TOPdesk Unlocked 2026: Every announcement and the day’s biggest takeaways

On 16 September, we hosted the first-ever edition of TOPdesk's new annual flagship event: TOPdesk Unlocked 2026.

Over 500 service management professionals joined us in Utrecht for a day of practical insights, exclusive previews and real conversations – with 500 more tuning into the livestream from across the globe.

From the mainstage keynotes to five breakout tracks, more than 20 expert speakers shared real-world lessons on getting ready for the future of ITSM and ESM, with plenty of big announcements along the way!

Here, we've put them all in one place – starting with the big one…

Introducing TOPdesk Robin

In the first session on the Unlocked 2026 agenda, TOPdesk Co-Founder & CEO, Wolter Smit, took to the mainstage to make one of the most significant product launches in TOPdesk's history.

Wolter, who programmed the very first version of TOPdesk 35 years ago, announced TOPdesk Robin: our new AI teammate and a whole new way of working for service teams.

Native to TOPdesk and grounded in your organization's own knowledge base and processes, TOPdesk Robin takes on the busywork – the searching, the summarizing, the first draft – so operators can spend more time on the part of the job that needs them. And it supports both sides of the service desk. For end users, TOPdesk Robin's chat function streamlines the self-service portal, providing the answers people need in the format that works for them.

TOPdesk Robin rolls out from October 2026, and you decide when to switch it on.

Not sure if your organization is ready? The new AI Readiness Dashboard, also announced at Unlocked 2026 and available to all TOPdesk customers, gives you a clear picture of where your knowledge base stands today and where you need to make improvements.

Wolter also unveiled a series of additional TOPdesk updates:

• Our new AI Triage support suggests the category, priority and operator group the moment a ticket is opened, so work reaches the right people faster.
• Updated AI Categorization makes category suggestions more accurate by learning from how your team has handled similar tickets before.
• A refreshed user interface keeps the layout you know, with a modern look that draws the eye to what needs your attention.
• Outlook Room-Sync and SCIM support.

Assistant to agent: TOPdesk Robin's roadmap

Later, TOPdesk Chief Product Officer Martin Classen presented our plans to evolve TOPdesk Robin over the next few months.

The big step is Agentic AI. Today, TOPdesk Robin is an assistant that works with your team. Soon, it will become an agent that works for them, taking on the routine work TOPdesk users have told us costs them the most time. Crucially, your people will stay in control at every step: agents act only within the rules you set, and every action is visible, logged and open to review.

TOPdesk Robin is also coming to Microsoft Teams, with WhatsApp and Slack to follow. TOPdesk data will also become available in Microsoft Copilot and other AI tools.

The first features arrive from the end of this year, with more following through Q1 2027. If you'd like early access, ask your account manager about joining our beta programs.

An AI you trust needs a foundation you trust – and human control

We’ve called this event 'Unlocked' for a reason. It’s not about revealing what we've been working on and leaving you to figure it out. It’s about helping service management professionals unlock the value of TOPdesk, of AI, and of the next step in their service delivery – because the right approach matters as much as the right technology.

One of the day's most important takeaways, highlighted by both Wolter and Martin, was that every successful AI journey starts with the right foundation. In practical terms, that means giving AI your organization's unique context: the incidents you've logged, the workflows you've built, and the knowledge articles you've written over the years.

But as Wolter told the audience, winning in this new era takes more than the right foundational knowledge: "Being ready for AI is one thing. Whether you trust it is another matter."

As AI's role in service management advances from assisting to acting, trust matters more than ever – and it has to be built in from the beginning, not bolted on. Wolter set out what that means for the way we've built TOPdesk Robin: your data doesn't leave your region and is never used to train outside models; nothing happens that you can't see and check for yourself; your people stay in control and stay accountable.

Getting AI-ready: Real-world lessons from Medway Council and JBT Marel

Hosted by TOPdesk Chief Customer Officer Sophie Steinmeijer, the customer panel turned the day's big question – how do you actually get ready for AI? – over to two organizations already doing it.

Sophie was joined by Nick Beauchamp, ICT Applications Manager at UK public sector organization Medway Council, and Linda Jans-Beeke, IT Manager Service Delivery Benelux & Global Development at food and beverage technology leader JBT Marel. Running TOPdesk for around 280 and 500 operators respectively, both stressed the same starting point: the knowledge base.

When JBT and Marel merged, Linda's team inherited 15 years of TOPdesk data plus several years from another platform. Instead of migrating it all, they started fresh, moving articles across only on request. They also built a verification process covering format, layout and keywords, and now ask teams to review their articles every six months. "That was the best decision we made," Linda told the audience. "If you have the chance, start fresh."

At Medway, where the self-service portal handles 80-90% of logged calls, Nick's team is using AI to surface knowledge end users would otherwise struggle to find – and to spot the gaps where new articles are needed.

Both panellists highlighted the human side of adoption. Nick's advice: find the people already experimenting with AI in your organization and let them help bring everyone else along. For Linda, it's about persistence – reminding colleagues, every week, to put their knowledge in TOPdesk rather than keeping it in a personal drive or worse, their heads.

Martin Adams defines the difference between AI adoption and being AI powered

Returning to the mainstage in the afternoon, guest speaker Martin Adams brought an outside perspective to the day. A World Economic Forum 'Global Innovator' and a leader in AI ethics, Martin founded Metaphysic.ai, named by Time as one of the 100 Most Influential Companies in the world.

His main argument: AI adoption means bolting AI tools onto the workflows you already have; being AI powered means redesigning those workflows to combine human and machine intelligence. Applying new technology to an old process, he argued, usually produces disappointing results – as it did when factories first swapped steam engines for electric motors but changed nothing else, and waited decades for the productivity gains.

That's why measuring AI by autonomy or headcount reduction is the wrong instinct. The better question, Martin told the audience, isn't how much you can automate away, but what you enable.

He described AI as a nervous system: the machine handles the reflexes – the fast, repeatable, known responses – while people act as the brain, bringing judgement, standards and context the machine doesn't have. For service management, that means an operator moving from answering the same password request for the hundredth time to sitting with the team to understand why the problem keeps recurring.

His closing point landed close to home for the room: service teams see every friction point, failed rollout and complaint in the organization, which puts them at the centre of this shift rather than on the receiving end of it.

Watch Unlocked 2026 on demand

Thanks to everyone who joined us in Utrecht and tuned in through our livestream – we can't wait to do it all again next year.

In the meantime, if this recap left you wanting more - next week we will be launching our Unlocked content hub where you can watch every main stage session from TOPdesk Unlocked 2026 in full and on demand.