The modern, hybrid workplace is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, and the demand for IT helpdesk support is growing. Unfortunately, traditional IT helpdesk solutions are often struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing employee demand, resulting in slow response times, IT teams’ burnout and employee dissatisfaction as they can’t get their issues resolved on time.
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Every day you keep on resetting passwords, creating accounts and approving access requests manually, or guiding employees to the right knowledge base articles, you are losing:
-Time, that could be spent on actually solving complex issues
-Money, that could be invested in strategic IT projects
-Energy, that could be directed towards learning new skills
-Knowledge, that is not created or shared with everyone
-Employee satisfaction and trust in your IT team
Ultimately you will end up with a tired and unhappy IT team, no budget to move forward with projects that need to be deployed and employees that complain about the service they get from you and your team.
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There is only one solution to this problem, and it is called IT helpdesk AI automation. It is the one thing you should prioritize in 2023, if you have not already done so. Automation will allow for faster responses, more accurate knowledge sharing, lower costs and better employee IT service.
## What is helpdesk automation?
In its simplest form, automation is the use of technology to streamline and simplify repetitive tasks. For IT helpdesk support, this means automating manual processes such as ticket tracking, resolution tracking, and employee IT service.
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In its current form, and thanks to the huge AI progress, an [automated helpdesk](https://www.gaspar.ai/blog/how-is-ai-helping-the-it-helpdesk) uses Conversational AI and automation to intercept and resolve support requests with end-users while automating your most repetitive tasks, actions, and workflows. Simply put, instead of having human agents answer every employee IT question, an AI chatbot will answer the most common and repetitive ones. Human intervention will be needed but for more complex queries. The more the AI is being used, the smarter it will become, providing better and more accurate answers and thus improving the employee experience and further reducing the need for human involvement.
## Impact of helpdesk AI automation
The effect of AI-powered automation on the IT helpdesk is huge, but if you need to start building your case you can focus on the following main reasons why you have to move forward with automating your IT helpdesk... yesterday.
### 1. Faster response times, leading to improved employee IT service
By integrating AI and machine learning into the IT helpdesk system, you can ensure that employee requests are handled properly and promptly while proactively monitoring IT service performance. IT teams can offer employees quick, personalized and accurate answers to their questions through the Conversational AI chatbot, on the communication platforms they already use. This can help users get their IT issues resolved faster and reduce their frustration and inactive time – self-service that employees love and adopt is one of the key benefits you earn with AI automation.
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Employees can also access an automated ticketing system at any time, thus eliminating the need to wait on hold for IT service or to continuously monitor the status and process of their IT ticket – alerts are automated.
### 2. Increased efficiency and fewer errors
[Automating routine tasks](https://www.gaspar.ai/blog/8-employee-it-helpdesk-tasks-that-can-be-automated-with-ai) can significantly reduce the amount of time and effort needed to complete them. Automation frees up IT helpdesk staff to focus on more complex tasks, resulting in increased efficiency and improved productivity. It also helps ensure that tasks are completed accurately and on time, with fewer errors. Whether setting the wrong priority for a ticket or providing inaccurate information, the high volume of tickets and tasks can result in mistakes. With an automated helpdesk, human error can be reduced or even eliminated.
### 3. Cost savings
Automation will dramatically reduce the costs associated with running an IT helpdesk. Just to give you an idea, the cost per ticket is on average $29 – with an AI platform such as [Gaspar AI](https://www.gaspar.ai/platform), the cost will be $1. By automating mundane tasks, you lower operating costs since you reduce the amount of time spent on tedious, repetitive or administrative tasks. You free up your helpdesk staff for higher-value work and more complex employee IT issues.
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As automation helps streamline processes and makes it possible to do more with fewer resources, it also reduces the need to hire additional staff. And we haven’t even started to talk about the costs associated with inefficient employee time due to low response speed and high wait times!
### 4. Increased scalability
Automation can help ensure that service desk operations can scale up or down quickly and easily as needed. As employees still ask more questions via chat and email, auto-resolving requests that don’t require human intervention saves companies tons of time and money. Instead of adding agent after agent, automated helpdesks can handle FAQs and route employees to the right place without having to wait for a live agent or an email response.
### 5. Improved knowledge sharing
One of the most common complaints within companies is that crucial information is scattered across multiple knowledge bases — making it impossible to know where to go for an answer in a timely manner. Even worse, in some cases there is no available resolution information, even though the same question might have been asked a thousand times.
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An AI helpdesk can offer solutions to employees from the most up-to-date knowledge base articles, eliminating the need to search for answers across multiple sources. Using machine learning and natural language understanding, it will understand the context and so will recommend the most appropriate articles to employees and IT agents alike (when they have to intervene and answer more complex questions), further increasing knowledge sharing.
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In case of non-existent knowledge bases, the automated AI helpdesk will analyze chat conversations, gather information and help identify the most common employee issues, so that companies have a starting point to create a knowledge management system.
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In short, AI automation has huge potential to improve the efficiency, accuracy and speed of the employee IT service. By automating mundane tasks, streamlining communication between the IT helpdesk and employees, reducing costs, and improving knowledge sharing, automation is essential for any company that wants to stay competitive and provide the best employee IT support experience possible.
