Every two years, the Service Desk Institute issues an industry insight report called “A View from the Frontline.” These reports contain results and benchmarks from hundreds of service desks in public and private organizations of various sizes worldwide. Since SDI acts as a community hub for IT service professionals, it is in a unique position to survey the service desk industry around the world to identify opportunities, challenges, and trends.
75% of Survey Respondents Want More Automation
SDI released their latest version of this report, “A View from the Frontline 2019” in December 2019. When asked what their top service desk priorities were for the next 12 months, the #1 response with a 75% response from survey respondents in this report was Using More Automation. The 75% rating for 2019 was up from 70% in 2017 when Using More Automation was second to Increasing First Time Fix Rates.
Working as we have with many of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing companies for the past twenty years, Milestone has pretty much seen it all in terms of IT service desk challenges, innovations, and trends. We can confirm that SDI survey respondents are absolutely on the right track with their desire for more automation. The solution to many of today’s service desk difficulties is indeed automation—specifically, an automated service desk powered by artificial intelligence.
Automation Delivers Breakthrough Benefits to Service Desks
We see automated service desks powered by AI-based Virtual Agents delivering breakthrough benefits compared with traditional manual service desks. What kinds of breakthroughs? Our Service Desk and Cognitive Automation experts are seeing results such as:
- >35% of all service desk cases handled by automation
- >50% reduction in escalations
- >80% reduction in Average Handle Time
- >85% automated resolution rates for L0 tickets
Yet here is where a disconnect occurs. While Using More Automation is the #1 objective for the latest survey, only 18% of respondents in the same report say they have implemented AI, are implementing it, or are working with a partner. It is not possible to automate a service desk without AI. If everyone understands the future is automation, why aren’t more people doing AI? One reason could be confusion and misunderstanding about AI in the market.
Learn Eight Ways Virtual Agents Can Help
To break through all the overhype and misinformation currently endemic throughout the industry, we have written an ebook called “Automated Service Desks: 8 Ways Virtual Agents are Improving IT Service Desk Economics and Performance”. In this ebook, we cover the concept of an automated service desk, what a Virtual Agent is, and how a Virtual Agent fundamentally differs from a chatbot. We then review eight ways we see automated service desks with AI-based Virtual Agents that supplement highly skilled, customer-focused human workers generate breakthrough benefits.
For whom did we design this ebook? Are you responsible for an IT service desk? Are you dealing with issues such as staffing models that cannot scale sufficiently to support company growth, costs that too high, and need to be reduced, inadequate service levels, employee morale problems, or a current supplier not meeting your requirements? If so, you should read this ebook. It is also a great option if you want to add automation to your service desk but are unsure where or how to start.
To download your copy of Automated Service Desks: 8 Ways Virtual Agents are Improving IT Service Desk Economics and Performance, click here to download your copy.
