AI Meets ITSM: Humanizing IT Services with ITIL in the AI Era at SKILup Days 2024

Hi, my name is Simone Jo Moore, and I am so happy to be here at People Cert Skill Up Days regarding transforming ITSM with ai. It is a little journey into the future. I am gonna tell you a little story as we go along, and as an IL and DevOps ambassador, I'm so excited to explore this intersection between AI and ITSM and in using the I principles to help guide and enhance the human experience with automation, empathy, and explore navigating the ethical challenges of ai.

So whether you're an IT professional service manager, or just simply curious about the future of technology, I'm hoping to offer you a couple of little different perspectives to embrace AI while maintaining the trust and transparency and empathy in your IT services. Now, I have here a question for you. As you look at this particular set of images, I'd like you to pop into the chat, and there's two facets to this.

So facet one is, and as you're writing this, please put F1 or F two as in for facet one or facet two, at the beginning of what you type into the chat, what are the messages that you are receiving while you look at this human tech landscape, what are the things that are first popping into your mind? Or what is this particular storytelling you facet? Two is, if you were to present this as a slide to your team, your colleagues or your manager or even the C-level suite, what are the messages that you actually want to deliver to them about what's going on in your human tech world?

What's happening in your organization? What's happening with your capabilities, your roles? What is it that you are hearing from the experiences of your customers and the experiences of your employees?

So facet one, what are you receiving and facet to? What messages are you wanting to deliver? Now, while you're sharing this with each other, here's a little context.

We actually currently have five generations in the workplace. Now, all those generations have at some point wanted to challenge the status quo of their particular era and wanting things to be better. But making that difference has been a little ad hoc and taken too long in some cases.

But Generation YNZ aren't waiting around. They are challenging the status quo with technology, and they're doing that as an everyday natural flow of life and work. Now, my focus is on ethical and AI and emotional ai, and from the most human of perspectives, as a snapshot version of my background, I began my love affair with technology a long time ago, as you see here, from manual typewriters to telex machines, Murray code, pxs satellites, and more and other call center equipment and so on now.

So my service and support career has been quite long. And now as a consultant analyst trainer, I zoom along with everyone else. My background includes hr, includes organizational change and complimentary health.

So I find the most fascinating technology of all is the human brain. And that, of course, has led me to machine humanity and being the editorial director for two docuseries, the era of humanizing it, and the youth rise in power, focusing on continuing our humanizing IT journey. And that's why I really enjoy being a contributing author to a number of industry publications.

For example, uh, ethical AI section, uh, along with Dave Snowden in the Idols High Velocity. It now just as a fun fact, if you haven't, you know, thought about it already, if it hasn't given it away, what you were seeing on this screen is a representation of my technology career. So something I would also encourage you to do as a mini exercise for your own self-development, but also something quite fun is do the same for yourself.

What would your six images be that would represent your technology career? Now, it's not the only career that you have or I have had as I've mentioned those other facets, but in terms of your journey with technology, what would it look like? So let's talk about humanizing it with ai.

A bit of a paradox really, isn't it? Humanizing it with ai, it really is a bit of a challenge. Now, in the Army I was in signals corps.

Now those that do morse code have a communication pattern and rhythm in their send and receive. It's a unique signature to each, and you can begin identifying personalities purely from these patterns and rhythms, which if you haven't already thought about it, is also a very AI oriented concept. It's not just the what it becomes.

Who in terms of the personalities that we're assigning to our designs. What is their unique signature? Uh, what is the rhythm that we are programming to match the way we work and live?

We need to keep the humanness needed. The humanness is needed in evolving our organizations and leadership development, especially in the approaches helping humans flourish through their exceptional experiences. So the challenge is not just to integrate ai, it's to augment the human interaction without dehumanizing our IT services.

So the focus is on ethical AI and human-centric service design. We can leverage our I principles to help guide this transformation. So let's continue with the story.

There's a beginning. There is a middle and an end in any story. So let's have a look at how the chapters of what's going on between AI and ITSM, how they keep evolving.

So this is a little short story for you. How might we revolutionize IT services by balancing this automation and empathy? AI and ITSM walk into a bar their very first date.

ai, the flashy newcomer arrives with all the swagger of someone who just invented the algorithm for sliced bread. ITSM on the other hand, is the epitome of cool, if there ever was one clutching a well, well-worn idle playbook, like it's the holy grail. So they're sitting at the bar, an odd couple if there ever was one.

AI with its quick witted quips about automation and machine learning. And ITSM talking about things like idle change enablement and service continuity. Like it's reciting poetry.

So AI kicks off with a joke. Why did the robot go on a diet? It had too many bites.

It has sent chuckles politely. Then flips open the idol playbook to a page entitled Incident management and says, you know, not everything can be sold with a reboot. AI grins appreciating the dry humor and orders them both a round of drinks, I don't know, some kind of futuristic cocktail that fizzes and changes color for me.

I still love my margaritas in the heat of any big drama or lifelong partnership there. Let me tell you about, well, artist and muse. So my muse for this session was chat, GPT and my collaborative artist Canva.

But let me also be very clear. I am the bard. I am the storyteller.

I'm the writer of this particular life in all its glory. I am the human with the ideas, the voice, the emotions. I'm the one with the deep ache to actually share the experience.

So how do you separate muse and artist? The roles have evolved. The artist muse, or in this case the human tech relationship.

It's a force to drive the process, uh, with the roles changing of both participants becoming almost equally important. Ooh, wait, did I just hear a voice from the dark? Say, co-create value.

