Net Friends CEO John Snyder sits down with MSP Confidential host Luis Giraldo at Flow 2026 for an interview about combining AI and automation to run a tighter operation. John shares insights from Net Friends in-house AI tool, Sage, built and customized to pull intel from Net Friends’ own ticket history, knowledge base, and chat logs.
John's take, in short: AI is a thinking tool. It's great at spotting patterns, generating ideas, and helping a team design a better process. Automation is the tool that actually runs that process the same way, consistently every time, without needing a coffee break. Mixing up which one does which job is how MSPs end up with AI doing repetitive grunt work it's not suited for, or automation trying to make judgment calls it can't make.
Interview Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:00 AI vs. Automation
3:25 Shadow AI Strategy
4:40 Building Sage In-House
7:00 What To Do With Free Time
9:38 AI Is Creating Jobs
10:20 Hiring for Imagination
12:22 Maximizer vs. Focuser
14:03 Human Touch Advantage
15:28 Automation Deep Dive
18:04 Cybersecurity Automation
20:36 What's Coming for MSPs
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At Net Friends, we believe in the power of human expertise. While we leverage AI to enhance our content and processes, all blog posts are written and edited by our knowledgeable staff. You can trust you are getting insights directly from our team.