Automation & AI Articles

What I Learned from SDI SPARK26

Superheroes, Service Desks, and Chaos Monkeys – What I Learned from SDI SPARK26

The Service Desk Institute held its annual SPARK conference in Birmingham in March. Vawns Murphy captures her pick of the best sessions, the presenters worth listening to a second time, and the practical takeaways that stood out over three days of talks. This article is her selected version of the event for anyone who couldn’t get there in person.
Break the 1–3x ITSM Implementation Cost Rule

How AI Will Break the 1–3x ITSM Implementation Cost Rule

The rule of thumb in ITSM has long been that implementation costs one to three times the software license. Richard Mendis of Bytemethod.ai makes the case that agentic AI finally breaks this calculation, by taking on the configuration, documentation, and maintenance work that consumes the bulk of an implementation budget. The article explains where the savings show up first.
AI Help Desk Software

AI Help Desk Software: How LLMs, AI Agents & Chatbots Are Transforming IT Support

AI help desks powered by LLMs and AI agents are being rolled out to automate IT support, reduce Tier 1 tickets, cut operational costs, and scale support operations without adding headcount. Jeff Hume looks at where these systems are already delivering, what the current limitations look like, and how to think about them if you’re evaluating options for your own service desk.
The Hidden Cost of IT “Papercuts”: Why ITSM Automation Is a Business Continuity Strategy

The Hidden Cost of IT “Papercuts”: Why ITSM Automation Is a Business Continuity Strategy

It’s the small issues that eat away at your team’s capacity: password resets, access tweaks, profile changes, and “just a quick question” tickets that never make a headline but never stop arriving either. Lauren Okruch explains why the compounded impact of these papercuts is a real business continuity risk, and how ITSM automation delivers more upside on this class of work than the flashier use cases.
AI in ITSM

AI in ITSM: How AI Is Transforming IT Service Management

AI is changing IT service management, from automation and predictive incidents to smarter knowledge management and better end-user experiences. Daniel Burley walks through where the technology fits in an ITSM setup today, what it does well, what it still gets wrong, and how to think about where to invest first if you’re at the early end of the adoption curve.
Illustrated ITIL control tower rising above a digital landscape representing the ITIL (Version 5) framework

ITIL (Version 5) Explained: What’s New, What’s Changed, and Why It Matters

ITIL (Version 5) is here, and the questions from practitioners have started. This article works through the most common ones: what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what the key differences from ITIL 4 are. Roman Jouravlev, editor of ITIL and creator of the Conversations with Giants series, walks through the practical implications for anyone already running ITIL 4.
AI Survey 2026

AI Survey 2026: The Rise of Agentic AI Adoption in ITSM

We’re running a second 2026 AI survey just four months after our previous one. It repeats a similar AI survey from early 2025. This time, however, there’s a far greater focus on where the ITSM community is with Agentic AI rather than AI per se.
2026 ITSM Trends

2026 ITSM Trends: What the Community Actually Wants Help With

Every year we ask the ITSM community what topics they want help with, and the 2026 results are in. This article covers what the community is asking for, how priorities have changed over six years, and what it all means. Spoiler: GenAI has fallen off a cliff and nobody wants to talk about people anymore.
The MSP Agentic AI Execution Gap

The MSP Agentic AI Execution Gap in Service Delivery

70% of MSPs say they’re using agentic AI. Only 10% are primarily using it where it counts. And according to new Omdia poll data, MSP’s customers are already further ahead. The report digs into the execution gap, the cost of hesitation, and why investors are increasingly factoring AI maturity into MSP valuations.
2026 ITSM Risks

The 2026 ITSM Risks Leaders Are Underestimating

The biggest ITSM risks for 2026 span four areas: people challenges, including exclusion and talent shortages, process maturity gaps in AI adoption, technology risks from unauthorized AI use and poor data quality, and value delivery failures from focusing on tools over outcomes.
How AI Helps Service Desks

AI-Assisted Service Desks

If you’re wondering about AI-assisted service desks, this article and the videos it links to are for you. Discover how AI-assisted service desks transform ITSM, especially for lean teams – improving speed, experience, and scalability across the business.
Context-Aware Remote Support

Context-Aware Remote Support – the Future of IT Service Management

No matter where an employee is, they expect consumer-grade speed and simplicity. However, their issues are increasingly intertwined with complex networks of devices, SaaS applications, VPNs, and networks that you may not fully control. In this article, discover how context-aware remote support closes the IT resolution gap, reduces MTTR, improves security, and transforms ITSM for hybrid work.
Pushing the Boundaries of Major Incident Response

Pushing the Boundaries of Major Incident Response with Agentic AI

Instead of relying solely on traditional major incident management workflows, IT teams need to diversify and modernize their approach by infusing intelligence into their incident response flows. This article explains how IT incidents and major incidents are detected, analyzed, and resolved better with AI.
2026 ITSM Content

2026 ITSM Content: What IT Service Management Topics Do You Need Most?

What do you need help with next year? Take our quick 2026 ITSM Topics poll to help shape the articles, guides, and practical content ITSM.tools puts out. The aggregated results also give us an early read on the hottest trends in ITSM right now, and where the industry conversation is heading in 2026.
2026 ITAM Outlook

2026 ITAM Outlook: Focused AI, Strong Governance, and the End of Tool Sprawl

What does the 2026 ITAM outlook include?Ian Cahall sees two major shifts taking hold: AI moves from hype to governed, targeted adoption, and multi-tool sprawl will shift to deeper execution on a primary platform.