Video: How Thrive Is Bringing AI Managed Services to its Customers

Thrive CTO Michael Gray joins Channel Insider: Partner POV to unpack the MSSP’s newest offering: AI Managed Services. Explore how Thrive helps organizations identify practical AI use cases, streamline workflows securely, and adopt AI responsibly across their teams.

Michael also shares how Thrive closed internal AI security gaps, why that led to surprising data insights, and what’s ahead for AI, automation, and MSP innovation in 2025 and beyond.

Topics & Time Codes: 

00:00 – Welcome and intro to Thrive’s AI Managed Services 

01:11 – Who Thrive serves and key customer verticals 

02:29 – How Thrive differentiates as a next-gen MSP 

03:37 – Why AI applies across all industries 

05:42 – How AI Managed Services came to life 

07:38 – Thrive’s investment in AI and dedicated AI team 

09:09 – Helping customers identify AI use cases 

11:58 – Top example: Automating job descriptions 

13:50 – Giving customers back time with AI 

14:18 – Early customer interest and pilot feedback 

15:43 – Why companies struggle with DIY AI adoption 

16:40 – How AI Managed Services tie into Thrive’s security stack 

18:32 – The risks of public AI use and poor prompting 

20:34 – How Thrive secures internal AI usage 

22:04 – What Thrive learned by centralizing AI usage data 

23:30 – Employee engagement with AI inside Thrive 

25:09 – The challenge of hiring for AI roles 

27:06 – Thrive’s hiring philosophy in the age of AI 

28:39 – Thrive customer success story (complex carve-outs) 

30:53 – Vendor shoutouts: ServiceNow & Horizon3 

33:00 – Why Michael has stayed at Thrive for 18 years 

35:53 – What’s next for Thrive: Agents, private AI, reimagining the help desk 

38:05 – Where to learn more about Thrive