AI Becoming Mainstream in Delivering ITSM

93% of businesses plan to use AI to streamline their help desk systems

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has hit the mainstream, as 93% of businesses are currently exploring or deploying some level of AI in ITSM, according to a new survey by IDC and Freshworks.


"The data proves what Freshworks has been seeing with our customers for years — they expect AI to be deeply integrated within the ITSM tools instead of it being an add-on that requires additional effort to delight their employees," said Prakash Ramamurthy, Chief Product Officer at Freshworks. "As evident from the survey, users of AI want greater automation, reduced complexity, and a simplified approach with modern IT tools that delight businesses of all sizes. AI is no longer a futuristic concept, it's a must-have."

AI is seen as an ITSM/ITOM game changer. AI technologies are rapidly emerging as a way to delight customers and employees and not just a chat tool.

Most IT Managers Are Exploring AI

Virtually all IT managers (93%) are currently exploring or deploying some level of AI technology for ITSM/ITOM modernization; 61% deployed at some level and 32% exploring possibilities.

Majority of IT Managers Say AI is Important

Nearly 70% of IT managers say AI is either critical or very important for upgrading and modernizing their service desk capabilities.

ITSM chatbots are in the lead

Among six representative AI use cases, ITSM chatbots are the clear leader in planned or actual AI deployments.

On the flip side, a significant percentage of the respondents indicated that they have no plans to deploy these AI-powered capabilities.

AI Users Want Speed and Integration

Despite the expected and achieved benefits, survey respondents cited what they wanted to gain from implementing AI. The following four topped the list:

■ Speed of implementation (40%)

■ Integration with legacy systems (40%)

■ The overall cost of implementation (38%)

■ Training the AI bots solution to return the most accurate response (39%)

AI Users Want Fast and Easy Deployment

A large majority of the survey respondents indicated that any AI solutions for ITSM/ITOM should be intuitive, scalable, collaborative, and easy to deploy.

For example, 82% mostly or completely agreed with the statement: "We need a fast, pre-trained, easy-to-deploy AI solution to meet our needs."

Also, 85% mostly or completely agreed that "the more intuitive an AI application, the more likely it will be accepted and deployed."

The survey also explored a key metric associated with today's demanding IT environment: the number of IT service inquiries received by the IT support desk each day. That number ranged from an average of 44 inquiries per day for small companies to 725 per day for large organizations.

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AI Becoming Mainstream in Delivering ITSM

93% of businesses plan to use AI to streamline their help desk systems

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has hit the mainstream, as 93% of businesses are currently exploring or deploying some level of AI in ITSM, according to a new survey by IDC and Freshworks.


"The data proves what Freshworks has been seeing with our customers for years — they expect AI to be deeply integrated within the ITSM tools instead of it being an add-on that requires additional effort to delight their employees," said Prakash Ramamurthy, Chief Product Officer at Freshworks. "As evident from the survey, users of AI want greater automation, reduced complexity, and a simplified approach with modern IT tools that delight businesses of all sizes. AI is no longer a futuristic concept, it's a must-have."

AI is seen as an ITSM/ITOM game changer. AI technologies are rapidly emerging as a way to delight customers and employees and not just a chat tool.

Most IT Managers Are Exploring AI

Virtually all IT managers (93%) are currently exploring or deploying some level of AI technology for ITSM/ITOM modernization; 61% deployed at some level and 32% exploring possibilities.

Majority of IT Managers Say AI is Important

Nearly 70% of IT managers say AI is either critical or very important for upgrading and modernizing their service desk capabilities.

ITSM chatbots are in the lead

Among six representative AI use cases, ITSM chatbots are the clear leader in planned or actual AI deployments.

On the flip side, a significant percentage of the respondents indicated that they have no plans to deploy these AI-powered capabilities.

AI Users Want Speed and Integration

Despite the expected and achieved benefits, survey respondents cited what they wanted to gain from implementing AI. The following four topped the list:

■ Speed of implementation (40%)

■ Integration with legacy systems (40%)

■ The overall cost of implementation (38%)

■ Training the AI bots solution to return the most accurate response (39%)

AI Users Want Fast and Easy Deployment

A large majority of the survey respondents indicated that any AI solutions for ITSM/ITOM should be intuitive, scalable, collaborative, and easy to deploy.

For example, 82% mostly or completely agreed with the statement: "We need a fast, pre-trained, easy-to-deploy AI solution to meet our needs."

Also, 85% mostly or completely agreed that "the more intuitive an AI application, the more likely it will be accepted and deployed."

The survey also explored a key metric associated with today's demanding IT environment: the number of IT service inquiries received by the IT support desk each day. That number ranged from an average of 44 inquiries per day for small companies to 725 per day for large organizations.

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Reliability is no longer proven by uptime alone, according to the The SRE Report 2026 from LogicMonitor. In the AI era, it is experienced through speed, consistency, and user trust, and increasingly judged by business impact. As digital services grow more complex and AI systems move into production, traditional monitoring approaches are struggling to keep pace, increasing the need for AI-first observability that spans applications, infrastructure, and the Internet ...

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If AI is the engine of a modern organization, then data engineering is the road system beneath it. You can build the most powerful engine in the world, but without paved roads, traffic signals, and bridges that can support its weight, it will stall. In many enterprises, the engine is ready. The roads are not ...

Why AI Is the Differentiator for Operationally Resilient Organizations

In the world of digital-first business, there is no tolerance for service outages. Businesses know that outages are the quickest way to lose money and customers. For smaller organizations, unplanned downtime could even force the business to close ... A new study from PagerDuty, The State of AI-First Operations, reveals that companies actively incorporating AI into operations now view operational resilience as a growth driver rather than a cost center. But how are they achieving it? ...

Escaping Pilot Purgatory: How AI Becomes an Operational Advantage

In live financial environments, capital markets software cannot pause for rebuilds. New capabilities are introduced as stacked technology layers to meet evolving demands while systems remain active, data keeps moving, and controls stay intact. AI is no exception, and its opportunities are significant: accelerated decision cycles, compressed manual workflows, and more effective operations across complex environments. The constraint isn't the models themselves, but the architectural environments they enter ...

Closing the Gap in Modern Tech and the Tools Meant to Monitor Them

Like most digital transformation shifts, organizations often prioritize productivity and leave security and observability to keep pace. This usually translates to both the mass implementation of new technology and fragmented monitoring and observability (M&O) tooling. In the era of AI and varied cloud architecture, a disparate observability function can be dangerous. IT teams will lack a complete picture of their IT environment, making it harder to diagnose issues while slowing down mean time to resolve (MTTR). In fact, according to recent data from the SolarWinds State of Monitoring & Observability Report, 77% of IT personnel said the lack of visibility across their on-prem and cloud architecture was an issue ...

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Technology management is evolving, and in turn, so is the scope of FinOps. The FinOps Foundation recently updated their mission statement from "advancing the people who manage the value of cloud" to "advancing the people who manage the value of technology." This seemingly small change solidifies a larger evolution: FinOps practitioners have organically expanded to be focused on more than just cloud cost optimization. Today, FinOps teams are largely — and quickly — expanding their job descriptions, evolving into a critical function for managing the full value of technology ...

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Enterprises are under pressure to scale AI quickly. Yet despite considerable investment, adoption continues to stall. One of the most overlooked reasons is vendor sprawl ... In reality, no organization deliberately sets out to create sprawling vendor ecosystems. More often, complexity accumulates over time through well-intentioned initiatives, such as enterprise-wide digital transformation efforts, point solutions, or decentralized sourcing strategies ...

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