The IT service management (ITSM) community has spent the past year absorbed in conversations about artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to transform service delivery. While the focus on AI capabilities is understandable, this preoccupation risks obscuring fundamental challenges that could undermine your organization’s IT effectiveness in 2026, regardless of which technologies you adopt. There are likely many 2026 ITSM risks being ignored or simply overlooked.
SymphonyAI recently gathered perspectives from 17 ITSM industry authorities on the question: “What’s one risk ITSM leaders are underestimating going into 2026?” The resulting insights reveal concerns that extend well beyond technology implementation, clustering around four critical areas: people, processes, technology, and value delivery.
2026 ITSM Risks: The human element remains paramount
Several contributors identified people-related risks as the most pressing concerns for 2026. Ian Aitchison framed the 2026 ITSM risks challenge as a choice between two related risks: staying trapped in traditional mindsets or jumping into proliferating AI tools unprepared. The distinction between “Tier-One” and “Tier-Two” IT leadership centers on whether organizations fundamentally rethink their service-delivery approach or simply accelerate existing practices.
You can also read more of Ian’s perspective on this here.
David Barrow highlighted a subtler 2026 ITSM risk: exclusion. As AI and automation become embedded in workflows, organizations risk leaving people quietly behind. The dashboards stay green, tickets close, SLAs are met, yet employees fall further into the shadows. Exclusion manifests across three dimensions: consumers encountering digital barriers created by opaque AI systems, employees feeling threatened rather than enabled by new tools, and an industry failing to build inclusive education pathways for future ITSM professionals.
You can also read more of David’s perspective on this here.
Sophie Hussey pointed to a looming talent crisis. The UK Computer Science curriculum focuses exclusively on hardware, networks, and code while ignoring service management entirely. Combined with an aging ITSM workforce, this creates a significant staffing risk. Without deliberate intervention through apprenticeships, STEM ambassadorship, and engagement with schools and colleges, the industry risks losing its service-focused, holistic approach to technology delivery.
2026 ITSM Risks: Process maturity cannot be bypassed
Greg Sanker delivered perhaps the most pointed warning: organizations are rushing to implement AI without establishing the foundational capabilities that determine success. As he put it, “AI will radically alter the course of ITSM. But like so many industry trends, AI tools will not solve organizations’ fundamental problems.”
This observation connects to a recurring theme throughout the paper. Several contributors noted that organizations historically add tools and technology in the expectation of solutions, only to find that underlying issues remain unaddressed. The enthusiasm for AI capabilities is well-founded, but absent adequate data quality, governance structures, and clearly defined outcomes, mean organizations simply repeat past mistakes at greater speed and cost.
Claire Agutter examined this from a service ecosystem perspective. Technology landscapes evolve faster than governance structures, creating fragility when AI-driven services and niche providers enter portfolios. Without deliberate service integration and management (SIAM) approaches, the joins between providers become the weakest points in delivery chains.
2026 ITSM Risks: Technology risks extend beyond implementation
While AI dominates current discussions, the technology risks identified by contributors reveal more nuanced concerns. David Keen emphasized that unauthorized AI use by employees represents an escalating problem for organizational security and integrity. With cybersecurity incidents rising across multiple vectors, 2026 may prove a watershed year when AI usage risks take center stage.
The solution requires more than policy documents. Organizations need governance that spans departments, with ITSM and security teams collaborating closely. Security drives governance while ITSM teams serve as providers, approving changes and provisioning access to authorized applications. Equally important is addressing data quality, since AI running on poorly structured or incorrect data produces flawed outputs that damage rather than enhance decision-making.
You can also read more of David’s perspective on this here.
Roy Atkinson raised a complementary concern about how organizations conceptualize change itself. The tendency to treat everything as a project or product with a defined completion point fails when confronted with the reality that AI integration represents an ongoing transformation. Organizational dynamics now resemble fluid dynamics, with patterns and interactions that linear thinking cannot adequately address.
2026 ITSM Risks: Value delivery requires fundamental rethinking
Bob Roark identified a risk hiding in plain sight: organizations over-focusing on frameworks and tools instead of outcomes. When ITSM is measured only by tickets closed or process steps followed, leaders miss the actual outcome question of whether friction was reduced, recurrence prevented, and business trust built.
This observation connects to David Billouz’s contribution about cooperation versus collaboration. Many organizations unintentionally stop at cooperation, with each team optimizing its own performance while pieces fail to connect into seamless value streams. Services appear well-managed on paper yet remain misaligned with business needs. The absence of collaboration creates structural barriers, including fragmented metrics, inefficient handoffs, strategic misalignment, and eroded trust.
You can also read more of David’s perspective on this here.
Stephen Mann framed the overarching challenge as a need for ITSM leaders to understand what IT service delivery and support will actually look like over the next five years. Beyond AI adoption, this encompasses delivering better experiences and valuing outcomes over operations. The question is whether organizations can survive without significant change, and, if not, whether ITSM can evolve quickly enough to remain relevant.
What this means for ITSM leaders
The breadth of risks identified across these four categories suggests that 2026 demands more than tactical adjustments. Paul Wilkinson’s observation about “The Shiny New Thing That Really Helps” applies directly: success requires strategic fit, leadership commitment, cultural alignment, appropriate skills, and continual learning and improvement. These five elements have historically determined whether organizations extract value from new approaches or simply create expensive disappointments.
The full paper includes specific mitigation strategies and detailed perspectives from all 17 contributors, covering topics from business continuity planning and stakeholder engagement to data governance and service desk capability development. For organizations serious about turning 2026 risks into growth opportunities, the complete insights provide a foundation for assessment and action planning.
Download the full white paper: ITSM Risks into Growth Opportunities in 2026
Further Reading
Sophie Danby
Sophie is a freelance ITSM marketing consultant, helping ITSM solution vendors to develop and implement effective marketing strategies.
She covers both traditional areas of marketing (such as advertising, trade shows, and events) and digital marketing (such as video, social media, and email marketing). She is also a trained editor.
