IT Service Management: A New Era of Service Desk Operations

Digital evolution touches every corner of our world, and no technology will have as great an impact as artificial intelligence (AI). From customer relations to operational optimization, AI is proving to be an invaluable tool that’s revolutionizing the way we do business. It will make a profound impact on service desk operations, enhancing problem-solving capabilities and streamlining processes.

Although AI is known by many names—machine-learning, natural language processing, generative AI and so on, there are primarily two types of AI in existence today. The first is AI that is merely reactive to incoming data. A famous example of this kind of AI is IBM’s Watson Deep QA system that beat two Jeopardy champions in 2011. The second type is AI that can digest large swaths of data, hold it in memory as a reference model, and then “learn” from that data. ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot are examples of the latter type (Microsoft has several AI technologies including AI Builder, Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot, for simplicity’s sake, we’ll just refer to Microsoft AI technology as Copilot throughout this blog post). Although both types of AI can be leveraged for the service desk, we think the latter type will have the greatest impact.

Imagine a scenario where a service desk agent is faced with a problem they’ve never seen before. This will often require lots of research, finding and contacting subject matter experts (SMEs), some trial and error and potential system downtime. With Copilot, we think the process can not only be made significantly faster, but better as well.

From Reactive to Proactive: The Copilot Advantage

Copilot has the potential to transform IT service desks from reactive to proactive. With the scenario outlined above, Copilot could highlight potential issues and help catch them before they become problems. If it is a problem an agent has never seen before, Copilot could review all articles and known issues and suggest possible solutions or workarounds based on similar problems in the past. It could proactively help an agent understand when it’s best to contact the SMEs, review the SMEs’ body of work to ensure relevancy and create a curated list. We think this proactive approach could dramatically reduce downtime, increase productivity, and improve overall efficiency.

Real-Time Support and Efficiency

Copilot could offer real-time support to the service desk, making them more productive and confident in their problem-solving abilities. In the scenario outlined above, for example, Copilot could provide immediate answers to the agents’ queries and then guide them through a complex procedure to resolve or suggest various workarounds. Copilot could be essentially used as the first touch agent, handling more routine tasks and thereby freeing up time for agents to work on more strategic initiatives. Or it could start the investigation by providing more information, gathering more resources helping agents get to the root cause of problems quicker. All of which will help for better and more efficient IT service delivery, resulting in a smoother running environment and workplace.

Better Ticket Deflection and Self-Service

By providing better self-service, Copilot could encourage more self-reliance by employees to solve their own issues and help keep them more informed and updated about issues when they have involved the service desk. Rather than just giving a few links based on keywords, a self-service portal with Copilot could understand user intent, based on the actual language typed in the search (aka natural language processing), known issues in the environment, previous issues, announcements and so on. And when issues aren’t resolved right away, it could give details and updates, keeping the end-user better informed as to what’s happening. All of which would provide a better all-around experience for the end-user of the self-service portal, encouraging more use.

Personalized Learning with Copilot

Copilot can also play an essential role in creating personalized learning paths for employees. Based on individual interaction with systems, Copilot could identify gaps in knowledge and offer custom-tailored educational content. Therefore, the kind of service an end-user receives becomes less dependent on the personalities, experiences, and knowledge of the agent, thereby resulting in a better and more standardized experience for the end-user. This will enhance skillsets and confidence while ensuring consistent quality service to end-users.

People and Copilot: A Synergistic Partnership

Of course, the goal isn’t to replace people but to increase their capabilities. Human oversight is still incredibly important. Copilot, ChatGPT and the other AI models are trained on huge amounts of data, some of which likely contained errors and biases, which will need to be overcome. People and Copilot are partners on this journey. While Copilot can provide quick solutions based on its extensive knowledge base, people bring empathy, adaptability, creativity, critical thinking, and decision-making to the table. Together, we are redefining the future of IT service desks.

Looking Forward: Copilot’s Pivotal Role in IT

The dawn of Copilot in the IT world is an exciting and pivotal time. As technology continues to evolve, Copilot’s role will only become more vital. The aim is to use Copilot to create a more efficient, effective, and user-centric IT service environment through our product, ServiceTeam ITSM. Copilot has the potential to be the key player in this transformation, and we are only just scratching the surface of its capabilities. With its ability to constantly build upon information, we think Copilot along with ServiceTeam ITSM will revolutionize how IT operates and supports their users and customers. The future is intelligent, automated and efficient.