OpenText, Hatz AI Partnership Aims To Help MSPs Monetize AI Services

Cybersecurity has become the core foundation of ongoing, profitable managed services around AI and governance. Managed service providers can only support AI innovations and efficiencies for customers when organizations are protected from AI-accelerated vulnerabilities and risks.

That opportunity is at the center of a new partnership between OpenText and Hatz AI designed to help MSPs package, manage and monetize AI services for customers.

Mike DePalma, vice president of business development at OpenText, said partners are actively looking for vendors that collaborate with other technology providers to deliver meaningful enablement.

“We did some focus groups [with] both partners and non-partners and what they wanted out of a vendor, and working well with other vendors was one of the top things," DePalma said during a CRNtv conversation with Jimmy Hatzell, CEO and founder of Hatz AI during XChange August.

AI Adoption Creates New MSP Governance Opportunities

As AI momentum shifts from experimentation to production, governance has become a fast-rising challenge for organizations across industries, sizes and regions.

“It’s about three things: controlling your security, controlling your spend and controlling your scope,” Hatzell said. He added that MSPs are uniquely positioned to establish the guardrails that address growing customer concerns around AI security, spending controls and operational oversight.

"People lean back into their MSPs, their technology providers, because they're realizing that these are hard problems to solve," Hatzell said.

MSPs Can Step Up As Trusted AI Advisors

Hatzell and DePalma agreed channel partners have a new opportunity to become the trusted advisors guiding organizations through AI deployments, much like they did during the cybersecurity boom.

"Every piece of data is sensitive now, and it is proprietary. The MSP needs to be the point person for that," DePalma said.

Because many MSPs remain cautious, both leaders encouraged partners to start small by identifying business outcomes and customer pain points before expanding AI offerings.

"The barrier to entry has lowered a lot, especially for MSPs," Hatzell said.

Learn more about how partners deliver AI outcomes and drive growth with OpenText and Hatz AI.