Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are transforming the way businesses operate—from accelerating product development to personalizing customer experiences to streamlining core operations. While much of the spotlight has focused on their impact in high-profile areas like generative content and analytics, there’s one critical function that’s often overlooked: the service desk.

Behind the scenes, AI and automation are quietly reshaping how service desk teams manage and resolve issues. To explore how these innovative technologies are redefining help desk operations—especially within ServiceNow environments—we sat down with Al Calabrese, director of professional services & security advisory at Navisite, Part of Accenture.

Read on to discover the biggest pain points that AI and automation are addressing, how they are already making a measurable impact, and what the future holds for smarter, more autonomous service desks.

1. What are the biggest pain points in traditional service desk operations that AI and automation help to resolve?

Traditional service desks often struggle with inefficiencies that slow down support and frustrate both users and agents. AI and automation are proving especially valuable in addressing three critical pain points:

• Information Capture: One of the most time-consuming aspects of service desk interactions is gathering the right information upfront. Users often provide incomplete or unclear descriptions of their issues, requiring agents to follow up with additional questions. AI-powered virtual agents and intelligent forms streamline this process by guiding users to submit more complete, structured data from the start—reducing friction and ensuring faster triage.

• Hand-offs: In legacy environments, support tickets frequently bounce between teams due to unclear categorization or missing context. This not only delays resolution but also drains productivity. With AI and automation, tickets can be automatically classified, prioritized, and routed to the right team based on historical patterns and contextual analysis—minimizing unnecessary hand-offs and improving first-touch resolution rates.

• Resolution Time: Ultimately, the goal of any service desk is to resolve issues quickly and effectively. AI accelerates resolution by suggesting knowledge base articles, recommending actions based on similar past tickets, and even automating common tasks like password resets or software provisioning. This reduces manual effort for agents—leading to faster response times and better employee and user experiences.

2. How would you define the role of automation and AI in the service desk? 

In addition to the changes we just talked about, AI and automation are significantly improving service desk performance by increasing deflection rates—the percentage of support requests resolved through self-service tools rather than live agent intervention. These tools include AI-powered virtual agents, chatbots, and dynamic knowledge bases that empower users to solve issues on their own, often within seconds.

Consider this: John’s laptop stops working. Instead of submitting a ticket that lands in a long queue or spending valuable time on hold, AI and automation can identify the issue in real time. With the right configurations, the system can automatically validate the problem, approve a replacement, and dispatch a new laptop—without any need for human involvement.

Or take another scenario. Susan accidentally clicks on a phishing email and her laptop starts acting suspiciously. Rather than waiting to reach a technician—giving potential malware time to spread—an intelligent virtual agent can immediately detect the threat, isolate the device, alert Susan, and guide her through the next steps for containment and recovery.

3. Are there other ways automation and AI are benefitting the service desk?

These innovative technologies are also driving new levels of efficiency and productivity. They are transforming how service desks operate by taking over many of the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that typically burden support teams. Instead of spending valuable time sifting through lengthy case notes or digging through historical tickets, AI can do the heavy lifting in seconds.

For instance, with tools like ServiceNow Now Assist, a level two engineer no longer has to manually review an entire case history. AI can instantly generate a concise, relevant case summary—highlighting key details, previous actions taken, and next best steps. This not only boosts the engineer’s productivity but also speeds up the time it takes to deliver a resolution to the end user.

4. What are the main benefits of AI and automation in the service desk?

Streamlining routine tasks and developing proactive, AI-driven workflows result in tangible business benefits across the board, including:

• Faster response times
• Enhanced user experience 
• Increased productivity and efficiency
• Reduced downtime
• Strengthened security

Perhaps most importantly, it frees up service desk professionals to shift their focus from repetitive work to more strategic, high-value initiatives—driving greater impact for both IT and the business as a whole.

5. How do you see the role of AI evolving in the service desk over the next three-to-five years?

AI will play a critical role in simplifying complex challenges that service desk personnel currently handle manually.

Generative AI (GenAI), in particular, will enhance case management by automating routine tasks, enabling service desk agents to be more proactive and resolve complex issues faster and more efficiently.

I expect platforms like ServiceNow to significantly expand their GenAI capabilities across more workflows.

Beyond the service desk, AI is also transforming the security landscape. Security products today are leveraging AI in fundamental ways that lower mean time to resolution (MTTR) through faster threat identification, triage processing, and automated playbook building. I anticipate these capabilities will continue to expand—particularly in areas like threat response and proactive code remediation—helping organizations respond more quickly and effectively to vulnerabilities. 

As these AI advancements converge across IT and security operations, tools such as ServiceNow Now Assist will empower teams to design and deliver more sophisticated workflows with greater speed and ease. What once took weeks or months will soon take only minutes or hours. This is so valuable because it frees service desk professionals’ time to focus on tasks that are effectively solving real business problems.

Put AI and Automation to Work for Your Service Desk

Navisite harnesses the power of AI and automation to elevate our Service Desk and ServiceNow Services—streamlining operations, accelerating response times, and improving the end-user experience.

Ready to transform your IT service management? Connect with us to learn how our intelligent automation and GenAI-driven capabilities can help modernize your help desk and drive real business outcomes.