What 87 job ads pay people to do
Australian MSPs advertise the seat as fixing plus admin. We read 87 job ads at 69 small Australian MSPs and tagged each duty. Ticket notes, escalation and triage all make the top eight, on the same pay line as the fixing that earns your clients' trust.
| Duty | Ads listing it | Share of ads | MSPs | Who should do it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Troubleshoot Microsoft 365 and Windows | 26 | 30% | 22 | Your tech, with Fix Finder |
| Provide onsite support | 26 | 30% | 23 | Your tech |
| Write ticket notes and documentation | 25 | 29% | 22 | AI: Ticket Clarity, Perfect Handover, Knowledge Article Builder |
| Escalate to Level 2 and Level 3 | 23 | 26% | 20 | AI writes the note, your tech decides |
| Set up and deploy devices | 22 | 25% | 20 | Your tech |
| Provide remote support | 17 | 20% | 16 | Your tech |
| Log, triage and prioritise tickets | 16 | 18% | 16 | AI: Perfect Categorisation, Right Priority, Right Team Routing |
| Fix network and connectivity issues | 16 | 18% | 15 | Your tech |
| Fix printers, peripherals and hardware | 14 | 16% | 14 | Your tech |
Source:1
21 of the 87 ads list no duties at all, and only 46 list five or more1. Run this list past your own desk. Mark each duty as fixing or admin. Your admin column is your automation list.
Where the 17 minutes go on one ticket
Seventeen minutes of admin on one ticket costs you A$15.58 at A$55 an hour, and three quarters of it lands before a tech starts work. That split sets your order. Automate the arrival first, because each minute you take out there also shortens the wait for everything after it.
| Moment | Minutes a ticket | Cost at A$55 an hour |
|---|---|---|
| When a ticket arrives | 12.75 | A$11.69 |
| When it changes hands | 0.85 | A$0.78 |
| When it is resolved | 3.4 | A$3.11 |
| Every ticket, all workflows | 17 | A$15.58 |
Source:3
We split the 17 minutes by workflow from the minutes in Cobotic's Test Drive23. Run your own export through the Test Drive and read the hours back on your own tickets.
The order to automate in
Building it yourself? Automate in the order the ticket moves and measure at each step. Cobotic switches on every workflow together, so read your results in this order. Start at arrival, where the minutes are. Add the handover next, because your senior techs feel it first. Finish with the closed ticket, where your desk starts to improve itself.
- Arrival. Ticket Clarity writes a clear title and summary. Perfect Categorisation, Right Priority and Right Team Routing put it in the right queue. Instant Details Request asks the user for what is missing. Fix Finder puts next steps on the ticket. Self-Fix Reply sends simple fixes back. Red Alert Flag flags anything that looks like a breach, an outage or a VIP and you get an email straight away. Spam Flag tags junk tickets the moment they land. Unhappy Customer Flag flags a frustrated user on the ticket and emails you straight away. Scope Creep Catcher flags billable work with the contract clause.
- Handover. Perfect Handover gives the next tech the whole story in one note the moment you reassign a ticket.
- Resolution. Knowledge Article Builder drafts the repeat fixes. A quality check scores each closed ticket against your matrix. Other Category Cleanup and Closing Category Fix keep your reports honest. Shift Left Finder lists what L1 needs to stop passing work up.
Read the detail on when a ticket arrives, when it changes hands and when it is resolved.
