How AI is transforming IT Service Management—and what comes next
The conversation around Artificial Intelligence in IT Service Management (ITSM) is rapidly maturing. AI-powered virtual agents have been the face of this transformation for nearly a decade, handling routine requests and proving that AI can deliver real, measurable value. However, seeing virtual agents as the final destination means missing the bigger picture. They were just the beginning.
The first wave of AI in ITSM laid a proven foundation, automating simple tasks and improving employee self-service. A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study highlighted this success, finding that Jira Service Management's virtual agent can deflect 30% of IT requests and improve agent ticket-handling efficiency by another 30%. This established technology has successfully shifted the conversation from "if" AI is applicable to "what's next?"
Today, the true revolution is unfolding. We are moving beyond reactive chatbots into an era of proactive, autonomous operations driven by Agentic AI and AIOps. This new wave isn't just about answering questions faster; it's about preventing issues before they arise, automating complex end-to-end workflows, and fundamentally redesigning the service desk into an intelligent, predictive, and resilient nerve center for the entire enterprise.
In this first post of our series, we'll explore this evolution—from the established success of virtual agents to the transformative frontier of Agentic AI and what it means for the future of your operations.
The proven foundation: How virtual agents paved the way
The most familiar application of AI in ITSM is the virtual agent—an intelligent evolution of the simple chatbot. These agents have been the digital front door for IT support for years. They use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand employee requests and provide instant, 24/7 answers for common issues like password resets or software access.
By integrating directly into collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, virtual agents have made support a seamless part of the daily workflow, rather than a separate, frustrating task. The impact has been significant. The Forrester study found that providing intelligent self-service saves employees an average of 25 minutes per request, freeing up thousands of hours of productivity across the organization. This success has been the bedrock of AI in the ITSM movement, proving the value of technology and paving the way for more advanced applications.
The next wave: Agentic AI and true automation
While virtual agents react to user prompts, the next generation of AI—agentic AI—is defined by its autonomy. Agentic AI systems don't just follow a script; they can reason, plan, and execute complex, multi-step tasks across different systems to achieve a goal, often without any human intervention. This is the shift from a "digital assistant" to a "digital colleague."
This evolution is most apparent in two key areas:
- Intelligent, automated triage: Traditional automation uses static rules to route tickets. Modern AI-powered triage is far more sophisticated. It analyzes a ticket's content and context, compares it to historical data from thousands of similar past issues, and determines the job's priority, category, and correct expert—all in real time. This isn't just routing; it's intelligent decision-making that eliminates the manual bottleneck of Level 1 support and ensures critical issues are addressed instantly.
- Agentic AI workflows: The real power of Agentic AI is its ability to orchestrate complex processes. Consider employee onboarding. A simple virtual agent might create a ticket for IT. An Agentic AI system, however, can manage the entire workflow. Triggered by a new hire in the HR system, the AI agent autonomously provisions accounts in IT, assigns equipment, schedules orientation sessions, and notifies the facilities team—coordinating across multiple departments and systems to ensure a seamless day-one experience.
From firefighting to foresight: The preemptive revolution with AIOps
Perhaps the most strategic shift modern AI enables is the move from a reactive to a proactive operational model. For decades, IT operations teams have been stuck in "firefighting" mode, responding to system outages only after they've started to impact the business. AI for IT Operations, or AIOps, is changing that paradigm completely.
AIOps platforms ingest and analyze vast amounts of data from across the entire IT landscape—logs, performance metrics, network events, and more. Using machine learning, these systems establish a baseline for what "normal" looks like and then continuously monitor for anomalies that could signal an impending problem.
This is the engine of preemptive maintenance. Instead of waiting for a server to fail, an AIOps system can detect early warning signs and alert the IT team to perform maintenance before an outage ever occurs. When an unavoidable incident does happen, AIOps dramatically accelerates root cause analysis. By correlating events across dozens of disparate systems, the AI can pinpoint the source of a problem in minutes—a process that could take a team of human engineers hours to complete manually. This ability to move from reactive firefighting to preemptive foresight enhances system reliability, ensures business continuity, and allows skilled IT professionals to shift their focus from managing crises to driving innovation.
What this means for your people and your strategy
The evolution from simple automation to Agentic AI doesn't make people obsolete; it makes them more critical. By automating repetitive and even complex workflows, AI elevates the role of the IT professional, freeing them to focus on strategic work that requires uniquely human skills: complex problem-solving, creative system design, and ethical AI governance.
Getting started on this journey doesn't require a disruptive overhaul. The most successful adoption strategies follow a phased "Crawl, Walk, Run" approach. Begin by identifying a single, high-impact pain point that can deliver a quick win—such as implementing intelligent triage for a high volume of emailed requests. A successful pilot will build momentum, demonstrate tangible ROI, and create internal champions for change.
The transformation of service management is a journey, not a destination. By building on the proven success of virtual agents and strategically embracing the power of Agentic AI and AIOps, you can not only fix today's problems but create a more intelligent, more agile enterprise for tomorrow.
Our next post will explore how AI, powered by Atlassian Rovo, revolutionizes Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) in Jira Service Management, turning complex regulatory hurdles into automated, streamlined processes.
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