The role of AI in IT support

IT support revolves around helping end users, employees, and the organization as a whole with all technology-related needs. For enterprises managing complex IT environments, maintaining seamless IT support is crucial to ensuring productivity, security, and operational efficiency at scale.

That’s why, for both managed service providers (MSPs) and in-house IT departments, IT support is much more than fixing a printer that’s not working. Sure, you’re the go-to person for helping end users with common tech problems, but there’s a whole lot more to it.

The IT support team is necessary for almost any technical task, including equipment configuration, network performance optimization, cybersecurity management, end-user tech support, and patch management. Ideally, the IT support team helps organizations avoid a possible IT crisis, ensuring productivity and efficiency for all. 

This work leads to bogged-down IT teams who are focused on everyday tasks like ticket management. This “busy work” diverts their attention and forces them into reactive IT as opposed to proactive IT. Typically, IT processes have been slow and have led to an overworked IT team, a dissatisfied user base, and other problems. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

That’s why the use of AI for IT support is changing the game. By boosting the everyday efficiency of IT support teams, AI is transforming IT environments from end to end. 

In this article, we’ll dive into the exciting new trends of AI in IT support. 

AI in IT support

AI-powered IT refers to the integration of various artificial intelligence capabilities into the IT field. AI technologies are diverse, but some of these functionalities include natural language processing, speech recognition, automation, advanced analytics and pattern recognition, and even AI-powered chatbots. These capabilities are helping to transform IT processes, workflows, and task completion rates. 

The possibilities of AI for IT support are virtually limitless. Historically, the IT sector has suffered from technological stagnation and siloed tools — but those days are over. Integrating AI into your IT support team can facilitate levels of efficiency and productivity that we’ve never seen before. 

It can help technicians make better decisions, aid in troubleshooting, anticipate and predict possible IT issues, generate scripts, and even help with support tickets. And that’s only a sampling of the innumerable opportunities available with AI. 

Image via Atera

Transforming IT support with AI

Using AI for IT support purposes has freed up valuable time for IT professionals, and IT departments and MSPs alike are better for it. When IT professionals can drastically reduce the manual and routine tasks from their workloads, they can reallocate their time to more strategic projects. For instance, take the example of the AI helpdesk. 

Many IT departments are overwhelmed with support requests and tickets from end users who are struggling with routine problems. More often than not, these problems can be resolved through a simple and predictable solution — but the end user doesn’t know that. 

Often, IT technicians get engaged in endless back-and-forths that take time and resources away from other, more value-driven pursuits. The solution? AI in IT support. 

An AI ticketing system can help technicians address tickets more quickly and efficiently than ever — boosting both technician and end-user satisfaction. AI can generate auto ticket summaries, minimizing constant back-and-forth and compiling data into a short, readable paragraph. This streamlines technician workflows and helps aid in faster ticket resolution. 

The AI ticketing system can even write an auto-generated response to address problems faster, minimize the chances of human error, and ensure consistent IT assistance for users. Stuck on a tricky ticket? The AI suite can help you generate actionable, best-practice solutions and come up with multi-layered suggestions and can even generate advanced scripts to help solve complex problems.

Image via Atera

Not to mention, when a ticket comes in after hours, our AI will automatically tag it and ensure it gets to the right technicians right away. This ensures your IT support team is spending more time where it’s needed, and wasting less time trying to figure out who’s needed.

Using AI for IT support means that technicians can understand each ticket at a glance, and up to 50% of tickets can be resolved without the need for technician involvement. When ticket resolution times go down, productivity goes up — and everyone is happy.

An efficient ticketing system is especially important for enterprises. Enterprise IT teams face an ever-growing influx of tickets and support requests. AI-powered automation helps streamline these processes to meet the demands of large-scale operations. 

AI-powered tools for enhanced support

Atera’s Action AI™ is leading the way in the AI-powered RMM space, allowing for increased efficiency for both the IT technician and the end-user. We’re committed to helping companies use AI for IT support in the most efficient ways possible.

