Small business software marketplace Pax8 Inc. today launched 8os, an operating system that lets its information technology service provider partners govern the artificial intelligence agents running inside their customers’ businesses.
A second product, 8bot, gives those customers’ employees a managed AI coworker that partners deploy and supervise through 8os. Pax8 unveiled both at its Beyond EMEA conference in Copenhagen.
The launch is aimed at a governance gap that keeps turning up in Pax8’s quarterly “SMB AI Pulse” surveys. By the company’s count, nine in 10 small businesses are using or experimenting with AI, and only 23% have a documented policy covering it. Among those using AI, 71% have built at least one tool of their own, and just 31% of the builders have a formal review or approval process. Nearly half of those surveyed said they had found unsanctioned “shadow AI” in the past six months.
Pax8 said 84% of the business leaders it surveyed would trust an outside technology adviser to help them implement AI. The company wants its partners to be that adviser, and it has taken to calling partners that do AI work managed intelligence providers. A program launched at Pax8’s Beyond conference in Salt Lake City in June walks managed service providers through that change, starting with an assessment of their AI maturity.
The new operating system is built on the marketplace that more than 47,000 IT providers already use to sell software to some 800,000 small businesses. Partner and client identities carry over. Agents and models from different vendors are then managed together as one workforce, with the partner setting ownership and operating rules client by client. Each customer’s memory and context are kept separate, so the AI workers get more useful to that client over time.
Usage and spending are metered per user and per customer, and hard caps cut off consumption before a bill gets out of hand. The partner decides what to charge, with billing handled through the Pax8 account it already has.
Employees at the client businesses get 8bot. The assistant takes on everyday tasks and returns work that staff can review and refine before using it elsewhere in the business. Resellers offer it as a packaged service under 8os governance, and Pax8 is pitching it as something they can deploy and start billing for within minutes.
“AI is becoming a worker, and that changes what small businesses need from their technology partners,” Chief Executive Scott Chasin said. Those workers will come from many vendors and models, he added. In Chasin’s account, partners would use 8os to govern them across every customer, with 8bot as an AI coworker they can deploy, support and charge for.
Libby McIlhany, Pax8’s chief product officer, said partners had asked for a way to deliver AI “without building a custom solution for every client.”
Limited early access to both products opens this week, ahead of general availability planned for early next year.