Syncro’s AI Shift: How Model Costs and Adoption Create New Separation Among MSPs

Dave Sobel (0:01)

Every MSP platform vendor is shipping an AI layer this year. Syncro shipped theirs, a connection between live ticket and device data, and the AI assistant technicians already use. I spoke with Michael George, their CEO, and Dee Zep, their Chief Product Officer about what this is. Does this help close the gap for a 10-tech MSP or widen it? This is the Business of Tech. I'm Dave Sobel.

Michael George, your CEO at Syncro, and Dee Zep, you are the Chief Product Officer at Syncro. Both of you, welcome back to the Business of Tech.

Michael George (0:38)

Delighted to be here. Thanks for inviting us, Dave.

Dave Sobel (0:41)

Well, I always love having you on. You guys are both now frequent flyers because you always come with some interesting stuff. We're talking right after you've done a recent release, and I want to get a sense of you've actually done some work now to integrate with Anthropic and connected to MCP in there. Talk a little bit about, in a quick sense, what can a technician do today that they couldn't do before the release?

Michael George (1:04)

Regardless of all of the other things around AI, because there are many benefits and there are many risks and everything else.

But one absolutely clear benefit is that you use an MCP server properly and expose a number of the system of record, but system of action within your system and believe in an open platform to the benefit of the channel in particular. We've always been very, very open and we want to integrate and have APIs and do all of those things. Now, this is sort of an API on hyperscale. I mean, this is like not even 2.0, it's like 2.0.0 version of an incredible way to go and access all of the things that we do within our system and we're really, frankly, just proud of the fact that we've done so much, such great work with it, that Anthropic has gone ahead and authorized us. We're the first and only RMM and PSA platform to be now native, a native connector in the Anthropic ecosystem. So, I think that speaks volumes for the level of commitment that we have, sort of the openness of it.

And then, sort of the last piece, and then I want you to hit this harder, which is the whole UI, UX issues around, this is clunky and I don't like the way you set this up or whatever. And I'm not talking about us, I'm just talking about in general, in the tools world, technicians have to kind of go from system to system and they all have their own sort of UI, UX and nuances of it. This sort of eliminates all of that complexity and all of the sort of the diversity, if you will, of approaches today because it puts the interaction with the system, not only in the hands, but candidly in the mouth of the technician. They can ask in natural language, they can query things, do QBRs in advance, get latest ticket information, be prepared before all of these things. Just inquiring in very much the way you would want to, not having to go through any level of system or system differential.

Dee Zep (3:49)

One of the things that we've heard from speaking to our partners and especially our advisory council, MSPs are a great group, right? Creative problem solvers, always looking for building the next thing and helping each other to advance.

When I saw what people were doing with MCP servers in the community, it made me really think about MCP in a whole new way, and it made me realize it really is like an API 2 for these folks, and it removes all the barriers of an API. You don't have to be a programmer, you don't have to get that technical, and yet you can integrate different systems, interact in natural language. I saw some of the possibilities play out in our partner base, and we decided that we really wanted to go all in on making sure our platform stayed open as part of the ecosystem. I think that MCPs really help future-proof platform use. I think when people are looking at buying, in the same way they go, do you have an API? Can I plug you in with other systems or am I locked in to you? I think an MCP provides that next layer of protection for folks as well.

Dave Sobel (5:09)

Now, Dee, I want to follow up a little bit because you've talked about the fact that the MCT adoption right now looks a lot like slides. You've actually said five to 10 percent of your partners and they tend to be the bigger sophisticated jobs. Now, Michael, you've also said that AI is going to be the greatest separator the industry has already seen. So I'm asking the two of you to put this together a little bit for me.