, writing, decision support, coordination and scale it instantly without new infrastructure, factories, or long adoption cycles. AI can double productivity in months, not decades. That speed, combined with how broadly it applies across jobs and industries, is what makes it unlike anything we’ve seen before.
How do you define an “AI-first” organization?
Voccola: An AI-first organization doesn’t use AI, it operates around it. AI becomes the primary engine for execution, while humans focus on direction, judgment, and outcomes. Workflows are designed assuming AI is doing most of the heavy lifting, not just helping people do the same jobs a little faster.
If AI isn’t central to how work gets done, how decisions are made, how output is produced, how teams are structured, then you’re not AI-first. You’re experimenting.
There are reports suggesting many AI projects haven’t delivered ROI. Yet you say AI-first organizations are doubling productivity within a year. Why the perception gap?
Voccola: Because most companies are layering AI on top of broken systems. They add tools without changing how work actually happens and expect results. That doesn’t work. Real gains come when organizations redesign roles, workflows, and accountability from the ground up, assuming AI is doing most of the execution.
AI-first companies change how decisions are made, how teams are sized, and how output is measured. Everyone else just adds software and hopes for efficiency. That gap compounds very quickly.
Fred Voccola
What is the biggest misconception about AI today?
Voccola: That adoption is the hard part. Using AI is easy. Changing how organizations operate is hard. Most people think the challenge is technical, but it’s not, it’s leadership, ownership, and willingness to move fast. AI doesn’t fail because the technology isn’t ready. It fails because organizations aren’t ready to change how they work.
AI is driving economic growth, but many worry about an AI bubble. How should investors think about this?
Voccola: Ignore the hype cycle and focus on productivity and margins. Some companies will absolutely be overvalued and that happens with every major technology shift. But AI is already producing real output gains inside organizations today, and markets eventually price that reality in.
The real question isn’t whether AI is “overhyped.” It’s which companies are structurally positioned to capture AI-driven productivity and which ones aren’t.
Do you expect AI to create more jobs or eliminate them overall?
Voccola: In the near term, it will eliminate a meaningful number of white-collar jobs. That doesn’t mean work disappears, it means fewer people are needed to produce the same or greater output. That’s how productivity gains have always worked, and this one is happening much faster.
Over time, new roles will emerge. But the transition will be uneven, uncomfortable, and fast, and not everyone will benefit equally.
Who benefits most from this shift, and who is most at risk?
Voccola: People who benefit are those who think in outcomes, not tasks, and people who can direct AI, make decisions, and adapt quickly. That applies across industries, from technology to the trades.
Those most at risk are roles built around process management, coordination, and repetition. AI is extremely good at those things. The future rewards ownership, judgment, and adaptability. Everything else gets compressed.