Article 4 Areas In Which Service Providers Can Immediately Benefit From AI
By Insight UK / 12 Dec 2022 / Topics: Data and AI Microsoft Azure
By Insight UK / 12 Dec 2022 / Topics: Data and AI Microsoft Azure
Automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are booming and have become an integral part of modern life. Have you ever talked to Siri or communicated with your bank via a chatbot? Here you go!
In business, it is no different. Companies use AI and ML algorithms to bring structure to the vast amount of data we collect and to improve business in many ways. Think: greater efficiency, lower costs, well-informed decision-making, happy customers and employees.
Service providers are increasingly using AI and ML, too. They turn out to be an extremely smart way to make IT operations more efficient, modernise infrastructure and accelerate digital transformation. Although many fear that AI and ML will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs worldwide, it will also create lots of new jobs, especially in IT, to develop, maintain and analyse all future AI applications. That alone represents a huge opportunity for IT service providers. But, closer to today's situation, what benefits can you as an SP already achieve with AI and ML?
In the past decades, managing an IT infrastructure has become increasingly complex and time-consuming. As a service provider, you have to cope with this complexity to provide your customers with a stable, flexible, and secure environment. This involves many repetitive tasks that use up time, money and attention and affect productivity.
By connecting AI and ML to automation tools like for example Azure Automate, you can turn these boring, low-value, tasks into smartly automated workflows. Think of setting up a remote workplace and onboarding a new user via self-service or using machine learning to provide each user even faster with the right information she or he needs.
You can also gain a lot of efficiency at the helpdesk. For instance, by routing incoming tickets directly to the right team member or even solving them immediately via a chatbot, without the need for an employee.
What applies to repetitive tasks also applies to more complex, manual tasks with a certain degree of routine. If you want to create an automated workflow manually, it is a big investment in time and staff. By using smart ML algorithms and AI, you can do that faster, more efficiently and usually even better.
An example is automation with Remote Monitoring and Management tools (RMM). Most procedures are condition-driven: the actual condition of an asset or situation determines the following action. Modern RMM tools are fit to signal a failure, but also remediate it. An engineer is only consulted when the standard procedure cannot solve the problem or if there is an underlying problem that needs attention.
IT security is a hot topic for service providers. Statistics on the increasing number of hacks, ransomware, phishing, and other cybercrimes, outpace each other time and again. Your customers expect robust security, but how do you keep an eye on your systems to the furthest corners?
With AI and ML, you can ease that burden enormously. Your security team cannot possibly plug all the holes in anymore. Smart AI and ML tools can take over many security tasks and alert them only when needed. In this way, they can focus on high-value strategic tasks, such as preparing cyber security plans or system upgrades. This also makes your company more interesting to your customers: not as a firefighter, but as a proactive partner.
AI and ML are now indispensable for optimising your operations. But also strategically, AI is taking an increasingly important place. Digitalisation means you have more and more data at your disposal. AI streamlines processes and procedures in your business and it structures data scattered across the organisation and makes them instantly accessible.
Structured information allows you to make more confident decisions, which is a great strategic drive for your business. AI is therefore an excellent tool to substantiate decision-making. You know exactly where to act and when, be it on products, customers, or processes. What’s more: you can do it faster, more efficiently and at lower cost. With data-driven decision-making, you will act proactively and equip your business with a solid foundation for the future.
AI and ML may now seem like something mainly for large companies with equally large budgets. The opposite is true. With its Azure AI platform, Microsoft already offers an extensive range of solutions to get started right away and is constantly adding new ones. So, what is holding you back? Put AI to work right now to make your own operations more efficient, offer your customers noticeably more value and provide your employees with the right tools to do more in less time together.
The Azure AI and ML offerings can seem rather overwhelming to get started. But no problem, Insight can help. We have been working with partners like you across Europe for many years. We help them to find ways to optimise efficiency, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and maximise revenue by providing valuable time, knowledge, and support in many (hybrid) cloud scenarios.
Contact one of our cloud specialists to find out how we can support you in securing your cloud ambitions in line with your business goals, whether you are designing your first workloads in the cloud or work entirely cloud-based.
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