2023 was hailed as “the year of AI”. And since that momentum has carried into 2024 (the year of AI experimentation) and 2025 (the year of AI in operations), perhaps it's time to come to terms with the fact that this isn’t a passing trend.
AI is here to stay. And it will only get more ubiquitous from here on out.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. I’ve written about my learnings from past ITSM conferences, and the trend continues – the chasm between AI-averse professionals and AI-optimists, even within IT.
At the recent SITS conference in London, I had the opportunity to speak with both IT professionals and ITSM vendors.
While IT professionals are increasingly accepting AI as inevitable, its practical applications are evolving faster than our comfort zones. Two years ago, the belief was that AI could handle only basic issues, leaving the complex cases to humans. That scope is expanding.
While some end users still prefer to talk to a human, most of us are getting used to conversational AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini as everyday consumers. They’ve made research so seamless and intuitive that many of us have stopped saying “just Google it”.
Enterprise AI technology is also evolving rapidly to keep pace. If you missed the launch of Atomicwork’s Universal Agent, watch this video and you’ll know what I mean.
Whether we like it or not, AI agents in enterprise software are starting to sound and feel “natural” and will soon change the way we work.
I noticed that this chasm also exists in the IT software landscape. Aside from “AI-native” players like Atomicwork, there are a lot of ITSM vendors integrating agentic AI in their platform. But there are also vendors that are still don’t have a deliberate strategy for leveraging AI to make their product and user experience better.
CIOs and IT leaders, especially the bold and visionary ones, are bullish about using AI to transform how IT is perceived. They are, after all, the custodians of technology and the leaders the board looks at for AI adoption within the org. This naturally makes them a big proponent for IT contributing to business transformation and growth in a meaningful way. They’re doing so by embracing AI-first platforms and working in lockstep with the providers to help shape up their offering.
This has been the theme of a lot of the recent discussions I’ve had. The answer is simple – not only will AI take away jobs, it’s already happening. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either in denial or trying to sell you something.
That said, AI will also create new jobs just like any other technological revolution. And I believe AI-first brands like Atomicwork have a responsibility to help the IT community upskill and stay informed on AI’s evolving role in IT.
We started this journey in 2023 with the first edition of our ‘State of AI in IT’ report. The latest edition, based on a global study of IT leaders, professionals, and end users, explores where AI in IT stands in 2025.
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