MSP marge druk AI
Why are MSP hourly rates under pressure from AI?
MSP hourly rates are under pressure because AI takes over part of the repetitive work that MSPs traditionally billed by the hour. Anyone who wants to keep margin has to speed up their own work with AI and move towards outcome pricing. The choice is simple: evolve or die.
MSP Late Night · 8 October 2026
How do you keep margin when the billable hour evaporates?
The revenue model shifts in three places at once: billable hours per ticket drop, clients compare faster because AI helps them specify what they want, and competitors who do use AI deliver the same work for less. Blind trust in AI works against you: a Copilot that quietly rewrites your spreadsheet formula can cost you a significant amount in a single negotiation. The way forward is to use AI to get faster internally, while you keep checking and recalculating yourself.
Our cheese is being nibbled at, our billable hours are under pressure. Evolve or die.
Frequently asked questions
Which MSP services face the first margin risk from AI?
Services with a lot of repetitive work are the most exposed: first line support, standard onboarding, patch management and documentation. AI can take over or speed up part of those steps, which shrinks billable hours per client. Advisory work, architecture choices and vendor management stay more human for now, because context, trust and accountability decide the outcome there.
How do you stop AI tools such as Copilot introducing silent errors?
Treat AI output as a draft, not a finished product. That means spot checking formulas and calculations, keeping version control on important sheets, and having critical negotiation documents reviewed twice. AI may suggest, but responsibility for the outcome stays with the person who puts that document in front of a client or into a quote.
Is hourly billing still a workable model for MSPs?
Pure hourly billing gets harder because AI pushes down the hours per task and clients notice. Many MSPs are moving towards value based or outcome based pricing: a fixed amount per user, per device or per result. That uncouples revenue from time spent and lets you keep the efficiency gain from AI instead of handing it to the client.
When does an MSP owner become the brake on the business?
When decisions sit waiting on the owner while the team could move faster, when commercial growth stalls because everything runs through one person, or when new disciplines such as AI adoption fall outside the founder's comfort zone. Stepping aside towards a managing director role, or bringing in a new CEO, can then make more sense than holding on to the operational seat.
The full conversation, transcribed
Ik denk dat dat een beetje de trend is waar we nu zitten. Onze kaas wordt er een beetje aan gesnoept. Onze uurtje factuurtjes staan onder druk. Dus ik zou zeggen evolve or die en laten we AI daarvoor als een soort... En één wil het gebruiken, daarin. Excel, ik doe het al twaalf jaar zo. En wat bleek nou? Copilot had de formule zelf aangepast, omdat hij dacht dat het slimmer was. Maar daardoor klopte de uitkomst niet, maar ik kan aardig nog steeds goed hoogrekenen. En ik miste gewoon een significant bedrag in mijn onderhandelwerk. Kijk, wij zijn een lokale MKB-speler. Dat betekent dat we lid zijn van alle lokale businessclubs. We handelen bij de voetbal. Ons kent ons. Ik zeg ook altijd, we verkopen vertrouwen en ruilen dan diensten voor geld. Ja. Dat is wat wij doen. Ik ben geen algemeen directeur, maar sinds 1 juli. Omdat ik op een gegeven moment een remmende factor word. En dat kan gewoon niet. Dus dan moet je ook gewoon je eigen in de kant zetten. Want niemand is groter dan CTS.