How IT teams can leverage agentic service management

As someone who has spent significant time in IT support, I've seen numerous attempts to ‘revolutionize’ the service desk experience.

Some of them have indeed been successful at pushing boundaries. However, none come close to agentic AI. In this case, ‘revolutionize’ truly seems like the right word.

In our recent webinar, I sat down with Arkajit Datta, Applied AI researcher at Atomicwork, who’s worked extensively on building our agentic AI architecture. We discussed all about the ‘what, why, and how’ of agentic AI for IT support.

You can watch the full recording here or scroll on for the key takeaways.

Why agentic AI is different

Traditional ITSM, as you already know, has been fraught with repetitive tasks. Even with the introduction of chatbots, users needed to navigate decision trees or receive contextless responses. What makes agentic AI stand out is its ability to maintain context and perform actions across multiple systems.

For example, let’s say a user is unable to access SharePoint. A smart AI assistant, like ‘Atom’ starts engaging in an exploratory conversation instead of simply pointing them to a KB article or a ‘new ticket’ form. Just like a human agent would probe to understand the issue completely, Atom asks contextual follow-up questions to know what the user exactly needs.

In this case, the intelligent agent arrives at the conclusion that the Sharepoint password needs to be reset and guides the user through the process. It can also detect if the user has not reset the password even a few minutes later and can proactively follow up to check if they need any additional help.

Now, that’s something I didn’t think AI would be able to do anytime soon. And that’s why agentic AI is special.

Beyond simple task automation

In general, what is striking about agentic AI is how it can go beyond simple automation. Here are some other things it can do:

1. Context awareness: As highlighted above, when a user mentions password issues, Atom can decode the full context naturally. It's not just responding to keywords; it's building understanding across multiple exchanges.
2. System integration: The most impressive capability was Atom's ability to interact with multiple systems in real time. It can query Salesforce using Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL), interact with SSO providers, and work with HRMS systems, thereby making it a universal interface for various business systems.
3. Intelligent ticket generation: When human intervention is needed, Atom can help create tickets with complete conversation context. It can pre-fill ticket titles and descriptions from the natural-language chat (something that traditionally requires careful user input).
4. Advanced troubleshooting: The Atomicwork troubleshooting agent can even provide interactive diagnosis, learning from past resolution patterns.

We started implementing this agentic approach for one of our customers and Atom could gather all the organizational context for helpful responses.

Atom understood role-based access, provided location-specific responses without explicit input, and even refused to share engineering-specific information with HR team members – all without being explicitly programmed for these scenarios. That’s pretty powerful.

Why this matters for IT teams

Here's why I’m excited about agentic service management — it's not just about reducing ticket volume, it's about fundamentally transforming how organizations deliver IT support.

For IT leaders, this means:

• Scaling support without increasing headcount
• Reducing support costs while improving service quality
• Freeing up IT staff for strategic initiatives
• Providing 24/7 intelligent support without the traditional constraints (like timezones, etc.)

Ultimately, IT leaders can not just amplify the productivity of both IT and end users, they will also reduce support costs and scale exponentially faster.

Moving forward with agentic AI

What became clear during our webinar is that we're witnessing a fundamental shift in service management—one where AI doesn't just understand requests but can also execute complex tasks across multiple systems.

The future of ITSM isn't about replacing human agents; it’s about empowering them with intelligent tools that can handle routine tasks while providing a better context for complex issues.

As organizations continue to adopt these technologies, the focus will increasingly shift from manual ticket management to strategic service delivery, which will be powered by intelligent, context-aware systems that truly understand and address user needs while working seamlessly across the entire organizational technology stack.

To learn more about agentic service management and how it can transform your IT operations, catch our full discussion here.