Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) helps in monitoring, analyzing, and improving the quality of IT services to enhance customer satisfaction. On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) aims at providing self-learning and intelligent solutions to run IT systems smoothly by optimizing the resources available. But what if these two could work together? What if they could help each other out? Well, they can, and they do!

Think about your last online order. If you're a frequent online shopper and have created profiles for sites you visit often (*raises hand*), then you're probably familiar with customized recommendations. Based on your purchase history, location, and other factors, the website may suggest other items you might be interested in buying. And if you're on the site long enough, chatbots may appear asking if you have questions or need assistance locating something. These are just two examples of how artificial intelligence (AI) and automation have made the consumer experience easier and created ways to help businesses understand their buying patterns and what they need.

With the consumerization of enterprise IT, employees are expecting the same level of service excellence from IT service management (ITSM) solutions. Users expect enterprise services to be delivered instantly, in the device and channel of their preference, with a high degree of personalization and without having to talk to someone. Leading enterprises are now transforming toward ITSM by embracing conversational AI, which promises to boost productivity while using fewer resources, achieving greater cost savings and delivering an engaging customer experience for enhanced satisfaction. The obvious question is, "How do I get started with conversational AI?" The following discussion highlights some erroneous--but unfortunately common--misbeliefs about conversational AI solutions. It shows how any enterprise can embrace the ITSM transformational journey irrespective of their size, level of deployed automation and personnel on staff.

The service desk acts as the "go-to" place for all IT-related needs and issues, typically managing incidents or service disruptions, requests, and changes. The service desk scope of work can be enormous and wide-ranging, depending on the nature and size of the organisation in question. As a critical function used by employees across a company, it needs to be managed appropriately. Technology has upended the way business is done across all industries around the world. At the same time, traditional IT service management (ITSM) solutions have become inefficient in maintaining customer satisfaction levels and meeting increasing customer expectations in a fast-paced digital world.

Remember'Jarvis' from Iron Man or'Irona,' the Robot Maid from Richie Rich? Well, if you do, then you already had a glimpse of the shrewd adroitness of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Artificial Intelligence or, what we call machine intelligence is all set to create an unprecedented phenomenon shortly. The rate of its progression has been swift, dramatic and very real, and as Elon Musk said: "It is capable of vastly more than anyone knows and the rate of improvement is exponential." Artificial Intelligence in the realm of IT, has a vast potential in developing and transforming the IT Service Management (ITSM).

IT service teams have been under continuous pressure about two matters for quite some time now. On the one hand, they must to do more with less. On the other, they need to deliver superior customer service and reduce downtime. We have seen that the complexity of these issues has also increased to a significant extent. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are a helpful solution to all these issues. AI offers many opportunities to address these challenges.

And, better the health of a Service Desk, better is the maintenance of the infrastructure that supports an enterprise. However, owing to varied market dynamics Service Desks are further pressured to deliver 24/7 consistent services aimed towards infrastructure stability, network stability, asset management and more. Such targets create operational bottlenecks, reduces speed of support and increases costs. Know more about the other more important benefits of AI Chatbots designed for ITSM from our webinar and understand how they can take the complexity out of ITSM operations in less than 4 weeks*. His expertise stems from extensive work on messaging platforms, Enterprise systems and RPA. He currently heads the Artificial Intelligence CoP at Suneratech & ServiceNext.

In a recent artificial intelligence (AI)-related HDI webinar, Roy Atkinson of HDI, Stephen Mann of ITSM.tools, and I fielded questions related to what service and support managers need to know about AI. There were some pre-planned questions plus those offered by the audience. This blog shares some of the key AI-adoption points raised and the advice that was offered. Before our panel fielded any questions, a poll was undertaken to ascertain where the attendees, and their organizations, are in their AI journey. However, as you would expect from the attendees of an AI-related webinar, they're highly likely to be more interested in AI than the average IT service desk manager.

As the workplace becomes increasingly digital, enterprise IT departments are adding a new member to the team: AI technology. Digital transformation has greatly enhanced enterprise productivity. Cloud solutions have replaced outdated, on-premises systems and bulky, physical assets are disappearing from desks. But the increasing number of digital users also produces mass amounts of service requests. Leading enterprises recognize the rising number of service requests as an opportunity to innovate and incorporate AI into their IT service management (ITSM) solution. Specifically, IT teams are implementing conversational AI, commonly configured as chatbots.

The next two years will be exciting for Service Management. We will see the realignment of existing practices as well as a new and strategic contribution from emerging technologies. Join our upcoming webinar where IT pros will discuss their 2019 predictions. First, expect more experienced IT teams to reassess how we leverage best practices and frameworks including Service Management, DevOps, and Agile. With experience comes the understanding that these frameworks and best practices should only be implemented in the context of a strategy for IT and our business.