AI Automation for MSP Scalability with Pia (EP 1031)

David and I sit down on Radio Row at Pax8 Beyond 2026 to talk about the real-world impact of AI automation on MSP operations and service delivery. David shares how Pia moved from educating the market pre‑ChatGPT to now serving a much more AI‑aware MSP community, and why waiting on the sidelines is a risky growth strategy if you want to keep up with demand.

We walk through Pia’s Engage stack—PiaChat in Microsoft Teams and resolution‑driven smart forms that turn conversations and requests directly into completed tickets—plus a growing automation hub that lets vendors and MSPs publish and share proven runbooks. David explains how Pia’s out‑of‑the‑box automations free up level one techs, protect level twos from onboarding backlogs, and give MSPs room to focus on higher‑value projects instead of reinventing tools that already exist.

=== Chapters

• 00:24 PIA’s New Leadership
• 02:27 Seeing MSPs Differently
• 03:32 AI Competition Heats Up
• 07:18 Building on the Platform
• 10:11 Teams Chat Launch
• 11:48 New Features and Integrations
• 14:11 Level One in Transition
• 17:15 First Impressions of Utah
• 18:25 Pax8 Marketplace Debut
• 20:01 Skiing, Surfing, and Wrap-Up

=== Guest: David Schwartz, Pia

• Website: https://pia.ai/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-m-schwartz

=== Shout-outs

• Tim Coach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-coach/

=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books

• Pia Chat: https://pia.ai/news/introducing-pia-chat-msp-automation-in-teams-pia
• Pax8: https://www.pax8.com
• Pax8 Beyond (event): https://www.pax8beyond.com
• ChatGPT (OpenAI): https://openai.com/chatgpt
• Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-teams
• OpenAI: https://openai.com

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=== Connect with Uncle Marv

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