Your employees probably feel like robots.
Just attempting to keep up in our increasingly networked and always-on world often means an endless barrage of alerts for the various applications and technologies we use to do our jobs. We are inundated with phone calls, emails, texts, Slack messages, etc. Our teams are more connected than ever, but that actually may be limiting our productivity and collaboration. One study found that employees already spend nearly 30% of their time on email, leading to high levels of stress and pressure to respond to messages rather than focusing on more substantial tasks.
While communication is key to collaboration and creativity among teams, especially in today’s hybrid and remote workforces, an overabundance of communications is bogging down employees’ abilities to do their best work and stifling creativity rather than fostering it.
This communications overload scenario is the reality for most teams across departments within an organization. However, the good news is that there is a solution to streamline internal communications, requests, and tasks.
IT teams have long recognized the value of IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions in streamlining and improving efficiency. These systems use AI to help automate routine tasks, prioritize requests, and provide self-service options for employees. Instead of having a real person do this alone, AI quickly supports simple tasks such as automating service ticket routing, leveraging virtual assistants to answer frequently asked questions, and developing an endless feedback loop to enhance the end-user experience.
A recent survey of SolarWinds customers found that its AI features in ITSM solutions enabled IT teams to reduce the time to resolve tickets by 24% and save an average of 23 hours per week. These benefits can now increasingly be leveraged beyond IT teams with the move to what is being called “Enterprise Service Management,” which enables other departments to build their own AI-driven ticket management system.
Closing the Communication Floodgate: AI and Enterprise Service Management to the Rescue
The expansion of Enterprise Service Management (ESM) provides every department across an organization with its own service portal, ticket management system, and service catalog. This empowers HR, legal, marketing, sales, and other departments to enjoy the same increase in efficiency and productivity that IT teams have seen for years. And with the integration of AI into ESM services, it further facilitates inter-departmental cooperation, enabling the entire organization to enhance service delivery, better manage requests, and speed up workflows for better employee and customer experiences.
Consider an HR department which plays a pivotal role in an organization’s success, from recruitment and onboarding to benefits administration and employee engagement. They are frequently inundated with inquiries, from leave requests to payroll issues and everything in between. Traditional communication channels like email, phone calls, and instant messages often result in bottlenecks and delays, leaving HR departments struggling to keep up.
With an ESM system, HR departments can transform their operations and significantly reduce the need for email or phone calls. For example, leave requests can be streamlined through the ESM system. Employees could submit requests through the portal, which would then automatically route them for approval to the appropriate managers, with notifications and reminders built in. This reduces the administrative burden on HR and ensures that requests are processed promptly, enhancing employee satisfaction.
The AI Advantage: Scaling Success Across the Organization
The benefits of ESM get even better with the integration of AI, which has already proven it can be a powerful tool for businesses. AI algorithms within ESM can analyze data generated by various requests and interactions, providing valuable insights to all teams. AI-powered ESM solutions can go beyond just appropriately directing ticket requests, for example, by providing personalized responses based on the employee’s profile and past interactions. AI will also be able to identify trends in employee inquiries, helping departments proactively address common concerns and improve company policies and workflows. With the promise of AI, the entire organization is poised to become more productive and efficient.
AI will have a profound impact on our businesses and teams. But counter to some concerns, we foresee this to free up our teams’ time for more impactful work rather than mean a loss of jobs. We can expect people to work alongside their new AI “colleagues” while taking on new creative and innovation-driving roles that AI is not suitable for. In short, rather than replacing jobs, AI will empower humans to spend their time where it’s most engaging and impactful.
Organizations cannot afford to let inefficient internal communications slow their operations and creativity. It’s time to envision a workplace where employees throughout the entire organization can dedicate their attention to their substantive responsibilities instead of being overwhelmed by a flood of alerts and notifications. The future of work has arrived, leading to unprecedented creativity, innovation, and productivity, no matter the size of your business or industry.
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