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Whether you provide services to your customers or support to your employees, the modernization of ITSM is essential in the age of digitization and process automation. Organizations can no longer rely on traditional ITSM tools to provide quick and personalized solutions to users. With the ideal combination of AI and ITIL, you can leverage your ITSM practices and achieve all your objectives in the best way possible.

Importance Of AI In ITSM

Technologies like AI and machine learning (ML) help you understand the context of the issues faced by your employees/customers and provide them with personalized support. The modern IT service desks are equipped with AI to streamline the support services. The technology allows digital platforms to analyze historical data and grow as new data is fed into the system. Just like human beings, AI-powered platforms analyze datasets and draw valuable conclusions from the same.

The use of AI in ITSM has allowed organizations to modernize the approach toward providing holistic support to the users. Modern IT service desks use conversational AI to help users interact with AI chatbots. Based on the questions asked, keywords used, and commands given, the virtual assistants scan your enterprise knowledge base and develop personalized answers that are unique for the concerned user. Instead of waiting for an IT service agent to look into every case, conversational AI allows organizations to automate the first level of support provided to the users. This increases the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of the support provided by an organization.

The use of AI in ITSM also allows users to create support tickets without making any effort. The new IT service desks allow users to create tickets simply by chatting with virtual assistants. When a ticket is created, the automated platforms route the case to a dedicated support agent and all relevant data about the concerned user. Once the agent looks into the issue and resolves it, the service desk automatically closes the case.

There are many more ways AI helps you make ITSM a powerhouse. The technology allows organizations operating remotely or through hybrid workplaces to cater to their employees and customers by streamlining the support processes.

ITIL And ITSM

ITIL provides organizations with a framework for carrying out a range of IT operations. In the age of digitization, you can leverage your ITSM practices by adhering to the ITIL principles. With the help of ITIL, you can focus on automating ITSM and use it to provide improved support to your customers and employees.

Here are some of the most basic yet important ITIL principles that help you make ITSM a powerhouse:

1. Collaborate And Promote Visibility
   
   Over the last two years, organizations around the world have realized the importance of seamless collaboration. Modern IT service desks can be readily integrated with collaborative platforms like MS Teams, Slack, Zoom etc to provide centralized support to your employees. This ITIL principle focuses on getting the right people involved in performing the right activities. Whether your organization operates remotely or on-premise, stakeholder collaboration will always be important to undertake ITSM processes effectively. While adhering to this principle, always keep in mind that collaboration does not always stand for consensus. As long as the correct number of stakeholders collaborate for achieving the right objectives, the optimization of ITSM will be fruitful.
   
   
2. Focus On Value
   
   Every decision you make and your service boils down to the value it offers to your customers or employees. The traditional IT service desk is not relevant anymore because they no longer provide users with enough value. With generic and delayed support, neither employees nor customers would be willing to engage with your organization. 
   
   If you are willing to turn ITSM into a powerhouse, ensure that your tools, platforms, and approach add value to your services. For this, it is important to understand the inherent needs of your customers and employees. Understand the issues faced by them and design IT solutions to remediate them. Understand how the consumers of your services will use them to add value to your processes.  Whether you want to undertake a normal operational activity or improve your ITSM solutions, always focus on providing the users with value.
   
   
3. Start Where You Are
   
   In order to improve your approach towards ITSM and optimize your IT infrastructure, you do not always need to start from scratch. This ITIL principle mentions the importance of starting where you are instead of building completely new solutions.  For this, make sure that your team looks at everything objectively and uses the desired outcome as the starting point. This would provide you with a sense of direction and help you work towards your goals. It is also advisable to look at examples of practices or services in the current state and see if they can be replicated to achieve the desired results. 
   
   While you work towards enhancing your ITSM solutions, make sure you accept the fact that there may be situations where nothing from the current state can be re-used to get the desired outcome.
   
   
4. Progress Iteratively With Feedback
   
   It is impossible to make scalable and measurable progress without feedback in any domain. According to this ITIL principle, resist the temptation to do everything at once and always ask for critical feedback from the consumers of your services. This would help you assess the effectiveness of your ITSM solutions and make important decisions regarding the same.
   
   Always ensure that the initiative and its different components are thoroughly continually re-evaluated based on the constructive feedback received from the users. It is advisable to seek feedback before, during, and after implementing ITSM tools to ensure that all aspects of the concerned solution are considered. 
   
   Once you receive the feedback, analyze the same and identify risks, opportunities, and issues regarding the same. This would help you reinforce the aspects that work and eliminate the ones that don’t.
   
   

Conclusion

The above-mentioned points explain the way in which AI and ITIL help you make ITSM a powerhouse. As per the report by Gartner, around 70% of companies will incorporate Ai-powered tools to help employees enhance their productivity. Switching to new and relevant technologies is a must to survive in the age of digitization and immense competition. Now that the “new normal” is here to stay make sure you modernize your IT infrastructure and enhance your ITSM solutions at the earliest.