It goes without saying that technology is drastically changing the customer experience; the advancement of chatbots, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) will ultimately result in better IT services for the end-users. In addition, these modern proactive technologies have taken a strategic approach in predicting infrastructure-related issues and being omnipresent, ensuring seamless IT operations.
In fact, AI has started redefining the corporate and government networks as well. Considering how AI could tangibly impact service support and delivery, the IT industry is starting to integrate AI into ITSM trends. Using AI, ITSM organisations will be able to keep the systems up and running with faster turn arounds. Three key areas will anticipate definitive impact once AI is adopted:
- Point of entry (Incident/Request Creation)
- Automated backend processes
- Knowledge management
Point of entry
Artificial Intelligence will ensure information is interpreted accurately before it enters into an IT Service Management solution which primarily relies on human intervention. Chatbots powered by AI can further enable automated ITSM solutions to analyse the incidents and requests precisely based on learning from past experience, a skill that surpasses humans. As the technology progresses, AI will remain a key element in helping improve and personalise the end-user experience. Undoubtedly, sophisticated AI driven chatbots will eventually require far less human governance in the future to function efficiently.
Automated Back End Processes
In a nutshell, IT Service Management consists of backend processes that are designed to manage any request or issue entered into the companies’ system. Traditionally, data has been inputted either manually by an analyst or via an end user through self-service portals. In future, AI will empower ITSM solutions to detect and automatically open a request or incident without any human intervention.
Artificial Intelligence will also enable ITSM integration with other technologies on the network. For example, integrating an ITSM solution with a solution that provides IT operations analytics (ITOA) would enable an ITSM solution to be notified of potential network issues.
When integrated with both ITOA and a security solution, the ITSM solution would be able to investigate unusual activities as well as the issues and cross reference the data with the IT security solution to find any patterns that might explain the anomaly. When the ITSM solutions log the “problem” it would be able to provide insights, identify the missing link and recommend the fix.
Ultimately, the ITSM solution will be able to automatically correct the issues by working with the other IT solutions it integrates with on the network.
Knowledge Management
Another benefit of AI is that organisations will be able to store information such as charts, videos, webpages that could be stored for future use. These will not only provide answers to IT questions, but will also assist with training, tips and tricks for end-users and analysts. Eventually, much of the knowledge provided by an ITSM solution will be knowledge that was learned by the ITSM knowledge solution, versus documents that were created by human analysts, which are often outdated or not relevant to the current issue. However, until AI is perfected over the next few decades, human input will be vital for ITSM knowledge solutions.
What the future of ITSM looks like
ITSM solutions will continue to evolve, however service management will never go away as long as IT exists. New technologies such as AI will enable IT service management to go through a disruptive change that will transform the way humans are involved with the service management process. It is also important to note that these disruptive changes will affect all service management operations, not just IT service management.
For better or worse, the fact is that in the future human intervention for any IT request or incident (one to one) will not be sustainable. Therefore, organisations that are prepared to rapidly adopt AI, ML and chatbots will be in the vanguard of ITSM solutions.
