10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

10 AI and machine
learning use cases
in ITSM
 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

In this e-guide
10 AI and machine learning use cases in
10 AI and machine learning ITSM
use cases in ITSM
George Lawton, Contributor

AI-enabled ITSM, while still maturing, promises to greatly

improve the speed and quality of IT service management. Here
are 10 AI and machine learning use cases for ITSM

CIOs are starting to use different AI and machine learning capabilities to

improve IT service management processes. Use cases that incorporate AI in
ITSM typically involve natural language processing and AI-infused mining of
ITSM data. Natural language processing (NLP) is being used to automate
user requests for IT services. Applying machine learning to ITSM data gives
IT practitioners a richer understanding of their infrastructure and processes.
Natural language processing -- the underlying technology in virtual agents --
is often configured through integrations with chat services like Slack that
employees are already using, giving users a familiar interface for
communicating with IT service desks.

Applying machine learning to ITSM processes, in principle, makes a lot of

sense due to the volume of data ITSM systems generate. The systems
collect lots of data about what's being requested, along with information

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

about when, why and by whom. This data also provides a glimpse into the IT
In this e-guide assets and processes that are in place and can help identify who owns
them, how they are used and whether they are still relevant.
10 AI and machine learning
use cases in ITSM "Data is the fuel that AI needs to deliver relevant and valuable insights," said
John Peluso, CTO of AvePoint's Public Sector. Machine learning generates
insights that can help IT organizations prioritize ITSM issues, take
preventative action, improve time to resolution and ultimately boost
employee productivity.

Ready to dig a little deeper? Here are 10 ways in which AI and machine
learning use cases in ITSM are changing how IT services are delivered.

1. Automatic categorization of incidents

using chatbots

Chatbots integrated into ITSM infrastructure can be used to categorize the

underlying problem in employee requests. For example, Genpact has added
the BMC Chatbot to its BMC Helix SaaS suite, which automates connectivity
with ITSM infrastructure across cloud and on-premises infrastructure. The
chat interface simplified the ability to prioritize and automate level one and
two service requests for 50,000 Genpact users.

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

In this e-guide 2. Intelligent assignment for incoming

requests
10 AI and machine learning
use cases in ITSM
Service desk teams have different skill sets, and some are better at
resolving different types of IT requests than others. Incorporating AI in ITSM
can automatically triage tickets to the correct support groups without having
to have humans up front reading the content in the ticket to make a
decision, said Milind Wagle, CIO at Equinix Inc.

3. Automatically fulfill basic requests

through task automation

NLP can help chat agents handle categories of requests and incidents.
These agents can help answer common questions using historical ticket
data and an ITSM knowledge base.

But this application of AI in ITSM requires knowledge management experts

to create a repository of proper documentation of past request history and
relevant knowledge articles, said Kumaravel Ramakrishnan, product
manager for ManageEngine, an IT operations and service management
provider under the Zoho Corp. umbrella.

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

In this e-guide 4. Generating a solutions repository

10 AI and machine learning Enterprises are starting to embed IT operations provisioning tools directly
use cases in ITSM into the chat services used by developers. These DevOps bots help
generate a unified repository that allows developers and operations teams
to keep track of changes to infrastructure and how different types of
incidents were successfully resolved. Later, when similar problems emerge,
AI engines can mine this repository to help operations teams resolve the
problem more quickly.

IT service desks are adopting the same types of tools to generate

knowledge repositories for broader sets of IT service requests as well.
"Good IT professionals with experience could tell you that most of the
issues they solve today are based on past experiences with solving issues,"
said Oded Moshe, vice president of products at SysAid Technologies Ltd.,
an IT help desk provider. AI can also help mine IT service request data
outside of the chat channel into repositories that can be used to solve
current issues. This augmented repository speeds up the process for solving
issues.

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

In this e-guide 5. Event resolution guidance

10 AI and machine learning A good ITSM repository can also guide incident resolution through the ITSM
use cases in ITSM tool. AI-generated advice could be as simple as suggesting a related
incident, solutions article or configuration item, thus reducing the time
required to think about how to locate an item and then search for it.

Guided use of the ITSM tool is even better, said Matt Cox, senior director of
technical services and ITSM at SolarWinds, an IT management software
vendor. In this case, the AI creates best practices and automatically points
IT service desk practitioners toward that behavior, rather than forcing them
to identify the best use of an ITSM tool. One example is to create an
algorithm to identify related incidents and their trends for problem
management and suggest that agents open a problem record.

6. Learning process flows optimized with

machine learning: Use case

Many IT requests, like employee onboarding, require human agents to

perform a complex set of steps to fulfill the requests. Enterprises are now
using machine learning models to watch how humans execute these
processes so that future requests can be more automated. In the case of

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

employee onboarding, machine learning models learn from a historical

In this e-guide database of requests that cover a range of actions taken based on type of
employment, role and department of the new employee. The trained models
10 AI and machine learning then assign new requests to the right technicians. By recognizing patterns in
use cases in ITSM
the employee onboarding request database, machine learning-based models
can also suggest what hardware or software an employee needs right when
the onboarding request is created, said ManageEngine's Ramakrishnan.

7. Proactive problem resolution improved

by big data analytics

Advances in big data and analytics are improving the predictive and
correlative capabilities for ITSM. Based on analysis of the repository and
user behavior patterns, AI and machine learning tools can help reduce the
number of IT issues end users experience, or forecast and fulfill users'
requests before they even know they have a problem.

"Issues ranging from IT outages to individual user hardware malfunctions

can be predicted, and solutions automatically applied or at least suggested
with an increasingly higher rate of success as the system learns from past
experiences," said Ambarish Kayastha, enterprise solutions architect at
Broadcom Inc.

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

AI enables better, faster, proactive and automated problem resolution of

In this e-guide issues introduced through changes in the environment, changes in end-user
behavior or changes within your apps and services, said Andreas Grabner,
10 AI and machine learning DevOps activist at Dynatrace. For example, Citrix is using ITSM integrations
use cases in ITSM
across Dynatrace, ServiceNow and AWS. When the Dynatrace engine
predicts a problem, it can do root cause analysis before customers are
impacted.

8. Anomaly detection by flagging unusual

repeat incidents

The signs of some IT incidents may not be apparent through traditional

ITSM monitoring tools. AI machine learning models are being trained to
detect anomalous behavior that may occur across multiple IT systems.
These models can help alert IT staff to a problem before an incident has
occurred.

9. Using predictive analytics to flag

requests that could violate SLAs

IT service requests can result in spinning up software and hardware

configurations that reduce applications performance or, worse, break

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

entirely. Predictive analytics are being used to mine performance data within
In this e-guide and even across enterprises to identify potential problems. This insight can
provide guidance to users or the IT service desk on alternative approaches
10 AI and machine learning for fulfilling a request that meets service-level agreements.
use cases in ITSM

10. Identifying security vulnerabilities

Security researchers are constantly identifying vulnerabilities with commonly

used IT infrastructure applications and configurations. This can include
libraries for developing applications as well as infrastructure. AI tools can
interpret new reports and prioritize issues for security teams to address
before a recently discovered vulnerability can be used by attackers.

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 10 AI and machine learning use cases in ITSM

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