Why IT needs an AI-powered support agent (and how it works)

IT teams, let’s be honest - you’ve got better things to do than manually approve app access requests all day. But here you are, drowning in them. Someone needs to access GitHub? Cool. Someone else got locked out of Slack? Great. Another request for a tool they probably don’t even need? Classic.

Every access request, every “Can you add me to this?” slows you down. Beyond the request, there’s the back-and-forth hunting down the correct info, the correct permissions. Headaches upon headaches. To put it simply:

• Slower approvals = slower work

• Endless follow-ups = Wasted time

• Security risks = Granting access manually = more room for mistakes

You could keep handling these one by one until your keyboard wears out. Or you could let AI take care of it for you.

That’s exactly what I did. I built an AI-powered IT support agent that automates app provisioning, approves access based on entitlements, and - most importantly - saves IT teams a ton of time. And I did it in minutes using Tray’s Merlin Agent Builder.

IT teams have several options when deploying an IT support agent. I’ll walk you through each one and then introduce the solution I built.

Option #1: Build an IT support agent in-house

A.K.A The hard way. Of course you could code your own support agent from scratch. But unless your IT team has extra engineers just waiting around for a new project (spoiler: they don’t), it’s going to take months. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Dev time to build the workflows.

• APIs and integrations with Okta, Jira, Slack, etc.

• A maintenance plan for when (not if) it breaks.

Yeah. Too much work. Next!

Option #2: Use a vendor-specific SaaS agent

Maybe you go for a vendor-specific solution. Something that only works inside Okta or ServiceNow. Sounds nice, right? That is until you realize you’re:

• Locked into one system: It’s likely your company uses (or will use) more than just Okta.

• Limited flexibility: You want to customize it to your specific business needs? Good luck!

• Costs add up: Feature creep is real and will cost you money over time.

Option #3: Off-the-shelf AI agents

Plenty of AI agents promised to “streamline IT” but end up just being glorified chatbots that are great at answering FAQs but can’t actually do anything. Which really begs the question - if an agent can’t act on its suggestions, is it really an agent? 

For IT pros, here’s all you need to know about off-the-shelf AI agents:

• They can’t easily integrate with your systems.

• They can’t approve requests dynamically.

• They can’t actually provision access.

In short, they create more work instead of solving problems.

Option #4: AI-ready iPaaS 

So, what’s the right way to do this? Build an AI-powered support agent using a fast, flexible, and safe iPaaS built for AI integration (like Tray).

With Tray and its Merlin Agent Builder, building an IT support agent is 10x faster and easier than any other option. Here’s why:

• Built to integrate: Tray connects to Okta, JIRA, Slack, ServiceNow, and pretty much any other app, system, or database you can think of (including AI services).

• Smart decision-making: The agent automatically knows who gets access vs who needs approval

• Automate everything: The agent can pull user info, grant access, update logs, and more all on its own. In other words, there’s zero manual work involved.

And best of all? You don’t need to code a thing. As a side note, it’s super easy to add guardrails to ensure the agent operates safely and reliably. This helps keep things in check and secure.

Now, I’ll show you how to do it too. 

How the AI support agent works in action

Rather than talk about setup, let’s walk through how the agent works in real-time to provision app access. Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes:

The result: IT without the backlog

Now, instead of wasting time on access requests, IT teams can:

• Focus on high-impact work

• Maintain security and compliance

• Move faster without bottlenecks

And the best part? You can build this yourself in minutes without writing a single line of code. Check out the video below where I walk you through the entire process.

Ready to build your own IT support agent?

Get in touch to see Tray’s Merlin Agent Builder in action and let’s make IT support a whole lot smarter.