IT Service Operations Is Ready For Its AI Moment

Here’s the problem stemming from the use of legacy ITSM platforms and outdated processes – or not using a platform at all.

Employees in mid-market businesses work in small, understaffed departments and need IT’s help without delay. They’re stuck in their work with an IT issue, and now they have to find the URL to a legacy IT service management (ITSM) platform, open a ticket using a complicated form, wait for a response, answer some more questions, see that the ticket was routed to someone else, and wait some more. Game over.

But giving employees a process to address requests and incidents is essential when most work today relies on technology. IT also needs a system of record to manage its work, and there are opportunities to use AI, automation, and integrations to improve everyone’s experience. The key is using win-win ITSM platforms that benefit both employees and IT through AI.

AI is an ITSM game-changer

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for ITSM platform is back after a nearly four-year absence.

Why publish one now? Because AI is a game-changer for organizations that want IT to improve employee services, respond faster to issues, and offer a broader range of services. Gartner identifies only four Leaders in the Magic Quadrant: one that every mid-market IT leader should review, two that are built for organizations with the staff and budget to run them, and one that fits only if you’ve already standardized on its developer tools.

“Are your platforms working for you, or are you working for your platforms?” I ask this question of CIOs in manufacturing, healthcare, higher education, and other industries where IT services amplify the business’s mission and operations. Using AI in ITSM can be a game-changer in these industries, so even when CIOs have a platform, I suggest they take a fresh look at competing capabilities.

Let’s consider three ways AI is a game-changer in ITSM for mid-market organizations.

1. Bring conversational AI to where employees do their work

Let’s consider some scenarios that block employees in their jobs:

• A nurse is stuck because the PC running the barcode medication administration (BCMA) won’t boot.
• A factory worker comes in one morning and sees several cameras used to monitor the production line were damaged from the night’s storm.
• The university’s dean is about to go onstage to deliver a presentation to big alum donors, and her assistant is stuck because the dean’s PC isn’t connecting to the network.

All three employees need IT’s help to get work back on track. Now, two of these people work at a company using a legacy ITSM platform and lose precious minutes trying to remember the steps to open an IT service desk ticket. Instead of getting frustrated, they look for workarounds instead of solving the problem.

The other worker is successful by reaching out to the company’s AI service agent that supports IT, HR, and other business operations. The agent is plugged into Microsoft Teams, which she uses daily, so she doesn’t have to hunt for a URL or a standalone app on her phone. She’s still learning English and prompts the AI in her native Spanish to get assistance. She uploads a photo, and the AI walks her through the steps to resolve the issue without someone from IT stepping in. She’s back on track.

2. Ask AI for insights and enable continuous improvements

Let’s look at the service management challenges now through the lens of the helpdesk’s director and managers.

• They want to improve employee experiences by automating common requests – which ones should they focus on?
• There’s a spike in reported issues from a remote office, and the manager needs to identify common issues and wants to optimize ticket priority and routing.
• The time required to onboard new employees has been slowly trending up, and the director wants to review the underlying causes before a wave of interns is scheduled to join the company.

Standard ITSM reports and dashboards generally won’t answer these questions out of the box, forcing directors to run custom data extracts or export files to external visualization tools.

AI insights can be a game changer. Instead of delving through reports, directors and managers ask an AI agent their questions. The agent responds with analysis, data visualizations, recommended actions, and connections to automations that can act on them. The better platforms now let an admin describe a new automation in plain language and stand it up in minutes instead of weeks.

3. Deliver operational impacts with proven AI capabilities

There’s an opportunity to use AI to improve productivity, workflow efficiency, and quality, but the AI-empowered CIO faces a challenge: Which departments should they prioritize enabling AI capabilities that deliver near-term financial impacts? Where can they find more enthusiastic supporters to grow AI adoption and avoid creating AI- and data-related risks?

The service desk is the low-hanging fruit, especially for CIOs who centralize a service desk platform across multiple departments: IT, HR, finance, legal, and others.

CIOs should benchmark their services against metrics such as employee satisfaction (ESAT), ticket deflection rates, and average resolution times. These are just three KPIs that AI agents and capabilities can help improve. It’s a win for employees (faster resolution, lower frustration), service desk staffers (less stress, better performance), and IT leaders (AI with easy-to-demonstrate value).

Download your complimentary copy of the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for IT Service Management Platforms to evaluate vendor capabilities and explore market shifts.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Freshworks.