Automation & AI Articles

Two portraits set into vintage washing machine windows, illustrating AI and humanising IT

A Process Is Still a Conversation: Humanising Service Management

Simone Jo Moore has spent decades arguing that the human sits at the center of every IT process, every tool rollout, every supplier relationship. In her Conversations with Giants episode, she talks about AI as a creative muse and a way to clear the drudgery, why SIAM is a relationship problem at heart, and why she’s still waiting for the industry to drop the dogma and get more honest about the people doing the work.
Illustration of a chat window reading "Can I speak with a human please?" next to a smiling AI chatbot icon, representing employee experience with AI-supported IT chat

How IT Support Can Deliver Better Employee Experiences

IT support is usually measured by first-contact resolution and ticket counts, but rarely by whether employees got what they needed. Drawing on a SolarWinds webinar, Stephen Mann looks at why AI’s biggest value lies in preventing issues before a ticket exists, why channel choice counts for more than any single preferred channel, and why most metrics track IT service desk mechanics rather than the outcomes employees experience.
Illustration of an IT professional walking through an office full of robots, representing the always-on AI question of why human staff are still needed

Always-On AI in ITSM: Why Every Service Desk Employee Will Ask “Why Am I Needed?”

Always-on AI is transforming the IT service desk, but technology alone won’t determine its success. This article examines why organizations must address human purpose, psychological safety and governance alongside AI deployment – and why answering “Why am I needed?” may be the most important question of all.
Illustration of IT workers at old computer terminals facing a large AI creature made of cash, representing uncontrolled AI software spend in asset management

Asset Management Teams Are Being Asked to Govern AI Spend They Can’t See

AI software is the fastest-growing cost in most IT estates, and most teams have no real view of it. The Flexera 2026 State of ITAM Report bears that out: AI tracking is now the field’s biggest challenge, wasted AI spend is climbing, and FinOps is closing in on territory IT asset management used to own. The piece runs through the findings that count for asset and service teams, and what to fix first.
Olympic rings illustration with small AI robot agents standing beside them, representing agentic AI coordination in ITSM

What ITSM Can Learn from the Olympics in the Agentic AI Era

The Olympics demonstrate that success depends on teamwork, preparation, governance, and seamless coordination – not individual talent alone. Discover how these same principles help IT organizations deploy Agentic AI successfully through better context sharing, AI governance, continuous validation, and clearly defined AI responsibilities.
Two grain silos on a farm, each displaying a portrait, representing silos in IT service management

Simplicity, Service, and the Discipline of Asking Why

Christian Nissen spent four decades in IT service management and helped shape ITIL along the way. In his Conversations with Giants episode, he makes the case that the industry keeps isolating capabilities it should be reintegrating, that it has swapped service for product, and that the skills worth learning are older and plainer than newcomers expect. Here are the ideas practitioners can use now.
Confused robot surrounded by a question mark, representing AI operating without context in IT service desks

Beyond Intelligence: Why Context Is the Missing Piece in AI-Driven IT Service Desks

AI is transforming IT service desks, but not in the way many expect. The real limitation isn’t the intelligence of AI models, it’s the lack of usable context in most IT environments. Between CMDB accuracy, knowledge articles, service catalogs, and tacit expertise, AI is only as effective as the information it can access. Without strong context, even the most advanced AI just scales existing issues.
Illustrated humans and AI robots in a meeting representing Agentic AI in ITSM collaboration

Agentic AI in ITSM Insights and Correlations

The 2026 HCLSoftware-sponsored ITSM.tools survey looks at how Agentic AI is being adopted across service management. This article breaks down the adoption trends, governance priorities, and regional differences the survey found, plus how AI maturity correlates with trust, business value, and organizational outcomes. It’s a snapshot of where Agentic AI is currently delivering in ITSM, and where it still isn’t.
Robotic hand pressing a large reset button representing the ITSM reset for AI service management

The ITSM Reset: Why AI Can’t Scale Without Strong Service Management Foundations

AI adoption in ITSM is nearly universal, but AI is only as effective as the processes, data, and governance behind it. Research shows a wide gap between AI use and the maturity of underlying ITSM practices. AI can automate and predict, but it can’t fix fragmented workflows, disconnected tools, or bad data. Strengthening ITSM foundations, an ITSM reset, may be the biggest step toward making AI work at scale.
Classical and futuristic figures illustrating the concept of AI agent governance in ITSM

Why AI Agent Governance Belongs in ITSM

As AI agents gain autonomy and become embedded in critical business processes, organizations face a growing governance challenge. Suganya Raju argues that established ITSM capabilities, including risk classification, service ownership, CMDB visibility, change management, and access governance, already provide most of the framework needed. The article covers how to extend what teams already run rather than reinventing.
Illustrated phoenix rising in flames, representing renewal and rebirth in the ITSM tool renewal cycle

ITSM Tool Renewal Guide: 7 Questions to Ask Before Renewing or Replacing Your Platform

Too many ITSM tool renewals get treated as procurement exercises when they should be strategic decisions. Manish Sharma lays out a 90–180 day framework for evaluating your current platform, assessing alternatives, and building stakeholder alignment before contract renewal. The guide also covers the seven questions every IT leader should answer to decide whether to renew, expand, or replace their tool.
Illustrated aging robot in a business suit and sunglasses, representing operational maturity in AI-driven IT service management

Before You Automate: How Operational Maturity Determines AI Success in ITSM

AI doesn’t fix broken processes, it scales them. Matt Beran argues that while ITSM teams focus on automation and autonomous service desks, the real determinant of AI success is operational maturity. The article covers why knowledge quality, workflow consistency, governance, and data hygiene are the foundations of AI that keeps working after go-live rather than failing quietly, and where teams tend to underinvest first.
Illustrated IT support agent at a computer with headset, representing AI-driven service desk operations in a ticketless enterprise

The Ticketless Enterprise: How AI Agents Prevent Work Instead of Processing It

The best support tickets are the ones never submitted. Shankar Gomathi argues that with AI agents in the mix, a ticketless enterprise is closer than most support teams think, letting IT operations become more effective and less expensive. The article covers what a ticketless model looks like, which categories of ticket disappear first, and what has to be true internally to reach that state.
ServiceTeam ITSM Enterprise 3.0

Provance ServiceTeam ITSM Enterprise 3.0

Provance ServiceTeam ITSM Enterprise 3.0 is a Microsoft-native service management platform built on Microsoft Power Platform, combining ITIL-aligned capabilities with low-code flexibility, workflow automation, and integration across Microsoft 365, Azure, Power BI, and Power Automate. This solution snapshot covers where the platform fits, who it’s built for, and how it compares against traditional ITSM tools.
Illustrated monitoring device with dials and signal lines representing third-party risk detection and trusted runtime truth in IT operations

Agentic IT and Third-Party Risk: Why Trusted Runtime Truth Matters

Strategic roadmaps are filling up with AI agents, command towers, and intelligent automation. Salil Karkarni argues that both agentic IT and third-party risk programs share a hidden constraint that rarely makes it into keynotes: neither can succeed without a trusted, runtime view of what exists, how it is connected, and which services it supports. The article looks at why that gap keeps derailing both.