10 Ways AI Improves IT Service Desk Operations and Outcomes

The last half decade has been notable for the blogs, presentations, and other sharing opportunities on how artificial intelligence (AI) will radically alter corporate IT service management (ITSM) and the IT service desk in particular. However, thanks to the rapid progress of generative AI (GenAI) development and adoption brought on by the success of ChatGPT (and others such as Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini), the opportunity for IT service desks to improve their operations and outcomes using the AI-based capabilities embedded within ITSM tools has accelerated significantly.

The state of ITSM AI adoption at the start of 2024

This blog isn’t about where we currently are; instead, it focuses on where we could or should be. However, it’s worth undertaking a quick “pulse” check to see how far ITSM AI adoption has progressed.

The ITSM.tools ITSM Well-being in 2024 Survey included questions on AI adoption. It found that 36% of respondents already use corporate AI capabilities. 17% reported that they help, and 19% that they don’t. This dissatisfaction with early AI adoption is perhaps to be expected, with potential issues including bad technology choices, inappropriate use cases, and poor technology implementations. It’s also unknown whether these AI capabilities are part of existing corporate applications, such as ITSM tools, or bespoke AI applications.

However, ITSM professionals can also access an alternative to corporate ITSM capabilities, particularly in their absence. The survey found two-thirds (66%) of respondents had used non-corporate AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to help with their work, with 84% (of these) finding it helpful. 

While not implicit in the survey data, it’s interesting to note the significant difference between user satisfaction with what were likely traditional AI capabilities and newer GenAI capabilities, respectively.

10 ways AI improves IT service desk operations and outcomes

The following ten AI use cases for the IT service desk are all available now for ITSM professionals and the organizations they serve to benefit from:

1. Virtual support agents – GenAI-based conversational chatbots or Copilots provide end-users with information and IT support self-help capabilities for both incidents and service requests. This includes step-by-step troubleshooting that’s bolstered by real-time technology insights and access to automated resolutions, password resets, and software deployment. This capability is available around the clock, even when an IT service desk might be closed, and allows end-users to access the assistance they need when they need it.
2. Virtual assistants – GenAI-based Copilots can augment service desk agents’ skills, knowledge, and experience. The Copilots offer the agents real-time suggestions and actions to help with ticket resolution, including the speed and effectiveness of resolution. The help not only includes real-time access to relevant knowledge but also easy-to-access automation capabilities for resolutions, such as one-click server reboots.
3. Knowledge creation – GenAI-based capabilities can create knowledge article content from ticket information that logs successful solutions for incidents. The AI capabilities can also continuously monitor the relevancy and usage of existing knowledge articles, updating them as needed to ensure accuracy and continued relevance. 
4. Knowledge discovery and retrieval – the AI-assisted retrieval of knowledge or answers related to the corporately offered IT services. This can include internal and externally sourced information. GenAI capabilities also offer contextual knowledge retrieval – providing support agents and end-users with the most relevant knowledge articles based on the context of their queries or incident descriptions.
5. Intelligent classification or categorization – as part of intelligent workflow automation of incoming tickets, AI can automatically classify the incoming incident or service request tickets based on historical data. This can also include automated resolution for common and repetitive issues.
6. Intelligent triage – AI can automatically set the priority of an incoming issue based on impact and urgency using historical and real-time information such as the affected service(s) and seasonal implications.
7. Automated ticket summarization – GenAI-based capabilities can summarize an incident or service request ticket description for easier human agent consumption and classification and reporting purposes.
8. AI-assisted communications and reporting – GenAI-based capabilities can generate content for IT service desk communications, including alerts for major incidents or changes and responses to incoming end-user requests. They can also provide regular automated IT support leadership and staff updates on team and individual performance. Analytical capabilities are also offered, including improvement recommendations and predictions of likely future performance based on historical data.
9. AI-assisted swarming – GenAI-based capabilities can determine the best subject matter experts (SMEs) to work on incident tickets and problems based on historical data related to the SMEs’ skill sets, experiences, proximity (if relevant), and availability. This elevates traditional swarming capabilities where human insights and thinking might be limited.
10. Endpoint anomaly monitoring and response – GenAI-based capabilities can identify issues with end-user devices and potentially invoke solutions, including workarounds. GenAI capabilities can also predict future issues based on the analysis of historical data, patterns, and anomalies. Predictive alerts can also provide recommendations for preventive maintenance actions.

These ten AI opportunities for the IT service desk offer significant benefits across various IT support capabilities. Ultimately, though, while all these AI IT service desk use cases are possible, the key question is: Which will deliver the greatest value to your organization? 

For more information on the opportunity for AI within an ITSM solution, take a look at SysAid Copilot.