AI-based ticketing is poised to revolutionize IT help desks. Just consider how many hours your techs spend manually routing and replying to tickets each week: how much more productive could your team be if they were free to focus on resolving those tickets?
That is the promise of AI ticketing, and this article explores how you can leverage it to make your IT organization more impactful this year and beyond.
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AI-Based Ticketing 101
What is an AI-Based Ticketing System?
An AI-based ticketing system leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to augment the capabilities of a traditional IT ticketing system. This generally means automating various manual processes to streamline, accelerate, and improve existing processes.
What is AI Ticketing Automation?
AI ticketing automation can be boiled down to two steps:
- An event occurs: For example, a new ticket being issued would constitute an “event.”
- An automatic workflow is triggered: The AI-based ticketing system undertakes an automatic series of actions based on the event.
For example, a common automation would be to send specific types of tickets to a tech with the specific skills required to solve them.
How Does AI Ticketing Automation Work?
From an end-user's perspective, the above captures exactly how automation works: it is a simple process that saves time, simplifies ticketing, and ultimately helps resolve IT issues faster. But there is of course far more going on underneath the surface.
AI ticketing automation is built on two key features:
- Tags: AI-based ticketing systems use tags to categorize tickets and help techs determine which steps should be taken when they are issued. These tags can range from request types to company names.
- Workflows: The system is programmed with automatic workflows, which are pre-determined actions that will be taken based on the event and tags. A system like DeskDirector enables you to leverage pre-built workflows that reflect common ticketing processes, while also allowing users to create their own custom workflows to reflect their specific organizational structure.
Let’s imagine your organization requires all new HR technology purchases to be approved by the head of HR before being sent to finance. Your techs can create workflow that replicates this logic, so that any ticket that is tagged as “Purchase request” and “HR” is sent immediately to the head of HR.
The Pros and Cons of AI-Based Ticketing
Three Key Benefits of Automated Ticketing
There are a wide range of benefits to AI-based ticketing, but they can be boiled down to three essential points:
1. Increased Efficiency
Automation eliminates a lot of manual effort from the ticketing process. This is not only a relief for overworked techs, but also frees them to spend more time focused on solving IT problems. Tech workflows are streamlined, ticketing queues are reduced, and the overall efficiency of the ticketing process improves immeasurably.
The net result? More tickets are resolved faster, with less stress for techs and less overall spending on IT support. By automating key workflows and streamlining processes, DeskDirector has proven to enable users to resolve tickets 4x faster.
2. Enhanced Scalability
AI enables companies to scale their ticketing process more easily and quickly. While manual ticketing systems become harder to manage as the volume of requests grows, AI-based systems can actually become more efficient with scale.
The system ensures that your techs aren’t overwhelmed learning to sort and route more tickets; instead, they can simply focus on resolving issues as they always have. This also reduces the staffing requirements many companies struggle with as they expand operations.
3. Improved End-User Experience
Many end-users find ticketing frustrating, with some even opting to avoid issuing tickets based on negative experiences with the system. There are many factors that play a role in these negative experiences – and AI helps to solve them all.
Three of the most crucial elements here are:
- Accelerated Resolutions: End-users want their problems to be solved faster, and AI removes various points of friction that slow that process down.
- Increased Communication: AI-based ticketing systems can be configured to send regular messages to end-users that keep them up to date with the process.
- Enhanced Knowledge Hubs: AI can also be used to create self-service catalogs of high-value information that empower end-users to solve their own IT issues.
Three Key Challenges for AI-Based Ticketing Systems
Despite these benefits, many organizations run into the following hurdles when implementing AI-based ticketing systems:
1. Poor Configuration
Many solutions do not allow users to create custom configurations; others simply make it very difficult to do so. As a result, companies struggle to create automations that match their specific ticketing processes and organizational structure.
2. Incident Response
Bugs in an automated system are often harder to detect and therefore fix. For example, if an automation fails and does not send a ticket to the right person, the ticket could end up being ignored for days.
3. Complexity
AI-based ticketing systems are often complicated to use and create friction for techs. They may end up spending hours trying to create a custom workflow or fix a bug in the system – which defeats the whole purpose of having an automated system.
How to Implement an Automated Ticketing System
Nearly 50% of all organizations feel they lack the necessary knowledge to implement AI effectively. However, ticketing systems are one of the easiest and quickest forms of AI to introduce.
Following these three steps will ensure you can start automating ticketing workflows with confidence:
1. Select the Right Vendor
The most essential step is choosing the right AI-based ticketing software. While a growing number of companies offer some level of automation within their ticketing solutions, few actually use advanced AI – or make it user-friendly.
Focus on the following three factors:
- Customizability: Does your vendor enable techs to easily create their own automations?
- Usability: Is the interface clear and easy to navigate?
- Support: Does the vendor provide comprehensive support to help you onboard and use the solution to its full potential?
2. Educate Techs
The next step is to offer your techs plenty of ramp time to understand how the AI solution works. This serves two purposes;
- User Confidence: Techs are generally used to undertaking many of the sorting and routing tasks AI solution take over manually. This can create friction and skepticism, which is why techs must have an opportunity to learn exactly how the new solution works – and ensure they trust it.
- Configuration: Your techs will most likely need to configure the new system to fit their existing workflows. This will involve creating custom automations and configuring the system to ensure automations do not create friction with existing processes.
3. Monitor and Optimize
AI ticketing will likely have an immediate positive impact, but it’s important to approach it from a long-term perspective. For example, it may take time for your end-users to notice the change and start using the ticketing system more often.
The key therefore is to see AI-based ticketing as a long-game. Focus on monitoring the system to identify friction and optimize the automations over time – both of which are easier with DeskDirector.
Our low-code automation makes AI ticketing easy to use and powerful to implement. But it also provides a range of data analytics to help you understand exactly how the system is being used and adjust over time.
Want to explore how it could impact your organization?
Ticketing Automation: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is AI-based Ticketing Expensive?
Ticketing systems vary greatly in cost, but they are generally more cost-efficient than manual systems. While you may pay more for the software itself, the efficiency gains it produces are likely to more than make up for this initial sunk cost.
It is also important to note that vendors use different pricing models. For example, some vendors increase their price based on usage, making it harder to scale – whereas DeskDirector charges a single plat fee, regardless of how many users you have.
What Kind of Company Can Benefit from Ticketing Automation?
Automated ticketing benefits any company that uses ticketing as part of its IT help desk. While the most obvious benefits come from large businesses whose ticketing is likely to be more complicated, even small companies will experience cost reductions and ease their staffing burden with the right AI-based ticketing software.
How Long Does It Take for AI-Based Ticketing to Produce Benefits?
Implementing any novel solution involves some onboarding, but the best AI-based ticketing software features pre-built automations that can be leveraged immediately. This means you should start to save time and resolve more tickets within days, and the system’s efficiency is likely to increase over time as your techs get more used to using it.
