It is no longer enough nowadays for an organisation to focus solely on the operational aspects of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM). Instead, it is imperative to take a holistic approach to manage technology for the ITSM to deliver true business value and all the desired outcomes related to optimal technology utilisation. This approach results in an effective service desk and enables efficient and reliable IT operations.
Central to this holistic approach is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation. Utilising both, along with machine learning, enables enterprises to leverage existing ITSM capabilities, such as knowledge articles and request models, and in the process take them to the next level to reap immediate dividends not only to their ITSM practices but also to the business itself. Five of these business benefits are as follows:
1. Increased Efficiency and Productivity
Among other things, AI and automation enable automatic, Smart Digital Agent assisted incident categorisation of user-reported issues, perform initial triage of said issues for intelligent assignment sans human intervention and fulfil service requests automatically. All these are done seamlessly and in near real-time, without humans needing to read tickets first before arriving at a decision.
This intelligent and automated system, in turn, ensures efficiency and increases productivity. These are manifested by, among other things, simplified ticket creation; better change, incident and problem management; sped up, expedited and on-point issue resolution and removal of time-consuming conversations and repetitive, labour-extensive tasks.
2. Reduced Involvement of IT Service Desk Analysts
Artificial Intelligence and automation empower self-service in ITSM, enabling ITIL-compliant Service Management. Here, the Smart Digital Agent reduces the need for IT service desk analysts to get involved in laborious, repetitive tasks like ticket generation. These same digital agents also enable 24/7 service availability by managing non-critical business hours with little to no human intervention. In addition, self-service eliminates the need for IT service desk analysts to peruse multiple web pages or navigate voluminous reports.
Thus, AI-powered digital agents free up IT service desk analysts from mundane work, in turn allowing them to focus on mission-critical tasks and value-added work instead. Some of the tasks that analysts can focus more on include identifying areas for improvement in the system and implementing the necessary enhancements, resolving more complicated issues and conceptualising new products and services.
3. Enhanced Problem Management
Problem management is a crucial area covered by ITSM, and AI can enhance it considerably via Big Data and Analytics that can enable proactive problem management and automated resolution. This is critical because too often, IT staff are too bogged down resolving an incident that they do not have time to comprehensively analyse and investigate effective problem management practices.
Artificial Intelligence and automation resolve this complication, as it provides IT staff with the necessary insight into any and all incidents, along with the support and tools to both resolve existing problems at hand and implement short- and long-term solutions moving forward. Moreover, AI and automation can detect abnormal behaviour occurring across multiple IT systems and then alert IT staff about a potential problem before it results in an actual incident.
4. Bridging the Knowledge Gaps
There are often knowledge gaps from the time of knowledge discovery and capture to the time it is used or disseminated. That’s because those who design, test and implement solutions are the ones who gain invaluable knowledge during the development lifecycle, and they often have very little time to document such knowledge extensively and appropriately. This results in important knowledge not trickling down to support teams or end-users, who can make use of it eventually.
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning solve this problem as both enable knowledge capture upon discovery or development, with digital agents being deployed during the development lifecycle to learn what was tested and the actual test results. Then, during the support lifecycle, AI can correlate disparate data sources, like prior incident records and chat logs, to “learn” how certain incidents were resolved and ultimately develop knowledge articles for future reference.
5. Reduced Spending
For many organisations, ensuring that IT operations and infrastructure are top of the line and efficient involves significant spending. An already high cost can, in fact, get inflated even more as the organisation scales and increases in size since maturity in IT services and equipment will be even more of a requirement.
Automation can help reduce these costs by ensuring efficient operations across the ITSM environment, while AI can do the same by helping minimise incidents and providing potential long-term solutions to problems that may occur. Moreover, both can significantly reduce all repetitive and manual procedures and work processes, thus freeing IT staff to use their skills in other areas and do value-added work.
AI and Automation Are the Future
All of these benefits, and more, are possible when you infuse intelligent automation into your processes. SymphonyAI Summit is a company that specialises in helping businesses achieve this through its enterprise-class, AI-driven IT service management solutions.
As organisations evolve and business processes change, the focus of ITSM is likely to be on major incidents and in problem and change management—two key areas that SymphonyAI Summit can most definitely handle. It goes without saying then that AI and automation will be integral to the ITSM of the future, which is why organisations need to invest in them now. This way, they will reap the benefits sooner and prepare their ITSM for the future.
Now that you know the business benefits of having an intelligent ITSM platform, click here to find out more about how you can turn your organisation’s own ITSM platform into an intelligent one.
