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IT professionals are generally early adopters of new technology. Be it getting the latest gadgets and games or tinkering with something to make it work for them (remember when we had to jailbreak iPhones?) you can count on IT folks.
This is more true in their personal lives than in their work. Understandably, factors like governance, compliance, and security risks don’t allow organizations to jump onto the latest tech trends.
AI – especially generative AI – has been one such trend. Despite ChatGPT, Bard, Llama, and all the other GenAI products, there was justified skepticism in introducing it in IT support and ITSM.
But that’s about to change.
According to a recent report by KPMG, nearly 3 out of every 4 CEOs consider an investment in Generative AI a top priority. Another study by McKinsey found service operations to be among the top three uses of such tools.
Why AI is an important shift for ITSM in 2024?
ITSM tool adoption among employees has long been a challenge. Self-service portals, though designed with the intent to empower users, often proved to be cumbersome and frustrating for employees, leading them to bypass these tools and seek traditional support channels.
This resulted in lost time, resources, and overall operational inefficiency. Overcoming this challenge required a new approach that blended technology with a user-centric mindset.
The emergence of generative AI might open doors to a new way of providing a seamless support experience to employees.
Benefits of GenAI for driving adoption
GenAI is potentially the biggest paradigm shift in IT support. A smart, intuitive chatbot can leverage the power of NLP, ML, and a contextual understanding of the organization as well as each of its employees. This can allow it to provide users with a conversational experience that feels personalized.
Some of the other benefits include:
Native experience
The best part is that they don’t need to go to a portal and try to articulate issues and requests that they don’t clearly understand.
You can bring the GenAI chatbot to the platform that employees use to talk to their teammates and managers. This fosters trust and encourages users to rely on the new support channel.
24/7 availability and consistency
GenAI chatbots are available round the clock, ensuring that users can seek assistance whenever they need it, even outside regular working hours.
They’re also consistent in terms of mood, tone, and technical know-how, even if the information is buried inside a 1,000-page document.
Quick and up-to-date response
These chatbots can resolve common IT issues instantly, reducing downtime and ensuring that employees can maintain their workflow uninterrupted.
If a document has been updated recently, the bot can fetch the latest version which is not always possible with a team of support agents.
Scaling support without scaling the team
GenAI chatbots can handle multiple inquiries simultaneously, enabling IT support teams to scale efficiently and meet the demands of a growing organization.
IT is seen as a cost center and AI, especially GenAI, can help the IT organization scale in spite of budget constraints.
Applications of AI in IT support and ITSM
We’ve seen how GenAI chatbots can help IT teams. Additionally, AI has proven to be a game-changer in other aspects of ITSM as well. Let’s look at a few examples:
Predictive maintenance
AI can detect anomalies and predict hardware or software failures before they occur, allowing IT teams to proactively address issues and minimize downtime.
Service request automation
AI-driven workflows can automate service requests, making it easier for users to log and track requests while reducing the burden on IT teams.
Knowledge management
AI helps in the creation, organizing, and maintenance of knowledge-base articles. Not to mention the retrieval of up-to-date information for both IT support agents and end users.
Incident classification and routing
AI can analyze and categorize incidents, ensuring that they are directed to the appropriate IT personnel for quick resolution.
Data analytics
AI can analyze tonnes of data and help in identifying trends and patterns, enabling organizations to make data-driven decisions to continually improve IT services and performance.
Implementing AI in ITSM
Now let’s talk about the ‘how’. Despite the benefits mentioned above, it’s important to be cautious while choosing the right AI technology and rolling it out within your org. Here are some things to keep in mind.
Data security and privacy
Open platforms like ChatGPT are great for personal use and basic research. This makes it great for your marketing and sales team to generate initial drafts of articles or craft compelling emails. But data fed into these LLMs are used to train the model and your company policies and confidential docs need to stay within your premises.
Address data security and privacy concerns upfront. Ensure that the AI solution uses a domain-specific small language model that’s contextual to your company. It also needs to comply with all relevant data protection regulations and standards of the countries where your employees (and customers) are based. Encrypt sensitive data, and establish robust access controls to protect user information.
Integration with collaboration tools
Make GenAI accessible through platforms that employees already use for internal communication, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. Integrating GenAI into these tools can unlock adoption by providing support where employees naturally collaborate.
The solution also needs to integrate with the rest of your tech stack that might be used for documentation (like Notion), KB (like Confluence), and other processes and workflows.
User training and onboarding
One important aspect of rolling out a radical new technology is change management. It’s important to repeatedly communicate the benefits of the tool that you’re about to introduce before you roll it out.
Conduct user training and onboarding sessions to familiarize employees with its capabilities and limitations. Show them how to access and interact with the chatbots safely and effectively.
Feedback loop
Building upon the change management aspect, consider rolling out the new solution in phases. Get a small group of tech-adept folks to use it and share their experience.
Establish a feedback mechanism for users to report issues or provide suggestions for improvement. Use this feedback to continuously refine the GenAI chatbot and keep it relevant.
Proactive notifications
Utilize GenAI for proactive notifications and announcements regarding planned maintenance, system upgrades, or known issues. This helps users stay informed and minimizes disruptions.
Scalability
Plan for scalability, as adoption may grow rapidly. Ensure that the GenAI solution can handle increasing demands, both in terms of user interactions and the complexity of support inquiries.
Conclusion
AI, especially in the form of GenAI chatbots, is redefining the landscape of IT support and ITSM. By addressing the long-standing adoption problem and providing an intuitive, human-like experience, GenAI chatbots have become a catalyst for greater efficiency and user satisfaction.
Furthermore, AI offers a host of other applications in IT support, from predictive maintenance to data analytics, all contributing to a more streamlined, proactive, and user-centric IT support ecosystem. As the technology continues to evolve, organizations that embrace AI in IT support and ITSM are poised to reap significant benefits in terms of productivity, cost savings, and overall employee happiness.
To explore how Atomicwork can help streamline and enhance your organization’s employee support, schedule a demo today!