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There is no denying the fact that people are gradually accepting artificial intelligence and AI-powered tools in their lives. We are getting accustomed to utilizing virtual assistants and conversational AI to fix an appointment with a physician or book a flight ticket. Though there has been a spike in the popularity of such AI-powered intelligent assistants, one industry vertical is still lagging in adopting AI in ITSM (IT System Management) or IT help desks. Peculiarly, for several enterprises, a task as minimal as updating software or resetting a password still requires raising a ticket, opening the ticket by the IT department, and waiting for the resolution.

Moreover, due to a staggering increase in remote working because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase of 35% in ticket volumes raised with IT help desks. This was entirely unpredictable as historically, the annual increase in tickets raised was only 3-5%. Also, according to industry experts, the global ITSM market is expected to cross the milestone of $12 billion by 2025 from $4.7 billion in 2020. Gartner’s recent report suggests that by 2022, around 70% of white-collar employees will be utilizing different conversation platforms on a routine basis. These trends and projections show that ITSM is an integral part of each industry, and it is time to move from legacy systems to AI-driven automated IT help desks.

Challenges Faced by Traditional IT Systems

Now the question arises, what are the factors or challenges forcing legacy IT systems to transform into their advanced version. Let’s check out some of the critical and pressing challenges behind this transformation.

– Delay in responses

The critical challenge that the ITSM industry is facing is the higher waiting time and delayed resolutions. Though most of the tickets raised pertain to the most common IT issues, the IT help desk fails to resolve these concerns in a timely order.

– Rote activities

Rote activities and addressing the same issues, again and again, is one of the critical challenges that the ITSM team faces. The majority of ITSM processes are highly repetitive, which makes the work of ITSM professionals mundane and boring. This also limits their growth, productivity, and potential.

– Lack of a dedicated system

The reason behind the higher waiting time is the endless calls that IT professionals must answer. The lack of a dedicated system in an enterprise result in IT executives spending more time shuffling between calls than addressing issues and finding a proper resolution.

– Keeping track of multiple user assets

One of the critical issues that the IT service desk receives is the problem with equipment or product. To fix such equipment-related issues, executives need all information on the equipment. Inability to keep such information in line would require repeating the same process in the wake of recurring problems, leading to a longer response time.

– Time-consuming training procedure for new employees

Finding people with a suitable skill set is a huge task, and then comes another challenge of training them. The entire training process is not only manual but repetitive also. This takes up managers’ time and effort, which, ideally, should be utilized to address customers’ concerns.

Why AI-driven Smart IT Systems?

Now is the time to combat these challenges by leveraging the power of AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning), and NLP (natural language processing). Unlike the so-called past ‘solutions,’ these technologies can potentially disrupt and transform the ITSM industry.

– Improved employee efficiency

ITSM executives can focus on more productive tasks by automating rote activities. By deploying AI automation in ITSM can shift the first-level tickets to self-help. With these first-level tickets being taken care of by automated self-help tools, ITSM executives can focus on more complicated issues.

– Reduction in tickets raised

With the deployed AI-powered ITSM, a massive chunk of issues can be quickly resolved without requiring any customer representative. This decreases the number of tickets raised, thus improving the productivity of ITSM executives.

– Better response time

Moving the ticket-resolution task to AI-powered chatbots to address the common issues can significantly reduce the ticket resolution time. Moreover, these AI tools can track similar issues to provide quick resolution. The deployment of AI-powered ITSM can help IT executives resolve customers’ concerns quickly.

– Improved reporting and analytics

Apart from resolving customers’ issues, automating ITSM can analyze the raised requests in service tickets and generate reports which can further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the IT help desk. By capturing the present and historical data, analyzing different patterns, equipment issues can be predicted.

As a thumb rule, if any end-user spends over 10 minutes in any ITSM portal, it costs an enterprise more money than calling the IT help desk. To save this overhead expense, time, and effort, the need of the hour is to deploy AI-powered ITSM. These tools help enterprises extend exceptional customer service and prioritize employees’ productivity, thus increasing the overall performance of the ITSM department. For enterprises that are still contemplating, it is the time when you stop thinking and start acting. With fierce competition in the market, leveraging the power of AI-based ITSM is the key to standing out and staying ahead in the game.