Tampa-based AI startup Nine Minds is set to launch Alga Pro, a groundbreaking chat interface designed to redefine the IT support offered by managed services providers. This cutting-edge solution promises not only to streamline workflows and improve operational efficiency by leveraging the power of AI to search and summarize historical ticket data.
Nine Minds Founder and CEO Robert Isaacs sat down with ChannelPro late last year to discuss the launch of Alga, the company’s free install-and-go Chrome extension to bring AI enhancements to professional services automation (PSA) tools like ConnectWise. Isaacs returned to discuss the new Alga Pro, the enhanced paid version of the tool.
What’s new with Alga Pro?
The channel community gave positive feedback upon the initial Alga release due to its ability to quickly assist engineers with solutions and provide detailed, client-ready reporting. Alga Pro evolved that original concept by applying intelligence directly to an MSP’s own data, starting with service tickets, per Isaacs.
Robert Issacs
Alga Pro, which was developed in response to extensive user feedback and rigorous real-world testing, also stands out for its user-centric design. Its chat interface allows users to conduct flexible, in-depth queries effortlessly, from checking ticket status and priority to conducting detailed performance analyses. This functionality is designed to significantly reduce the time and resources typically required for training and manual data sifting, Isaacs noted.
“We talked about a 50% efficiency gain, but that’s a starting point in many cases,” he said. “We’ve observed that engineers can spend up to 70% of their time on a single challenging service ticket. With immediate, intelligent advice that draws on past solutions and client history, answers are faster and more accurate. When tickets close faster, client satisfaction goes up and so does an MSP’s profitability.”
Nine Minds is offering a 14-day free trial of Alga Pro to introduce MSPs to its capabilities. Following the trial, the service will be available at a subscription rate of $30 per user per month, emphasizing unlimited data usage.
This pricing model reflects Nine Minds’ commitment to providing value through Alga Pro, encouraging widespread adoption among MSPs to maximize their service potential and profitability.
Plus, Nine Minds plans to extend Alga Pro’s integration beyond ConnectWise to include Autotask and other PSA platforms, broadening its applicability within the MSP community, Isaacs revealed. “Integrating with other tools and platforms reflects our commitment to the MSP community, ensuring Alga Pro’s benefits can be leveraged across the board to improve service delivery and profitability.”
The Focus on Quality
One of the challenges of using AI today is that it is sometimes prone to “hallucinate,” or give false or misleading results. Regarding the potential for Alga Pro to hallucinate, Isaacs spoke about quality assurance and why large language models (LLMs) produce what he described as “unwanted creativity.”
“The whole game here is to refine the large language models to balance creativity and accuracy. That’s really what our specialty is, tuning the models. We review the responses over and over again, identifying good and bad responses to help the AI learn.”
An interesting thing about language models, Isaacs said: “They’re trained to respond like humans. That means that models learn to make mistakes on purpose because humans make mistakes. Humans say things that are incorrect, so some percentage of its data is incorrect. We have found success with a rigorous training approach to tell the model, ‘You’re an expert, not a layman, so don’t mimic humans by intentionally making mistakes.'”
Driving AI Adoption
Tools like Alga Pro can mean that 2024 promises to be a watershed moment for the way technology is used in service delivery. The key, according to Isaacs, is to keep exploring. MSPs are encouraged to take advantage of free trials and minimal commitment offers to determine for themselves if tools have limited use cases or are potentially indispensable, he said.
“MSPs are ideally positioned to benefit from AI, given their need for extensive knowledge and constant drive for automation. Incorporating AI into your stack is table stakes. It’s important to start thinking about how you can broaden your adoption. Set a goal of increasing usage by, say, 10% every quarter. AI should be near the top of an MSP’s priorities from a technology perspective.”
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