AI is a legitimate tool for MSPs who want to move faster, sharpen their writing, and get more done with less.
But there’s a version of AI use in marketing that’s actively hurting the MSPs doing it, and most of them don’t realize it’s happening.
The Problem Has A Name Now
There’s a term circulating in marketing circles: AI slop. It describes content that is so obviously AI-generated that the human behind it has essentially disappeared. You’ve seen it: the emails that start with a numbered list of benefits, the LinkedIn outreach that uses phrases no real person says out loud, the blog post with perfectly even paragraphs and zero actual opinion.
It reads like a robot wrote it, because it did.
Why This Is A Bigger Problem Than Most MSPs Realize
At a recent conference for practice managers and dental service organizations, decision-makers who buy MSP services, this exact topic came up in a room discussion. The consensus was clear: when they receive outreach or work product that is obviously AI-generated, they stop reading. Not skeptically. Done.
What makes this dangerous for MSPs specifically: if your marketing looks AI-generated, prospects start wondering about your service delivery. If you cut corners on communication, are you cutting corners on their IT?
Delegating Vs. Abdicating
Here’s the line that matters:
Delegating to AI = using it as a tool to work faster, sharpen ideas, gather information, and improve your output. You’re still in the loop.
Abdicating to AI = giving it a task and copy-pasting the output without review, edit, or thought. You’re out of the loop. The machine is making decisions about your voice and your message.
A few real examples of what abdicating looks like:
- Taking a meeting transcript, feeding it to an AI, and sending a client a summary you never read.
- Having AI write your LinkedIn posts and publishing them without reading them aloud to see if they sound like you.
- Using AI to generate email campaigns and sending them without rewriting even a sentence.
What Good AI Use Actually Looks Like
Ideation: When you have a topic you want to tie into a piece of content, use AI to help find the angle. Feed it context about your style and audience and ask for 2–3 angles. Then you go write the piece.
Sharpening: Write your draft first. Then use AI to help tighten it, catch gaps, or suggest stronger phrasing. You’re editing AI’s suggestions, not publishing them.
Research and summaries: AI is good at pulling together information fast. Use it to get background on a topic. Then you take those notes and write your own version.
Automation: Back office tasks, ticket routing, report generation, scheduling. This is where AI earns its keep with zero risk to your brand. Use it heavily here.
Your Voice Is A Competitive Advantage
If everyone in your market is using AI to write their content, and it all sounds the same, then being the MSP with a real, distinct, human voice is a differentiator.
Algorithms are catching up too. Search engines and social platforms are actively working to reward authentic, original content and suppress obvious AI output. YouTube now requires disclosure on AI-generated content and is suppressing it in recommendations. The direction of travel is clear.
The Practical Check
Before you publish or send anything AI-assisted, ask three questions:
- Does this sound like how I actually talk? If someone who knows you read this, would they hear you in it?
- Did I add something the AI didn’t? A specific example, a real story, an actual opinion: something only you could contribute.
- Would I be embarrassed if a prospect knew this came straight from AI with no edits? If yes, it needs more work.
That’s the bar. Not perfection. Just genuine.
