ITSM.tools recently collaborated with Atomicwork to produce the 2026 State of AI in IT report. It follows earlier IT service management (ITSM)-focused reports on artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in North American IT organizations in 2024 and global IT organizations in 2025.
As with these earlier reports, there were two separate surveys. The first posed AI-related questions to IT professionals, and the second to end-users. Both survey samples were predominantly North American based and surveys were conducted in Q4 2025 to provide a service-provider and service-receiver view for 2026.
This article shares some of the report’s data points, but the report itself offers more insight into the full response sets and some key correlations.
Key AI in Survey Data Points – IT Professionals
AI in IT Is Now the Norm, Not the Exception
- Only 2% of respondents reported no AI use in their organization
- 24% of respondent organizations were evaluating AI use cases or planning pilot projects
- 74% stated that AI is employed in at least one service management team
Realized Value and ROI from AI in IT
Most Organizations Are Already Seeing Benefits
- 82% of respondents stated that value had been realized from their AI investments
- Only 11% of respondents hadn’t realized tangible value from their AI investments yet (another 5% hadn’t made AI investments, and 2% didn’t know)
AI in IT ROI Is Predominantly Positive
- Two-thirds (67%) of respondents described their ROI from AI as Positive
- Only 3% of respondents described it as Negative
- The remainder either described the ROI as Neutral (14%) or Too early to tell (16%)
Where AI Is Making the Biggest ITSM Impact
Top ITSM Use Cases for AI
- Data analysis – 70%
- Automation and workflow orchestration – 49%
- Knowledge management – 37%
AI in IT Anticipated vs. Realized Benefits
Top anticipated benefits
- Faster data-driven decision-making – 54%
- Improved employee or customer experience – 48%
- Increased employee productivity – 48%
What’s actually being realized with AI in IT
- Better decision-making has jumped from fourth to first place – from 28% to 47% between 2025 and 2026
- Increased employee productivity has remained static at 40%
- Improved employee or customer experience had risen from 33% to 39%
The top realized benefits were the same as the anticipated benefits, albeit with lower percentages.
AI in IT Readiness and Organizational Confidence
How Prepared Are Organizations for AI in IT?
- 35% of organizations were still preparing for AI
- 64% of organizations were already progressing with AI
Trust Models for AI Decision-Making
- Over a third of respondents (36%) selected We use AI, but humans make the final decisions
- Only 16% of respondents stated that their organization fully trusts AI to make and execute operational decisions
- 22% of respondents said that We allow AI to make some decisions autonomously in specific scenarios
While not directly comparable to the 2025 survey question, the responses showed a greater trust in AI in 2026.
Trust in AI Is Increasing
Trust in AI has increased for 62% of survey respondents, while it has decreased for just 5%.
For the remainder of the respondents, trust in AI had remained the same:
- High trust – 23%
- Low trust – 5%
While a reduction in trust does not imply distrust, nor does an increase in trust imply trust, the survey results indicate a much more trusting approach to AI use.
Key AI in IT Survey Data Points – End-Users
IT Support Contact Levels
85% of the survey respondents had contacted their corporate IT support function in the last year.
An interesting change, which might relate to the sample rather than the importance of IT support, was that the We don’t have an IT support team option dropped from 6% to 0% in 2026.
Preferred IT Support Channels
The most popular primary IT support channels were:
- Phone call – 27%
- Email – 22%
- Support portal or form – 13%
- AI chatbot – 13%
IT Support Improvements
Only 13% of survey respondents were happy with how their IT support team worked. The most common improvement requests were to:
- Confirm if my issue is resolved before closing my ticket – 18%
- Offer 24/7 support – 15%
- Shorten response and resolution times – 14%
- Keep me updated on progress – 13%
End-User AI Usage and Trust
Free AI Tool Usage Is Now the Norm
Only 18% of the end-user respondents don’t use at least one free AI tool. This has dropped from 29% in 2025.
Meaning that, as we enter 2026, 82% of end-users use free AI tools at work.
AI in IT Concerns
46% of end-user respondents weren’t concerned about their organizations using AI.
This, surprisingly, is only a marginal increase on the 44% reported in the 2025 survey, even with the decrease in We’re not using AI responses from 17% to 8%.
End-User Trust Lags Behind IT
End-user trust in AI had increased for 39% of respondents, while it had decreased for 11%.
However, when compared to the IT professional responses, there’s a disconnect – with end-users not trusting AI as much as IT professionals.
Barriers to AI Adoption from the End-User View
The top three placed barrier options were the same as for IT professionals:
- Data privacy and security risks – 24%
- Inaccurate or biased outputs – 16%
- High implementation costs – 13%.
However, while the IT professional response percentages ranged from 25% to 57%, the end-user responses only ranged from 6% to 24% – meaning that end-users, while collectively understanding the key barriers to AI adoption, do so to a far lesser degree.
Download the Full 2026 State of AI in IT Report
To read more of the 2026 State of AI in IT survey findings, the full report can be downloaded from: https://www.atomicwork.com/reports/state-of-ai-in-it-2026
Further Reading
Stephen Mann
Principal Analyst and Content Director at the ITSM-focused industry analyst firm ITSM.tools. Also an independent IT and IT service management marketing content creator, and a frequent blogger, writer, and presenter on the challenges and opportunities for IT service management professionals.
Previously held positions in IT research and analysis (at IT industry analyst firms Ovum and Forrester and the UK Post Office), IT service management consultancy, enterprise IT service desk and IT service management, IT asset management, innovation and creativity facilitation, project management, finance consultancy, internal audit, and product marketing for a SaaS IT service management technology vendor.
