From Hype to Hands-On: How SMBs and MSPs Can Adopt AI with Confidence

This episode of the Enterprise Task Podcast features Nadir Merchant, GM of Kaseya’s IT Operations Suite and former CTO of IT Glue. He discusses how SMBs and the MSPs that serve them should approach adopting AI. He argues that AI has the power to transform organisations, if they utilise it correctly.

Nadir begins by outlining his background in software development and leadership, and how IT Glue—Kaseya’s documentation platform—fits into the broader IT Complete ecosystem, supporting IT providers’ internal operations (CRM, ticketing, billing, documentation) rather than service delivery alone.

Are AI tools too generic

The core theme is that most current AI tools are too generic—“Swiss Army knives”—while SMBs typically need highly specific tools: by vertical (e.g., law firms, dentists) and/or by function (e.g., content generation, scripting).

In a recent blog, Nadir introduced the idea of an “AI litmus test, which he expands upon here. The Litmus test includes clearly defining the business problem, then assessing whether AI can address it in a focused, practical way.

He recommends a fail-fast, exploratory approach with low-commitment tools, even using AI itself (e.g., ChatGPT) as an advisor to brainstorm use cases and identify suitable products. However, he stresses that SMBs must consider security, privacy, and potential ROI upfront. In other words, what data must be shared, what risks that creates, and whether the expected time savings justify the effort and cost.

Nadir notes that SMBs generally do have enough data, because they are rarely training models from scratch; instead, they adapt existing models to tasks like document analysis in legal practices. The biggest barrier is often the “plumbing”: stitching together multiple prompts, tools, and workflows into automation, something many small businesses lack the technical capacity to do.

Addressing Change Management

On change management, he highlights two main concerns: executives worry about risk and compliance, while individual contributors fear job loss. Success requires clear policies, guardrails, and messaging that position AI as a productivity amplifier and a way for staff to become operators of powerful tools, not replacements.

Nadir also describes Kaseya’s current and future AI offerings—embedded features like IT Glue’s SOP generator, the upcoming Cooper Coach for natural-language interaction with data, and longer-term agentic AI that can take tickets from inception to resolution—predicting a future where people define business logic while AI handles most routine execution.

To hear what else Nadir Merchant had to say, listen to the podcast.

Where can I get it?

You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the player below. Alternatively, click on any of the podcast services below and go to the Enterprise Times podcast page.

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