Partners MSPs, accountants, agencies
The AI layer your clients ask for, without hiring for it.
Your clients are asking you for AI. You have the relationship, the billing and the help desk. What you may not have is someone to run the agent, keep its context current, hold the consent evidence and answer for it every month. That is the layer I carry. You keep the client, first-line support and everything else you already do.
01 The gap, measured
Clients ask for it. Few providers earn from it yet.
- of MSPs rank AI and automation as their clients’ top need for 2026
- 48%
- Kaseya, 2026 State of the MSP, Apr 2026, 1,000+ MSPs
- of MSP 501 firms offer or use AI, up from 79% a year earlier
- 91%
- Informa, 2026 MSP 501 Survey Insights, Sep 2026
- recurring-revenue growth across MSP 501 firms, against 9.6% total
- 11.9%
- Informa, 2026 MSP 501 Survey Insights, Sep 2026
Read from the linked sources on 2026-10-23. Kaseya surveyed more than 1,000 MSPs; the Informa figures draw on more than 600 MSP 501 and MSPs to Watch firms.
02 The shape of it
A referral with a direct contract. Not white-label.
The client contracts with me directly for the AI layer, and with you for everything else. The accountability sits where the contract is, which is the point of an operated service. A referral fee, where one applies, is disclosed to the client in writing.
You keep
The client relationship, first-line support, the help desk, the hardware, the network, the books. The monthly report on each operated system is copied to you, so you are never surprised in a client meeting.
I carry
The operated AI systems, the context they answer from, the consent and disclosure evidence, the response windows and the report. Verification of systems the client bought elsewhere, when you are asked whether they are safe.
Why not white-label
A system run by one person needs the response windows, the fallback and the exit written between that person and the client. Putting a third name on the contract hides the accountability it was bought for. California’s business-to-business rules (Cal. Labor Code §2776) point the same way, and counsel reviews every partner agreement.
For accountants and bookkeepers
Referral fees are disclosed to the client in writing. That is what the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, 1.520 rule on commissions and referral fees asks of a CPA. I will not pay one where your attest work for that client prohibits it. The intake-to-invoice automations I operate end at your ledger; I do not do the books.
03 How it starts
One call with you. Then one with the client, with you on it if you want.
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Thirty minutes with you
What your clients are asking for, what you already offer, where the line between us sits. If there is no fit, I say so.
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A one-page partner note
The referral terms, the disclosure wording, who the client contracts with for what, and how the monthly report reaches you. Reviewed by counsel before anyone signs.
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The first client
An entry engagement on the client’s own accounts, discovery or verification, with you copied on the findings. The client decides whether to go on to the subscription.
Being asked for AI by your own clients?
Thirty minutes, no prep. Bring the question a client asked you last week.