What IT Leaders Should Know Before Deploying an AI Helpdesk

Quick Answer

AI helpdesks promise faster, always-on support, but only if you’re ready for them. This guide walks IT leaders through the essentials of deploying an AI helpdesk or AI ticketing system like Amelia AI helpdesk: clarifying use cases, cleaning and structuring the knowledge base, integrating with existing tools, redesigning workflows for human-AI collaboration, preventing hallucinations and setting governance, metrics and escalation paths so Amelia AI support actually improves customer experience instead of creating new problems.

Businesses are continuously facing pressure to provide faster and more efficient support to their customers. Modern consumers appear to have little patience for inadequate customer service.

Statistics suggest a significant 90% of customers rate immediate responses (30 minutes or less) as “important” or “very important”, while 33% of American customers indicate they’d potentially switch companies following a singular poor customer service experience; this figure jumps up to 60% following two to three poor experiences. On the other hand, 93% of customers would be more inclined to make repeat purchases from businesses providing excellent customer service.

If these figures are any indicator, enhancing the customer experience is a very worthwhile investment. Many organizations are increasingly finding AI helpdesk solutions are the answer to their customer service problems. AI helpdesks, such as the Microsoft Amelia AI helpdesk, offer smart solutions because they reduce demands on employee time (bolstering productivity), automate responses and streamline operations.

While the answer to a problem might be clear, implementing the solution may be less so. In this article, we’ll take a look at how IT leaders can prepare for the realities of deploying an AI helpdesk beyond the vendor demo.

Prerequisites Necessary Before Deploying AI Helpdesks

Not unlike rolling out any IT initiative, it’s important to plan to meet several prerequisites before deploying your AI helpdesk and AI ticketing system.

Identify problems

Before integrating any IT solution, as you know, it’s vital to identify where the problem originates. Assessing pain points is an initial step before implementing the solution. When it comes to outdated helpdesk systems, this usually means slow response times and overwhelmed support members who cannot keep up with service demand, largely due to the fact they’re spending time on repetitive tasks.

Analyze and clearly define objectives

Once you know your problems, determine which tasks go where and have a solid foundation for AI to draw upon, you’ll want to set clearly defined objectives for the AI to achieve.

Take a deep look at your business’s current helpdesk support processes to determine the tasks most appropriate for AI to manage and separate those from the tasks best suited for human intervention. AI helpdesks can alleviate problems associated with resource drain by streamlining workflows, automating responses and providing the capacity for helpdesk teams to focus on priorities that need a human touch.

Goals may include tasks such as improving agent efficiency, handling a designated number of routine questions or creating reductions in response times. To accomplish this, you’ll want to carefully prepare your LLM, define clear use cases and set objectives, so the AI tech can learn how to solve problems.

Ensure a clean knowledge base

Since an AI helpdesk will rely upon information available in your company’s knowledge base, it is crucial prior to launch for your existing helpdesk knowledge base to be clean. A poorly established database will result in poor AI responses to helpdesk problems. Steps to take include:

• Thoroughly auditing your content
• Removing any outdated, incorrect or contradictory information
• Archiving or deleting irrelevant data
• Standardizing documentation formats to be in uniform
• Editing articles to be clear and concise; clarity is essential for AI to learn from
• Creating a consistent style and voice for the AI to draw upon; brand consistency will remain key to successfully transitioning to an automated helpdesk
• Developing a clear hierarchy in your knowledge base
• Adding relevant and high-quality new content to fill in gaps of information

Additionally, you’ll want to develop a firm review process to include a feedback loop and routine review schedule to monitor how the AI helpdesk responds to queries; update and improve as needed.

Make good integrations

Prior to transitioning to an AI helpdesk, you’ll want to integrate key systems, along with completing technical prerequisites, so data can flow seamlessly and effectively. You’ll also need to create connectivity between AI and existing business systems (ticketing systems, ITSM, helpdesk platform, knowledge base, CRMs, communication applications, etc.) enabling access to be made. Another important integration step is to ensure your systems meet technical requirements, such as ensuring API accessibility, security and compliance adherence and bidirectional data flow.

