CEOs Note on the Launch of Pia Chat

I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time talking with MSPs about their businesses. And combining that with my similar personal experiences has been instrumental in shaping our strategy. What I appreciate about those conversations is the realness behind them and the experience involved in running an MSP. Those shared experiences when tickets are piling up, techs are getting pulled in ten directions, and clients just wanting answers...

That’s really been the driving force behind Pia from day one. We wanted to build something that could sit inside the systems MSPs already live in and help those systems work together in a way that feels natural instead of stitched together.

When Pia first launched, we were very focused on the technician. Our early tools were about reducing noise, minimizing context switching, and helping techs spend more time doing meaningful work instead of repetitive busy work. As we matured, we went deeper into triage and made a deliberate push to tackle more of the ticket lifecycle itself. That work is ongoing, but we’ve made a ton of progress there, and our partners see it every day.

At some point though, the conversation naturally started shifting. When we consider that MSPs are a relationship driven business, a big part of that lives in how clients engage with them.

That’s what led us to start thinking more seriously about the client experience.

SmartForms was our first real step in that direction. It helped bring structure, clarity and Level 0 (self-service) to how MSPs engage with their clients. Pia Chat is the next evolution of that thinking.

Chat in MS Teams is about meeting clients where they already are and removing friction from the process. If your clients live in Teams, that’s where the conversation should start and that interaction should feel organic.

With Pia Chat, requests don’t immediately become interruptions. Some things can be handled automatically. Others get routed with context already attached. Conversations stay tied to the ticket instead of scattered across messages, emails, and side threads. The result is less noise for technicians and a more responsive, consistent experience for clients.

We talk a lot internally about “practical AI,” and this is a good example of what we mean by that. Not AI for the sake of AI. Not features that look impressive but don’t change the day-to-day reality. Just service delivery automation that makes things work better, for the MSP and for the people they support.

SmartForms was the beginning of rethinking how MSPs engage with clients. Pia Chat is the next phase. And longer term, our vision hasn’t changed: keep expanding beyond the ticket itself, and keep finding better ways to use AI and automation to strengthen the relationship between MSPs and their clients.

We’re excited about this launch, but more importantly, we’re excited to see how our partners use it in the real world. That’s always been the part that matters most.

— David Schwartz, Pia CEO