Automox Inc., the maker of a cloud-native platform for managing Windows, macOS and Linux endpoint devices, is adding generative artificial intelligence capabilities that enable users to create automation scripts using natural language.

Automox’s service can store and execute scripts that perform hundreds of standard systems management tasks such as installing and uninstalling applications and patches, upgrading operating systems, performing reboots and resets and enabling and disabling features. The company is addressing the skills shortage that market researcher Gartner Inc. says will be the No. 1 problem information technology organizations will face over the next 12 months.

The scripts, called Worklets, are written in Microsoft Corp. PowerShell for Windows clients and Bash for macOS and Linux and work with an agent installed on the endpoint. The new Otto AI capabilities enable developers and even business end-users to state their needs in plain English with the corresponding scripts generated by OpenAI LLC’s ChatGPT.

“Customers who may not be comfortable writing their own scripts can simply provide a detailed request of what they want the script to do, then Otto AI will create it for you,” said Chief Executive Officer Tim Lucas. “It requires a little tailoring but 80% to 90% of the work is done for you.”

Automox provides a secure repository for Worklets and a library of nearly 300 scripts that have been created by experienced IT pros. Customers can also create and share their own scripts in the company’s community.

“We have a robust team dedicated to building, maintaining and testing plug-and-play automation in PowerShell and Bash,” said Product Marketing Manager Peter Pflaster. “Customers can see all the code that we’ve written. Everything’s commented very nicely.” Automox also maintains audit trails and logs of scripts and outcomes. Customers can also tailor scripts to policies and the unique configuration of devices in their environment.

The goal of Otto AI is to “eliminate the overhead of that first hour or two of research and writing and let users jump right to the near-finished draft,” Pflaster said.

Automox trained the off-the-shelf version of ChatGPT to comply with its internal practices such as commenting scripts, but there was no need to train the bot in how to write PowerShell or Bash code.

Founded in 2015, Automox has raised $152 million in funding and has about 3000 customers, Lucas said. Most are small to medium-sized businesses, but the customer list includes some large enterprises well. “We’ve got customers running everything from hundreds of thousands of endpoints all the way down to 200,” Lucas said.

Otto AI will be generally available later this summer at what Lucas said will be a “small additional cost.”

Image: Automox