Atera CEO On Autopilot Platform: ‘It Doesn’t Just Tell You What The Problem Is, It Fixes It’

‘For MSPs and channel professionals, this is a game-changer,’ says Gil Pekelman, Atera CEO. ‘Autopilot allows teams to redirect valuable time and expertise toward strategic projects rather than wasting it on repetitive tasks.’

Atera has launched an AI offering that identifies Tier 1 IT issues and autonomously resolves them in real time with no human oversight.

“This isn’t just automation; it’s autonomous action,” Gil Pekelman, co-founder and CEO of Tel Aviv, Israel-based Atera, told CRN. “Autopilot doesn’t just tell you what the problem is, it fixes it.”

Positioned as a junior IT technician, Autopilot engages directly with end users to address common requests such as password resets and computer reboots. Operating under strict, customizable company policies, the platform ensures safety and compliance while freeing human technicians to focus on more challenging tasks.

“For MSPs and channel professionals, this is a game-changer,” Pekelman said. “Autopilot allows teams to redirect valuable time and expertise toward strategic projects rather than wasting it on repetitive tasks.”

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Autopilot has built-in advanced features including agentic AI, memory, planning, autonomous action and live system integration. Embedded into platforms like Microsoft Teams, Slack and WhatsApp, it works 24x7 autonomously, resolving up to 40 percent of Tier 1 IT issues, and that number is expected to grow, according to the company.

“If your printer stops working, it won’t just tell you to restart it,” Pekelman said. “It will check your spooler, diagnose the issue, restart the service and let you know it’s fixed all in under a minute.”

When the issue is more complex and needs a human technician, Autopilot opens a detailed ticket complete with diagnostics, permissions checks and a recommended action plan. “But even when it escalates, it saves 90 percent of the time by doing the boring legwork,” he added.

Palwinder Chima, vice president of IT at Toronto-based Starlight Investments, an Atera end customer using Autopilot, said since deploying Autopilot his team has reduced the number of help-desk tickets by 15 percent.

“We’ve actually estimated about 20 percent reduction in response time, and we calculated that it saved our technicians about 48 hours per week since deployed,” he said in a statement.

The platform’s ability to learn in real time is powered by the company’s expansive telemetry network with more than 6 million agents deployed globally. Every issue resolved by the system contributes to a continuously expanding knowledge base.

“There’s nothing else out there today that actually resolves problems in real environments, not just answers questions or takes orders,” Pekelman said. “This isn’t a chatbot. This is an AI technician. The more it’s used, the smarter it gets, not just for one company, but for all users on the network.”

Due to the sensitivity of IT environments, Atera built the system in collaboration with Microsoft on Azure OpenAI and ensures strict adherence to security and compliance standards, including SOC2, ISO and Responsible AI protocols.

“Data doesn’t leave your organization,” he said. “It teaches the model but never trains it. That’s a big difference—your privacy is never compromised.”

Over the next 12 months, Atera plans to deepen Autopilot’s diagnostic capabilities and raise its resolution rate beyond the current 40 percent.

“We want it to handle more problems and handle them more reliably,” Pekelman said. “This tool lets you stop wasting time on the stuff you hate. It gives your users instant solutions and gives you back your day. Why wouldn’t you try it?”