AI is Going to be Huge, but People Will Remain Critical to IT

By Kumaravel Ramakrishnan

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a game-changer for IT operations and business outcomes. However, as the pace of corporate reliance on technology increases, senior IT leadership must look beyond the addition of AI-based capabilities and still appreciate the value of their people for IT and business success. 

This need to focus on people was highlighted in a recent ManageEngine paper created by crowdsourcing from ten IT service management (ITSM) industry authorities. They shared their insights on “Which three IT strategy areas are critical to the evolution of ITSM in the next three years?” and when their responses were analysed, two strategy areas were repeatedly called out:

1. Addressing people-related issues and needs
2. Ways of working or process-related improvements

While there will undoubtedly be business calls for greater technology enablement—especially related to continued digital transformation investment and AI exploration—the greater use of new and existing technologies will likely require people and process improvements too.

AI use cases in IT

While some might see the introduction of AI-based capabilities as replacing people in favour of technology, it’s commonly not the case in IT operations. For example, in most of the common ITSM use cases, AI is used to assist with operational and analytical tasks, not to replace roles. 

This use case “limitation” must be considered when applying AI-based capabilities within IT (and other business functions). It also highlights the need to focus on people when introducing AI, recognising that AI will often augment peoples’ knowledge and skills rather than replace them in their roles. People are also likely to be involved in, and perhaps even the recipient of, AI’s results. 

Ultimately, AI use cases need to be driven by people, not technology, to succeed. What’s more, the technology used in business must be selected for the environment it’ll be used in, not the other way around.

The importance of people to technology success

People are a critical ingredient for successful AI adoption. For example, people ensure optimal benefits are achieved by identifying the business opportunities—from the purchasing decisions to how the procured technology is best used for business enablement. Plus, there’s a need for suitable people (and processes) to ensure that the employed technology delivers the value the business expects and needs. 

In the crowdsourced paper, Daniel Breston uses the phrase “‘for the people and by the people’ augmented with evolving technology” before detailing his three strategy areas. While Sophie Danby calls out “the need to recognise and value the importance of people to ITSM success.” And Barclay Rae states the need for “developing strong and positive management competencies that then enable people.”

Sophie Danby adds, “It then builds into strategies related to employee well-being, organisational change management, employee experience and productivity, learning and development, etc. Ultimately, I think IT organisations must finally start acting on the often-heard rhetoric that ‘our people are our greatest assets.’”

Balancing people, processes, and technology

So while using AI is a “no-brainer” for improving IT operations and outcomes, and the business outcomes that result, it’s essential to understand the relationship between people, processes, and technology. 

For example, considering the relationship between people and AI, while the upside of AI use is likely to be communicated in solution marketing collateral, the potential downsides and dependencies also need to be carefully considered, including the following:

1. AI can make the most significant impact in your organisation through people. While IT personnel might have ideas as to which of the common AI use cases fit their environment best, the needs and expectations of end users will point to the places where AI will deliver the most significant business value. Whether that’s removing productivity-affecting pain points or addressing improvement opportunities.
2. As with any new technology initiative, organisational change management (OCM) tools and techniques are needed to help ensure the successful introduction of AI-enabled capabilities. After all, this addition is not simply a technological change; it’s also a people change because it impacts traditional ways of working (for both IT personnel and the people they serve). The failure to address the related OCM needs—including ensuring that employees have the necessary skills—will likely result in resistance to change, delays, and potentially the loss of the expected benefits (thanks to people not adopting the new capabilities as planned).
3. The promise of AI enablement to make everyone’s lives easier is a compelling driver for change. However, considering the cause-and-effect impact of new AI capabilities, there are likely to be several potential pitfalls to avoid. IT support is a good example, AI capabilities can be employed to triage (categorise, prioritise, and route) and even act on incoming incident and request tickets. However, what’s the potential impact on people of AI removing the bulk of high-volume and low-value tickets from the IT service desk? IT personnel will likely be left with the more complex or complicated tickets. On the one hand, this might be seen as motivational, with IT personnel more challenged than before. But on the other, it might make their jobs harder (by removing all the “easy stuff”), and make it even more difficult or even impossible to meet long-held IT support targets, such as first-contact resolution targets.

Hopefully, these three points help articulate the importance of people to AI adoption and ongoing IT operations success. Failing to make AI adoption about the people who use and benefit from it will likely result in suboptimal outcomes for both IT and the business.

About the Author

Kumaravel Ramakrishnan has over fifteen years of experience in the IT industry. During his 13+ years at ManageEngine, the IT management division of Zoho Corporation, Kumar has participated in service desk implementations and consulting worldwide. In his present role, Kumar leads all marketing initiatives for ManageEngine’s IT Service Management and Privileged Access Management suites. He is a regular speaker at ManageEngine conferences and industry events.