AI Automation for MSP Scalability with Pia (EP 1031)
David Schwartz, CEO of Pia, joins me at Pax8 Beyond in Salt Lake City to dig into how MSPs can use AI‑driven automation to scale service delivery without burning out their techs. We cover PiaChat for Teams, smart forms, automation hubs, and why “vibe‑coding” your own tools is usually a bad bet.
David and I sit down on Radio Row at Pax8 Beyond 2026 to talk about the real-world impact of AI automation on MSP operations and service delivery. David shares how Pia moved from educating the market pre‑ChatGPT to now serving a much more AI‑aware MSP community, and why waiting on the sidelines is a risky growth strategy if you want to keep up with demand.
We walk through Pia’s Engage stack—PiaChat in Microsoft Teams and resolution‑driven smart forms that turn conversations and requests directly into completed tickets—plus a growing automation hub that lets vendors and MSPs publish and share proven runbooks. David explains how Pia’s out‑of‑the‑box automations free up level one techs, protect level twos from onboarding backlogs, and give MSPs room to focus on higher‑value projects instead of reinventing tools that already exist.
=== Chapters
- 00:24 PIA’s New Leadership
- 02:27 Seeing MSPs Differently
- 03:32 AI Competition Heats Up
- 07:18 Building on the Platform
- 10:11 Teams Chat Launch
- 11:48 New Features and Integrations
- 14:11 Level One in Transition
- 17:15 First Impressions of Utah
- 18:25 Pax8 Marketplace Debut
- 20:01 Skiing, Surfing, and Wrap-Up
=== Guest: David Schwartz, Pia
- Website: https://pia.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-m-schwartz
=== Shout-outs
- Tim Coach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-coach/
=== Companies / Vendors / Products / Books
- Pia Chat: https://pia.ai/news/introducing-pia-chat-msp-automation-in-teams-pia
- Pax8: https://www.pax8.com
- Pax8 Beyond (event): https://www.pax8beyond.com
- ChatGPT (OpenAI): https://openai.com/chatgpt
- Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-teams
- OpenAI: https://openai.com
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CEO
David Schwartz is the CEO of Pia, where he leads the company’s mission to transform MSP service delivery with AI‑powered automation that actually moves the needle on ticket volume, speed, and consistency. Before stepping into the role at Pia, David served as CEO of Wireless Watchdogs and guided the business through significant growth and a successful acquisition by Dataprise, later joining Dataprise’s executive team to drive M&A strategy, post‑acquisition integration, go‑to‑market execution, and regional operations across managed services.
He brings a deep MSP and SaaS background, with hands‑on experience improving help desk operations, aligning product and GTM teams, and using AI automation to take pressure off level‑one technicians while improving customer experience. At Pia, David focuses on building a culture of open communication and cross‑functional problem‑solving, helping partners automate a large portion of repetitive requests so they can protect margins, reduce human error, and free their teams to work on higher‑value projects.
