How to Sell and Scope AI Projects to Your MSP Clients

AI project work is not a fixed-scope line item. Learn how to treat it as a discovery engagement, why traditional planning fails here, and how one MSP doubled project throughput using these methods.

Save My Seat

Join Wim Kerkhoff @ TopLeft and Kyle Christensen @ Empath MSP to learn how to price and deliver AI projects that don't fit your recurring-revenue model... without blowing the budget or the scope.

Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Time: 11:30 AM PT / 2:30 PM ET
Length: 1 hour, Podcast-Style

Presented by

Wim Kerkhoff

Founder & CEO, TopLeft

Kyle Christensen

Co-Founder, Empath MSP

What You'll Walk Away With

Why AI Projects Are Discovery Engagements, Not Line Items: Understand how to sell 20–30 hours of strategic meetings to unblock client operations, rather than quoting a fixed deliverable upfront, and why the quote is an outcome, not a list of materials.
Why Waterfall Planning Breaks Down on AI Work: See why strict dependencies and fixed dates don't work when you don't fully know what you're getting into, and how agile and Kanban methods visualize the work instead of locking it down.
How to Price and Bill for Fuzzy Scope: Learn practical approaches to billing AI projects, including retainer, change orders, fixed fee, or block of hours, and why recurring revenue isn't the only path to predictable, committed client relationships.
The Hidden Project Management Work on Your Team: Discover how many MSP roles, including lead engineer, VCIO, and service manager, are already doing PM work under a different name, and how to formalize those skills without the title baggage.
Practical Frameworks You Can Use Immediately: Walk away with actionable scoping, pricing, and delivery frameworks you can apply to your next AI engagement, informed by real MSP operators who've done it successfully.

Who Should Attend?

MSP Owners & Operators

Learn how to position and price AI project work as a real revenue stream, not just a bolt-on to managed services, and discover how to scope fuzzy engagements without blowing budgets.

Service Managers & VCIOs

Understand why traditional waterfall planning breaks down on AI projects, and see how to use discovery-based scoping and agile methods to deliver predictable outcomes for clients.

Project Managers & Lead Engineers

Get practical guidance on billing models for AI work (retainers, change orders, fixed fees, or blocks of hours) and learn how to formalize the project management skills your team is already using under different titles.

Host

Wim Kerkhoff

Founder & CEO, TopLeft

Wim has owned and operated MSPs for 19 years. He built TopLeft because he needed it himself: a way to make work visible, keep engineers focused on the right priorities, and get projects across the finish line without micromanaging.

In this session, he'll guide the conversation on why waterfall planning fails for AI projects and how to scope work when you don't know everything upfront.

Guest

Kyle Christensen

Co-Founder, Empath MSP

Kyle Christensen of Empath MSP helps MSP owners break through operational roadblocks, improve accountability, and grow more profitably. He’ll show you how to turn AI conversations into presales engineering and discovery engagements, selling 20–30 hours of strategic meetings to uncover what’s holding your clients back and identify opportunities for higher-value services.