When we, when separate essences come together, there's a reaction. Sometimes it's explosive, sometimes so infinitesimal that you don't even realize that they're morphing in the mastro. It becomes something else.

We adapt, we die. We find a way of living we all within. So let's briefly explore then how we need to keep our focus on humanizing it.

The conversation leads to under, you know, conversation always leads to understanding well, so we would hope it at least opens up the conversation. It at least helps us see what's happening. So let's continue the story, shall we?

As they sit their drinks? AI can't help but show off a bit dazzling with tales of algorithms that predict future and chat bots that could charm the pants off. Even the grumpiest of customers.

ITM nods along impressed, but stays grounded. That's great. ITSM says, but what about reliability, accountability, ai ever the smooth talker leans in and says, don't worry, I've got emotional ai.

Now I can sense human emotions. I can respond with empathy. I'm not just about efficiency.

I'm about creating meaningful connections. I TSMs eyes light up empathy. You say, that's exactly what my human-centric principles are all about.

AI winks and says, see, we are not so different after all. Now, something interesting because the latest I model says four, but that's not a version number. As some people confused, it just happened come after three.

But the four is actually really representative of the fourth industrial revolution. It's about adaptability, flexibility, and value creation, and keeps evolving along with AI technologies. See, AI enhances, it gives us space and time to delve more deeply into our human capability and even how we experience technology.

But there are risks. There is the potential for confusing things. There is the potential for things getting out of hand.

There is the potential for, well, let's continue the story a little bit more, shall we? After a few more drinks, they decide to continue their evening with dinner and dancing at the restaurant. AI impresses ITSM with its ability to predict the perfect dish based on data from previous diners.

While ITSM makes sure the waiter delivers impeccable service, they move to a dance floor where ITSM takes the lead in a classic waltz, but AI can't resist breaking into out to some robot dance moves. The crowd loves it and so does ITSM who realizes, well, maybe this flashy newcomer isn't so bad after all, but IL emphasizes strong governance, especially with the frameworks for integration be that AI or any other emerging technology. So it does encourage regular feedback so it can enable our adaptation with AI as needed.

This is why it's so important for us to have that open communication and the feedback loops, maintaining ethical practices and always to remind ourselves as well that AI can mimic human feelings and decisions but isn't human. So we want to make sure that as AI shifts the way we work live and play, that we also include the way we measure the importance and the impacts of how it does impact the quality and the level of our services. So let's look at the I guiding principles and how they can support ethical ai.

Now focusing on value is seems to be the center point because we wanna make sure it has meaningful benefits, whether that's things like automated ticket routing or the chat bots for user support or even something more deep, really going right into our data and understanding what's happening with the experiences of our services. So start where you are. Assess your current ITSM maturity and the infrastructure.

Before you deploy AI tools. You need to align with start where you are. You need to conduct your assessments.

You need to look at what do we have that is still viable? What do we have in terms of our capabilities that are going to ensure that we can maintain ethical standards or build in new standards that might be required. So identify existing data and tools that can be enhanced by ai, but also ensure that with that integration, that will start small learn and expand, hence progressing iteratively with the feedback you need to ensure that those AI models and processes are giving us what they need.

So, you know, start with a pilot project, ensure that we've got the right people involved, that we are going to adapt those technologies responsibly. Therefore, you're going to need to collaborate and promote the visibility, that transparency, so that we can actually build the trust, engage all the different departments, not just within it, across the whole organization. All the partners you happen to be working with.

AI decision making processes need to be transparent and we want diverse perspectives, hence why we have all the different people involved. You wanna reduce the risk of bias and you wanna enhance the communications that's happening across the teams. It also means we need a broader view of the impacts that AI has on the entire service management ecosystem.

How it's changing, not just the processes, not just the technology that we're working with, but it's also changing our roles. It's changing our experiences, not just of the user, but of the customers and the employees. We wanna keep things simple and practical because it's, face it, it can be really overwhelming.

So we want to avoid overcomplicating our solutions. We want something that's straightforward, look to solve real problems, but without unnecessary complexity, it's going to be complex enough. And if we are looking to optimize and automate, please don't automate something that's already poor because we just do the wrong thing faster.

Use AI to enhance, not replace our human capability. It's great to automate, uh, routines, but we want to focus on the more strategic human-centric work. After all, that's one of the great things about human beings.

How we think, how we feel, which is part of our decision making, how we want to live, how we want to work. These are all things that are very important that we want to look at. How we gonna optimize that before we turn into automation?

So let's think about the new paradigm adopting AI technology thoughtfully using the ILE principles to guide ethical deployment, encouraging ongoing learning and adaptation so that the AI actually serves to enhance our human capability and the service quality. So how does this ai I TSM story end? Well, don't quite think it actually does end.

Uh, after all, it does keep evolving. So maybe instead of just one book, it's going to be multiple books By the end of the night, they're laughing, sharing dessert and envisioning a future where AI and ITSM are the ultimate power couple. Combining automation and accountability, empathy with efficiency as they leave the bar, they know this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

One that's set to revolutionize the future of IT services. And let's be honest, who wouldn't want to see where this story goes? Often collaborating with artists in their most seminal work, the muse, or in this case, AI elevates their status and emboldens the practice so long.

Live the AI IT SM relationship. Time to round up our session. Think back to that human tech landscape and the messages those images held for you and the messages that you wish to deliver to your teams and the rest of the organization.

Are any of the messages that you first took from seeing that landscape or any of the messages that you want to deliver? Have they now changed or have you got new messages? So think about that as you move forward on your humanizing IT journey.

I hope that you find that it's full of great and good adventures. Thank you for listening.