{"id":23411,"date":"2026-08-19T10:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/ai-was-meant-to-simplify-it-service-management-new-research-shows-its-creating-bigger-workloads-for-teams\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T10:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T10:34:24","slug":"ai-was-meant-to-simplify-it-service-management-new-research-shows-its-creating-bigger-workloads-for-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/ai-was-meant-to-simplify-it-service-management-new-research-shows-its-creating-bigger-workloads-for-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"AI was meant to simplify IT service management \u2013 new research shows it's creating bigger workloads for teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p id=\"elk-3c880e80-9bb9-11f1-8bec-2125d88ab7d8\">AI in <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business-strategy\/it-infrastructure\/360397\/what-is-it-service-management\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business-strategy\/it-infrastructure\/360397\/what-is-it-service-management\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business-strategy\/it-infrastructure\/360397\/what-is-it-service-management\">IT service management (ITSM)<\/a> departments may be delivering a reasonable return on investment, but it&#8217;s not yet making life any easier for IT professionals.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c880fca-9bb9-11f1-8816-91cf17d05c22\">A new <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarwinds.com\/campaign\/state-of-itsm?CMP=SOC-pr-pressrelease-stateofitsm2026&amp;%20utm_source=pr&amp;utm_medium=pressrelease&amp;utm_campaign=stateofitsm2026\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.solarwinds.com\/campaign\/state-of-itsm?CMP=SOC-pr-pressrelease-stateofitsm2026&amp;%20utm_source=pr&amp;utm_medium=pressrelease&amp;utm_campaign=stateofitsm2026\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\"><u>survey<\/u><\/a> by SolarWinds found that 84% of respondents believe AI has met or exceeded ROI expectations, and many have unlocked meaningful time savings across core tasks.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<aside data-article-category=\"technology\" data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"ecom-root\"\/>\n<p id=\"elk-3c88104c-9bb9-11f1-b047-412b9778d9d6-0\">Yet despite these apparent benefits, more than half (52%) revealed their overall workload has increased since adopting the technology. Notably, just 7% said the cost of AI adoption has matched what they planned for.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c8810b0-9bb9-11f1-ba54-b54b70fb9a87\">Even after an average of about 16 months using AI in ITSM environments, most teams are still managing AI\u2019s overhead rather than realizing its full potential.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-3c88113c-9bb9-11f1-a9d6-9f5c8372d1b0\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"real-gains-but-new-workloads-3\">Real gains, but new workloads<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-3c8811dc-9bb9-11f1-9e74-ad419f736448\">SolarWinds said the survey highlights the productivity benefits of using the technology in ITSM tasks.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881240-9bb9-11f1-a163-a99e8ab570f4\">Respondents reported that AI is saving them an average of 3.2 hours per week detecting and flagging issues, 3.0 hours on end-user requests, and 2.9 hours on ticket triage.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c88129a-9bb9-11f1-8ef0-dbf4c011c439\">Most of the time saved is being swallowed up by new work, however. Nearly half (48%) said they now spend time managing and maintaining AI tools and integrations.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-reTv6GpFYDEwPQNcMp3xmC\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-reTv6GpFYDEwPQNcMp3xmC slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2026 report &#8211; the leading resource for IT decision-maker insight on priorities and investment areas in AI, security and more.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881312-9bb9-11f1-8c57-53a55b161aa6\">A similar number (47%) spend more time reviewing and <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/security\/cyber-professionals-are-flocking-to-ai-tools-but-theyre-getting-tired-of-fixing-mistakes-and-reviewing-outputs\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/security\/cyber-professionals-are-flocking-to-ai-tools-but-theyre-getting-tired-of-fixing-mistakes-and-reviewing-outputs\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/security\/cyber-professionals-are-flocking-to-ai-tools-but-theyre-getting-tired-of-fixing-mistakes-and-reviewing-outputs\">validating AI-generated outputs<\/a>, while 37% end up training and fine-tuning AI models.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c8813bc-9bb9-11f1-bbd3-8ddb09296202\">As for unexpected costs, 48% cited staff training, 47% <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/ai-readiness-is-a-top-enterprise-priority-heres-how-the-channel-can-help\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/ai-readiness-is-a-top-enterprise-priority-heres-how-the-channel-can-help\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/ai-readiness-is-a-top-enterprise-priority-heres-how-the-channel-can-help\">data quality and clean-up<\/a>, and 45% tuning and maintenance &#8211; all of which are ongoing, rather than one-time costs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881452-9bb9-11f1-83f1-05f779c6353f\">More than four-in-five respondents (83%) said they now spend three or more hours per week just keeping their AI systems running reliably.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-3c8814ca-9bb9-11f1-9f0a-757a1c1e3475\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"itsm-teams-still-stuck-in-reactive-mode-3\">ITSM teams still stuck in reactive mode<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-3c88152e-9bb9-11f1-8f04-575bc7177f80\">Most ITSM teams seem to be taking a reactive rather than proactive approach. According to SolarWinds.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881588-9bb9-11f1-92bd-f3b813512f33\">When asked where AI has had the greatest impact across the incident lifecycle, three-in-ten cited identifying issues before they impact users and 23% pointed to prioritizing and routing issues.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c8815ec-9bb9-11f1-b5f1-037e1fc75056\">Only 19% cited preventing issues before they occur as the area of greatest impact.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881808-9bb9-11f1-ab54-a11718d343c1\">The answer, according to SolarWinds, is to concentrate efforts where they&#8217;re most likely to pay off \u2013 high-frequency, well-defined tasks where gains are measurable and feedback loops are tight, such as ticket triage, issue detection, and incident.