Service management is becoming mission-critical for businesses. Organizations that lack in data-modeling skills, advanced software, and techniques have a hard time managing their service desk. Besides data capturing, service delivery and management includes an ample amount of repetitive, time-consuming tasks that lead to human errors. Siloed approach to service management limits IT use cases and further fails to align with business objectives. Integrating a feature-rich, adaptable ITSM software helps companies reduce their time-to-respond and drives down operational costs.

Once the stuff of science fiction stories, artificial intelligence (AI) is moving into the mainstream. Practical applications are rapidly emerging and businesses are exploiting AI apps to deliver significant value. In particular, cognitive computing capabilities are now performing many routine, mundane tasks that humans have been saddled with in the past. The real payoff is that cognitive apps are handling those tasks faster and at a lower cost. Examples include customer service bots that walk users through installing software and smart, context-based recommendations that give novice agents the ability to perform like experts.

We are no longer in the dreamland of sci-fi when it comes to artificial intelligence; the technology has finally turned real. In fact, without conscious awareness, humans are slowly becoming depended on the technology that it will be hard to live without AI in few years to come. Research claims that by mid-January 2018, 39 million plus Americans owned at least one smart speaker, something that highlights how common citizens interact with AI-based gadgets, more than initially anticipated. Amazon's Alexa, Apple HomePod, and Google's Assistant speakers are literary our assistants, as they can now do amazing tasks, from answering common questions, shop on our behalf -to giving commends on what beverages seem best for us. As it is with any other technology, artificial intelligence is still evolving, and the goal is to attain fully self-driven intelligent machines that will use their brains without human influence at any point in their existence -after being trained.

Artificial intelligence was once a phenomenon restricted to sci-fi movies, but technology has finally caught up with imagination. Now AI has become reality and amazingly, most people encounter some form of artificial intelligence in their everyday lives. For example, AI has dramatically improved the technology in our homes. Amazon's Alexa can carry out a number of functions via voice interactions, such as playing music, answering factual questions and even making online purchases. And now, with the recent launch of AmazonGo, AI allows shoppers to simply walk out of a shop with their purchases and automatically get charged, sending an invoice directly to their phone.

Marcel Shaw is a Systems Engineer for Ivanti. Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to dramatically improve technology in our homes and in the workplace. We all know what it's like to lose our keys. One day Alexa will notice we've forgotten our keys, or our wallet, and alert us before we leave the house. How could that be possible? Besides personal applications, AI is beginning to integrate into corporate and government networks.