What are the latest AI trends in help desk support?

The latest trends in customer support help desk are focused on utilizing AI technology to automate incident and service request resolution, as well as insight generation to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve end-user satisfaction. Let’s discuss some of the most important trends:

The rise of hybrid work has created new challenges for help desk support. They need to be able to support end-users who are working from home, in the office, or a combination of both. This requires a flexible approach to IT support that can be accessed from anywhere, anytime.

• The essentials are a cloud-based help desk system using integrated tools, remote support tools, and empowering end-users to help themselves with self-service (Tier 0) options such as knowledge bases and online training for end-users.
• Flexible and extended hours of operation. Hybrid workers may have different schedules than traditional office workers and an intensive 9-5 work format might now be relaxed into an 8-10 and include time over the weekends and holidays. 24/7/365 help desk support is becoming de rigeur for the hybrid work model.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a role in every aspect of life and help desk support is no exception. AI-powered chatbots, for instance, expand simple static knowledge bases to sophisticated systems that can seamlessly answer common questions, identify problems, and escalate issues to a human agent when needed, freeing up help desk agents to focus on more complex tasks. Until AI can deal with those ‘more complex tasks’ of course. With commonly available LLMs (large language models) it is now feasible for SMBs to have their own chatbots trained on their own internal knowledge base. Below is a brief overview of how that can be achieved. Contact us if you need advice or for us to do this for you.

Help desks are increasingly using AI to interrogate metrics to assist in decision-making processes and improve services. Metrics include such as ticket volume, average response and resolution times, and customer satisfaction scores. AI is being utilized to assist, using LLMs, to analyze large datasets and provide limitless insights and even provide actionable plans to immediately benefit the organization.

Here are some ways that help desks use internal help desk support data to make decisions and improve their services:

• Track ticket volume: By tracking ticket volume over time and incident type, help desks can identify trends and patterns. This information can be used to allocate resources more effectively and to identify areas where additional support is needed. If ticket volume is increasing, help desk support may need to hire more physical agents or invest in AI-based help desk support.
• Track average resolution time: Average resolution time is a measure of how long it takes for help desk support to resolve tickets. By tracking average resolution time, help desks can identify areas where they can improve their efficiency.
• Track customer satisfaction scores: Customer satisfaction scores are a measure of how satisfied customers are with the help desk’s services and by tracking customer satisfaction scores, help desk support can identify areas where dramatic improvements can be made.

24/7/365 availability for remote end-users, whether employee or client, is now an expectation. AI-enabled customer support help desk and AI-driven decision-making is an invaluable tool that is delivering efficiency uplifts to help desk support as well as dramatically reduce costs and improving customer satisfaction. End-user focused organizations simply cannot be left behind as AI stampedes its way into every facet of business life.