What is AI Automation?

We’ve all heard the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI). Chances are, you’re already using some form of automation in your IT Service Management (ITSM) workflows. But what happens when you bring those two things together? You get AI automation, an emerging capability that’s transforming how IT teams operate.

According to a recent AI automation journal article, AI automation can contribute a number of benefits to ITSM across organizations. In this blog, we’ll explain what AI automation actually is (as well as what it’s not), how it differs from traditional automation, where it adds value in ITSM, and how to know when to use one, the other, or both.

What is automation?

Let’s start with the basics. Automation is the use of technology to perform tasks without human intervention. These tasks are often repetitive, rules-based, and predictable. Think password resets, incident management, ticket routing, and so on.

In the context of ITSM, automation is already well-established. With the right ITSM platform, your team can use automation to eliminate bottlenecks, cut manual work, and streamline everyday service requests. For a more detailed look, we refer you to our blog, handily titled: Service automation 101. If you’d like to see some practical examples of companies like yours that have implemented automation, here’s a read just for you. Learn how intelligent automation helps humans do their best work in our blog: Chatbots for service desks. Explore more use cases in our blog: 5 IT tasks you should be automating.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a type of technology that allows machines to simulate human thinking and behaviour. That includes learning from data, recognising patterns, and making decisions. Unlike traditional automation, AI doesn’t follow a fixed script, it adapts based on the information it’s fed, making its output probabilistic.

AI includes things like:

• Machine learning: Learning from historical data to make predictions
• Natural language processing (NLP): Understanding and responding to human language
• Computer vision: Interpreting visual information
• Generative AI: Creating new content based on patterns in training data

You’ll already find AI in tools you use every day: From streaming recommendations and smart email filters to voice assistants and fraud detection. But AI’s impact is growing fast in business environments like yours, too, particularly in IT operations.

What is AI automation?

Here’s where things get interesting. AI automation is what happens when you blend the rule-based power of automation with the predictive intelligence of AI. This makes executing everyday tasks quicker, and it also makes smarter decisions about how to do them. You could think of it like this: Automation executes, AI decides and AI automation does both.

There’s no point in simply being theoretical, so let’s take a practical example: A smart chatbot understands a user’s issue, suggests a solution, and logs a ticket in the background if needed. That’s AI automation at work.

It’s this combined approach that helps organisations scale without losing quality. You’re no longer just automating a process, you’re optimising the outcome.

The combined power of AI and automation

Simply, automation is great when you know exactly what needs to happen. AI is your go-to when things are more ambiguous. When you combine them, you get something more powerful: AI automation. Something that’s not just reactive, but proactive.

Where AI automation fits in ITSM

You don’t need to choose between AI and automation. In fact, the magic happens when you combine the two. Here’s what AI automation can do in a modern ITSM environment:

• Incident prioritisation: AI analyses historical data to predict ticket urgency and escalate accordingly.
• Smart routing: AI chooses the best agent based on skills, availability and past performance.
• Self-service portals: Chatbots use NLP to resolve common issues, while automation handles the backend processes.
• Knowledge base suggestions: AI recommends relevant articles as users type their issues.
• Workflow triggers: AI detects trends and automatically kicks off workflows to prevent issues before they occur.

By embedding intelligence into your workflows, AI automation ensures that services are more efficient and more intelligent, and according to this research, more cost-effective.

Benefits of AI automation

Let’s talk about outcomes. AI automation brings together the best of both worlds:

• Increased efficiency: Automate more, decide smarter, resolve faster.
• Reduced manual workload: AI + automation takes care of the repetitive stuff.
• Improved accuracy: AI learns from past data to make better decisions over time.
• Scalability: Handle more requests without increasing headcount.
• Better user experience: Faster resolutions, smarter self-service, less frustration.
• 24/7 support: AI-powered virtual agents never sleep, helping users at any time.
• Actionable insights: The data generated by AI-driven workflows can feed into service improvement plans.

And if you’re using an ITSM platform like TOPdesk? All of this can be done without writing a single line of code.

How to use AI automation alongside your IT team

AI automation isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about empowering them. Your team is still essential, just not for the repetitive, time-sapping stuff. Your colleagues are your business’s most valuable asset, so AI automation, when used correctly, is an additive resource for your people to exploit. AI automation gives your people more time to focus on complex problem-solving, improving systems, and proactively delivering better service. That’s a win for morale and productivity.

A great way to think of AI automation is as a digital team member. One that handles the dull, repetitive admin while your human team members bring the creativity, empathy and context. Ultimately, this creates a work culture that puts people at the centre, and as well as benefiting your internal teams, it will also ripple out to your customers, too.

Common pitfalls when using AI automation

If you’re considering rolling out AI automation, it’s worth watching out for a few common mistakes. Below, we’ve listed some of the mistakes we regularly see teams making as they take on AI automation inside their organizations:

• Starting too big: AI automation is powerful, but works best when implemented gradually.
• Skipping change management: Your team needs time and support to adapt.
• Neglecting data quality: AI is only as smart as the data it’s fed.
• Lack of integration: Choose ITSM tools that can support both automation and AI natively, like TOPdesk’s integration options, and our Action Sequences.

The good news? All of these can be overcome with the right strategy, thorough planning, and tactics. Using AI and automation to enhance your IT service desk won’t necessarily be a quick or straightforward fix to your ITSM workflow, but the results will pay dividends.

Conclusion

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this blog, from defining automation and artificial intelligence to exploring how their combination—AI automation—is redefining how IT teams operate. We’ve looked at the key differences between AI and automation, outlined use cases within ITSM, and unpacked the benefits that come from bringing these two powerful technologies together. We’ve also tackled the all-important human angle: Why AI automation doesn’t replace your team but empowers them, and shared practical guidance on how to roll it out effectively, including a few pitfalls to avoid.

Final thoughts: Start small, AI automation has huge potential, but you don’t necessarily need to overhaul everything at once. Perhaps you could start by identifying one or two areas where repetitive tasks are slowing things down. Introduce automation first. Then layer on AI where it adds value.

The future of ITSM isn’t just faster, it’s smarter. Ready to take the next step? Discover our ITSM software and begin your process of implementing AI automation across your organization to see how powerful it can be for your teams as well as your customer experience.

Related reading: More on AI automation

• How an AI-powered service desk makes customers more self-sufficient: Learn how using Shift Left and an AI-powered service desk can empower your service desk users.
• Service automation 101: boost efficiency and cut costs – A broader look at service automation across departments.
• 5 IT tasks you should be automating: Not sure where to start? This guide covers the most impactful automation opportunities for IT teams.