About the report

The Gartner® report How to Achieve Success With AI at the Service Desk is a practical guide for IT leaders deploying AI in support. It outlines why many service desk initiatives fail, what must be in place before launching, and which use cases—like virtual agents and ticket summarization—drive real value. The report covers technology readiness, ITSM maturity, cost modeling, and change management to help teams deliver outcomes, not just automation.

Key takeaways 

• AI isn’t plug-and-play: Success depends on clean data, mature processes, and staff buy-in—AI won’t fix broken ITSM.

• Start narrow to deliver value fast: Gartner recommends focused use cases like ticket summarization, virtual agents, and intent routing—not “big bang” deployments.

• TCO goes beyond software licenses: The report outlines real costs: integrations, data cleanup, training, governance, and change management.

• Staff fear can stall adoption: Deployment success requires transparency, retraining, and a shift in mindset—not automation for automation’s sake.

• AI should elevate—not replace—your team: With the right foundation, AI frees agents to focus on strategic work like incident clustering and service intelligence.

Disclaimer

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

How to Achieve Success With AI at the Service Desk, Mark Cleary, Rich Doheny, 29 August 2024.