The days when most routine requests for IT support are handled by a human may now be numbered thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Symphony SummitAI has revealed that the latest version of its SummitAI Alps platform can now resolve 30 percent of repetitive and manual IT support tasks automatically via a digital bot christened CINDE.
Akhil Sahai, chief product officer for Symphony SummitAI, says end users engage with CINDE using a natural language interface that can be integrated into Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jabber, Webchat and other communications tools. Any IT support request that CINDE can’t resolve on its own is then automatically escalated by creating a job ticket for the human IT staff, says Sahai.
In effect, CINDE creates an AI-infuses self-service portal through which routine IT tasks can be offloaded. The goal is to free up time for the human IT staff to focus their efforts on projects that add more value to the business.
Longer term, Sahai says Symphony SummitAI envisions also being able to apply its core platform to automate tasks that go well beyond IT, including human resources, procurement, legal and finance functions.
“We want to change the paradigm,” says Sahai.
Sahai says it takes four to six weeks to initially get the company’s core platform to the point where it can start automating routine tasks. From there, the AI software continues to learn as it gets exposed to more end-user requests.
Most end users will not initially realize they are engaging with a bot for IT support. Over time, it will be interesting to see which end users find this approach to be a more appealing way of resolving commonplace IT issues, such as gaining access to a printer. It will, of course, be a long time before bots such as CINDE replace the need for human IT professionals altogether. But truth be told, many IT professionals would just as soon prefer to not have to engage with end users unless absolutely necessary, so in that sense AI could wind up being a benefit to all concerned.
