Electric AI is turning the pain of IT into something small businesses barely have to think about—making it easier for others to plug in, too.
| Contributor
Every small business owner knows this headache. You waste hours dealing with IT issues to keep your business on track. Before you know it, you have wasted hours (or nights or weekends!) on IT instead of focusing on your core business. Ryan Denehy, a successful entrepreneur, experienced this frustration. Instead of just complaining about it, he founded Electric AI. The software company reimagines the way small and midsize businesses manage IT by automating it, simplifying it, and making it accessible in a way that feels almost effortless.
“We were spending nights and weekends trying to do basic IT stuff,” Denehy recalled. “Laptops, Wi-Fi, app access—it was nonstop. And I just kept thinking, this is ridiculous.”
At the time, he was running a company called Swarm, which used analytics to help retail stores track customer behavior. While the tech was advanced, IT operations were still evolving.
That tension between the speed of innovation and the drag of IT planted the seed for Electric AI. Founded in 2017, the company has grown into an all-in-one platform that handles the infrastructure businesses need to function securely and efficiently: onboarding and offboarding employees, managing hardware and software, handling device procurement, securing networks, and keeping systems up to date.
“Most of the tools out there are built for corporate IT departments,” said Denehy. “They’re not built for SMBs.”
Denehy wanted a solution that worked for the specific needs of small businesses. As a result, Electric AI combines smart automation with simplicity. New employees get devices that arrive pre-configured and ready to go. Access to apps like Slack or Google Workspace is set up automatically. When someone leaves the company, permissions are removed, and devices are locked and tracked. All of this is monitored through a dashboard that requires no IT training to use.
“Small business owners aren’t IT pros. And they certainly don’t want to manage every permission, every update, every device,” Denehy said. “They want to know it’s handled, and they want it to be fast.”
Speed is one of the company’s calling cards. Electric AI promises full IT and security setup in less than 24 hours, which for many customers turns panic into relief. The software interface is intuitive and easy to use. No degrees in IT solutions required.
Electric AI fits well into a business’s existing workflow. It integrates with tools like Slack, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and common HR platforms, eliminating the need to rip and replace existing systems.
“We’re not here to tell you to change how you work,” Denehy said. “We plug into what you already use and make it smarter.”
That adaptability has made Electric AI a platform that companies can build around. Though the company’s messaging focuses on small and midsize businesses, its underlying design is modular and partner-friendly. It was built to connect, not to confine.
“Most IT and HR software wants to plug you into their system. It becomes a headache to switch platforms that work for you to get with their program. We are the opposite. We take what you have and make it all work together,” Denehy said. “We are the layer that ties everything together.”
Electric AI’s flexibility extends to pricing, which is based on the number of users and scales with the business. There’s no long-term lock-in, no giant upfront investment, and no unnecessary features marring the experience. That focus on simplicity and alignment is intentional.
“We’re not trying to replace humans,” Denehy said. “We’re trying to remove the friction that wastes their time.”
That includes the growing concerns around cybersecurity. Electric AI takes a layered approach: endpoint security, employee training, real-time monitoring, automated updates, and system-wide visibility. Many businesses don’t realize how exposed they are until something goes wrong—and by then, it’s too late.
“Most cyberattacks happen because someone clicked the wrong thing or forgot to update a system,” he said. “We automate the protections that should already be in place, and we help businesses turn their employees into a first line of defense.”
Electric AI also handles the physical side of IT—procuring and provisioning devices, shipping hardware to remote employees, and recovering equipment when people leave. The entire process is streamlined and tracked from a single platform.
“You don’t have to keep spreadsheets of who has what,” said Denehy. “We take that burden off your plate, too.”
The company’s growth backs up its value proposition. Electric AI was named a Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Star in 2018 and has raised $200 million from top-tier venture capital firms. It has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing providers of IT solutions for SMBs in the United States. Its current strategy focuses on scale through distribution partnerships to bring Electric AI’s solution to more customers through integration and channel alliances.
“We’re not just bringing all critical IT solutions together into one platform,” says Yotam Hadass, Electric’s Chief Technology Officer. “We’re also making it easy and painless to stand them up, even with zero technical knowledge.”
For the small business owner juggling HR, payroll, security, and growth all at once, Electric AI offers something more than just a better IT platform—it offers breathing room.
“The average small business shouldn’t need a full-time IT staff to feel secure and productive,” Denehy said. “Now, they don’t.”
For more information, visit Electric AI.