Two kinds of MSP automation, and which one fits
MSP automation splits into two kinds of work. Rules handle anything with a fixed input: patch this, reset that, create this user. AI handles anything written by a person, and tickets are written by people. Use the first kind on the second kind of problem and your team ends up maintaining rules for a living.
| Rules and scripts | AI on ticket text | |
|---|---|---|
| Input | A set field, an alert, a form | A messy email from a user |
| Works best on | Patching, password resets, new starters | Sorting, summarising, handovers, quality checks |
| When it fails | The rule misses, and someone adds another rule | It flags itself unsure, and a person confirms |
| Upkeep | Someone on your team owns the rules | Cobotic runs and changes the workflows for you |
Job ads list both kinds. Alerts, patching and backups show up in 18% of the 87 ads, passwords and access in 15%, and onboarding users in 11%1. Those suit rules. Now try writing a rule for "outlook keeps crashing again pls help asap!!". You need a rule for the word, the urgency, the client, the contract and the user's role, and the next ticket spells it differently. AI reads the sentence the way your best tech reads it.
Most of what the search results sell you is the first kind: a console, a licence and a builder your team learns while the queue fills. Keep your scripts for the work with fixed inputs. Three ways to buy AI sets out who builds what and the A$ total for each. For AI work beyond tickets, Cobotic consulting scopes it with you.
Worked example: a 1,200 ticket desk
A desk running 1,200 tickets a month spends 340 hours a month on ticket admin. At A$55 an hour that is A$18,700, and A$14,025 of it lands when tickets arrive. All AI workflows cost A$1,188 on the plan, which is 1,200 tickets at A$0.99, and that leaves you A$17,512 ahead each month.
This example describes no client.
| Moment | Hours a month | Cost at A$55 an hour |
|---|---|---|
| When a ticket arrives | 255 | A$14,025 |
| When it changes hands | 17 | A$935 |
| When it is resolved | 68 | A$3,740 |
| All workflows by hand | 340 | A$18,700 |
| Cobotic, A$990 for your first 1,000 tickets, then A$0.99 a ticket | A$1,188 | |
| Ahead each month | A$17,512 |
Source:2
Your techs get those 340 hours for fixing. Your first month costs A$99, with your first 1,000 tickets included.
What it did on real desks
Small Australian MSPs already run this order on live tickets. A 20 person Perth MSP ran six AI workflows inside its PSA and saved around $200,0004. A five person MSP in Tasmania went the same way with lighter tools, and its owner came off the tools to work on the business.
Where to start today
Start with your own tickets, because they answer the question faster than any demo. The free Test Drive runs your last 50 tickets online in about two minutes, with no sales call and nothing to install. Then start your first month and have all AI workflows running in under 15 minutes.
Questions
What is MSP automation?
MSP automation means software doing the repeat work around a fix: sorting tickets, writing handovers, checking closed tickets, running scripts on devices. Your techs keep the fixing itself.
What should an MSP automate first?
Ticket admin at the moment a ticket arrives. It holds 12.75 of the 17 minutes of admin on a ticket, and it runs on every ticket you get3.
Do I need a new tool to automate my MSP?
No. Cobotic runs inside the PSA you already use, including HaloPSA, ConnectWise and Autotask, and your techs see every result on the ticket. It needs no new app.
Which MSP tasks should stay with a person?
The fixing: Microsoft 365 and Windows troubleshooting, onsite and remote support, device setup, network and hardware repairs. Each of those is in 14 to 26 of the 87 ads we read1.
How much does MSP automation cost?
Cobotic costs A$99 for your first month, then A$990 a month for your first 1,000 tickets and A$0.99 a ticket after that. That covers all AI workflows, with no setup fee and no per technician fee2.
How long does it take to set up?
Under 15 minutes of your time to get all AI workflows running in your PSA. Working on your tickets within the hour.
Sources
- Cobotic job ad analysis, 7 October 2026: duties read from 87 ads (61 Level 1 and helpdesk) at 69 small Australian MSPs
- Cobotic pricing page: 17 minutes a ticket, A$55 an hour, A$990 a month for the first 1,000 tickets, then A$0.99 a ticket. /pricing
- Cobotic minutes by AI workflow, split from the Test Drive, as used on the compare pages. /compare/psa-built-in-ai
- Cobotic case study, 20 person Perth MSP. /case-studies/perth-msp-l1-desk