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881880-9bb9-11f1-b5dd-11e764f68a4f\">Teams should consolidate AI closer to existing service workflows rather than spreading it across disconnected tools and strengthen the data foundation.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c8818da-9bb9-11f1-b212-7756a39a36f0\">Notably, <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/data-quality-worries-holding-back-manufacturer-ai\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/data-quality-worries-holding-back-manufacturer-ai\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/data-quality-worries-holding-back-manufacturer-ai\">data quality<\/a> is the top reason AI fails to deliver expected value, and treating it as part of the AI strategy rather than a separate clean-up project directly determines output quality.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c88193e-9bb9-11f1-991c-738fcc4967df\">\u201cWe\u2019re at an inflection point in IT service management. <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/enterprises-are-paralyzed-by-a-lack-of-understanding-with-ai-adoption-and-theres-one-key-factor-that-decides-success\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/enterprises-are-paralyzed-by-a-lack-of-understanding-with-ai-adoption-and-theres-one-key-factor-that-decides-success\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/enterprises-are-paralyzed-by-a-lack-of-understanding-with-ai-adoption-and-theres-one-key-factor-that-decides-success\">AI adoption<\/a> is no longer the hard part \u2014 the hard part is building the organizational discipline to make AI actually deliver,\u201d said Brad McGinity, GM of ITSM, SolarWinds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe teams that get this right aren\u2019t just running a faster service desk; they\u2019re running a fundamentally different operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-3c881998-9bb9-11f1-ba85-67e2f0192df1\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"lingering-roi-woes-3\">Lingering ROI woes<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-3c8819f2-9bb9-11f1-b34d-83fc50a4fa94\"><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/dell-cto-roi-on-ai-should-be-number-one-focus-for-execs\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/dell-cto-roi-on-ai-should-be-number-one-focus-for-execs\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/dell-cto-roi-on-ai-should-be-number-one-focus-for-execs\">ROI with AI <\/a>has become a common recurring talking point for IT leaders over the last three years, with the financial benefits still up for debate at some enterprises.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881a56-9bb9-11f1-b147-fdcc0a6184f5\">Recent IDC <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/sluggish-ai-returns-ignored-as-fear-of-missing-out-continues-driving-investment\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/sluggish-ai-returns-ignored-as-fear-of-missing-out-continues-driving-investment\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/sluggish-ai-returns-ignored-as-fear-of-missing-out-continues-driving-investment\"><u>research<\/u><\/a> found one-in-five firms admitting they&#8217;re investing aggressively in AI with little evaluation of the likely ROI.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881ab0-9bb9-11f1-82bc-41ff9c6cdc93\">However, ROI isn&#8217;t necessarily all about the money. According to recent <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/roi-is-about-more-than-profitability-when-it-comes-to-ai-adoption-heres-what-enterprises-are-looking-for\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/roi-is-about-more-than-profitability-when-it-comes-to-ai-adoption-heres-what-enterprises-are-looking-for\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/business\/business-strategy\/roi-is-about-more-than-profitability-when-it-comes-to-ai-adoption-heres-what-enterprises-are-looking-for\"><u>research from KPMG<\/u><\/a>, other key metrics include the performance and quality of work and the speed and accuracy of decision making.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-follow-us-on-social-media\"\/><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"article-body__section\" id=\"section-follow-us-on-social-media\"><span>FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA<\/span><\/h3>\n<p id=\"elk-3c881b64-9bb9-11f1-8d2f-db40a642cb93\"><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqIggKIhxDQklTRHdnTWFnc0tDV2wwY0hKdkxtTnZiU2dBUAE?ceid=GB:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-GB&amp;gl=GB\" data-url=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqIggKIhxDQklTRHdnTWFnc0tDV2wwY0hKdkxtTnZiU2dBUAE?ceid=GB:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-GB&amp;gl=GB\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\"><em>Follow ITPro on Google News<\/em><\/a><em> and <\/em><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=itpro.com\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=itpro.com\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\"><em>add us as a preferred source<\/em><\/a><em> to keep tabs on all our latest news, analysis, views, and reviews.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>You can also <\/em><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/itpro-uk\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/itpro-uk\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\"><em>follow ITPro on LinkedIn<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ITPro\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ITPro\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\"><em>X<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ITProUK\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ITProUK\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\"><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a><em>, and <\/em><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/itpro.com\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/itpro.com\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"technology\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\"><em>BlueSky<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/ai-was-meant-to-simplify-it-service-management-new-research-shows-its-creating-bigger-workloads-for-teams?utm_source=tldrit\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI in IT service management (ITSM) departments may be delivering a reasonable return on investment, but it&#8217;s not yet making life any easier for IT professionals. A new survey by SolarWinds found that 84% of respondents believe AI has met or exceeded ROI expectations, and many have unlocked meaningful time savings across core tasks. Yet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":23412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}