Traditional IT solutions often leave IT professionals struggling to juggle time-consuming tasks, complex issues, and a never-ending stream of tickets. But with Atera’s AI-powered IT management platform, that’s all changing. 

With our proprietary AI mode, countless data points can be used to anticipate and predict IT problems. Intelligent insights and AI-suggested solutions take this platform’s capabilities far beyond simple ticket summarization and auto-generated responses (although those are included, too). How do we do it? 

It all comes back to our partnership with Microsoft Azure and OpenAI. With seamless AI integrations that operate end-to-end in the Atera platform, our customers are experiencing an incredible boost in efficiency. Time-to-resolution has been slashed, and accuracy is better than ever. 

Atera’s AI capabilities fall into two overarching categories: Auto-Pilot and Co-Pilot. Auto-pilot allows for end-user troubleshooting for common IT issues – think items like password resets and computer rebooting. Our AI-powered systems can resolve these issues without the need for technician action, clearing up time and space for more pressing and complex concerns. 

Atera’s Copilot harnesses the power of AI for IT support by autonomously doing time-intensive tasks, allowing IT techs to focus on more important work. With streamlined workflows and exponentially increased efficiency levels for IT teams and IT departments around the world, this is no longer the future. AI-powered IT is here… and it is here to stay. 

The entire Atera platform benefits from these AI integrations, which make our whole product even better. It includes features like…

• Remote Monitoring and Management: IT teams can monitor and manage unlimited devices from anywhere and at any time – all at a fixed cost. Our disruptive RMM pricing model means you pay per technician, not per end user. 
• Helpdesk and Ticketing: Atera’s Autopilot automates common support requests, handling repetitive tickets without technician intervention. This ensures faster resolutions while IT professionals focus on more critical issues. 
• Remote Access: Integrations with top-notch tools like AnyDesk, Splashtop, TeamViewer, or ScreenConnect make it easy to manage your network from anywhere with an internet connection. 
• Network Discovery: Ensure you’re up to date on network security and cybersecurity with complete scans of your network available in real-time. 
• Patch Management: Automated patch management software on end-user devices for all of the most common operating systems with comprehensive patch management capabilities.

When your team can work more efficiently, you’ll get to devote brainpower to the most complex problems, highlighting the value of your department to business development and growth. AI-powered IT is set to be your IT team’s trusted partner from here on out. 

The future of AI for IT support

Recently, we’ve seen the onset of agentic AI, an autonomous AI that can get work done without the need for human intervention. As a result, the world of AI for IT support teams has come a long way, but we’re still far from the end. In the coming years, we’ll see more and more companies adopt the AI service desk, as well as other uses of AI in IT support. 

Emerging trends in the field include AI-driven chatbots, predictive analytics, and autonomous cybersecurity. With AI-driven predictive analytics and increased data mining capabilities, you will be better equipped to make informed decisions for your organization’s future. 

To learn more about the future of AI and what it means for your business, check out our AI predictions.

The transformative power of AI in IT support 

AI will continue to revolutionize AI in IT support processes and drive innovation in the field. As an IT professional, it’s crucial to embrace these AI-powered solutions rather than shying away from them. 

The potential for increased efficiency, more positive user experiences, and better technician usage is staggering, and understanding how to take advantage of these AI-driven tools is a surefire way to set yourself and your team up for success going forward. 

AI is especially useful for IT support within enterprises that manage lots of devices and users, which usually translates into more help tickets and technical problems. 

Atera’s AI suite is a great example of how AI is reshaping the world of IT. Our customers’ incredible results show the power of AI for IT support and innovation, and we aim to continue bringing game-changing AI functionality to our global base of users. 

Want to see how our AI for IT support teams can change the way you manage your network? Start your free 30-day trial and experience the difference AI can make in your IT management.