Redesign workflows for AI collaboration

Businesses shouldn’t integrate any kind of technology simply to update; strategically, it should have a purpose to empower your organization to get the best ROI on its investment. AI helpdesk upgrades are no different. To successfully launch your AI helpdesk, you’ll want to redesign or align workflows to streamline operations, allowing AI to take on the repetitive tasks that do not require human intervention.

Examples of great AI tasks include password resets and unlocks, software access requests, ticket categorization and answering repetitive questions. Employees can then turn their attention to core competencies and handling customer issues that require emotional intelligence and human judgment.

Develop an identity

Your AI will essentially be a “face” representing your company, so you want to make sure it is designed with the right “voice” and tone that is consistent with the rest of your organization. This will include determining use cases and defining your audience, setting personality adjectives (e.g., professional, direct, witty, energetic, etc.) and establishing style guidelines. You’ll essentially have to teach the AI how you want it to sound when it responds to customers.

Avoid hallucinations

AI helpdesk hallucinations occur when the chatbot generates a confident-sounding response, but is false, made up or nonsensical. This typically occurs when the database it draws from has gaps or incorrect information. The problem is this hallucination might fabricate fake corporate policies, make up false product details or suggest impossible solutions.

You want to eliminate these occurrences because they can erode customer trust and hurt brand reputation. They can even create legal or financial risks, depending on the nature of the information being given out. Setting clear prompts and parameters for the AI can help eliminate these types of issues.

Once all prerequisites are completed, the next step is to communicate the plan to integrate AI into the helpdesk workflow to organizational stakeholders. Inform everyone what the AI can and can’t do; this way, they can set realistic expectations. Next, establish a plan to train key employees on how to use their new technology assistant.

Tips for Successfully Rolling Out Your AI Helpdesk

To successfully roll out your new AI helpdesk, you’ll want to ensure all the proverbial boxes are checked to ensure you’re meeting all requirements.

• Choose the right AI solution. Not all AI helpdesks are the same. Depending on the nature of your business (e.g., federal contractors), you might need a solution with stronger security guardrails. You’ll also want ease of integration with any existing workflow platforms (e.g., Salesforce or ServiceNow) you use, along with scalability capabilities to account for future demand/needs.
• Governance: Make sure the best data security, privacy and AI usage policies are carefully constructed; compliance and security are critical components to ensure.
• User experience design. AI and humans will need to learn how to perform alongside one another. When developing your helpdesk, pay attention to UX, ensure AI tone matches your brand identity and voice and establish clear escalation paths for the AI to follow.
• Rollout strategy. Ensure planning for pilots, training and communication.
• Metrics. Deflection rates, MTTR (Mean Time to Repair), CSAT and agent productivity are key metrics you’ll want to establish when transitioning to an AI helpdesk.

Other best practices should include:

• Beginning with a pilot. It’s always best to start small. Initiate a low-risk pilot smaller-scale project to test how the AI will respond and to test assumptions. This will help build confidence that a full deployment of the AI will work as you intend it to.
• Conducting continuous improvement. Establishing and nurturing a mindset of continuous improvement; always look to find better efficiencies and identify practical uses of AI, especially as the technology becomes more mainstream.
• Collaborating with tech. Look for ways to work with AI, not against it. Like any other major change, instilling an AI helpdesk will entail a lot of adjustments. Performing strong change management for your support teams is a vital part of the process.
• Leveraging data. Review helpdesk data you’ve accumulated to help make informed decisions about what customers need help with most and how AI can alleviate their pain points before escalating to a human representative.
• Setting escalation rules. The AI should be able to determine when human interaction is necessary and reroute customers when they need to speak to a person.

Bottom line, the AI should be set in such a way that it enhances and improves upon the customer experience, not replace humans completely. Determine where and when human agents must always stay in the loop.

AI Helpdesks Can Enhance Your Customer Service Processes

Many businesses face challenges keeping up with customer service demands, especially when volume and expectations increase. Artificial intelligence can be the right solution to provide better customer experiences. An AI ticketing system, such as that offered by Amelia AI support, can provide a competitive advantage, along with many benefits such as, productivity and efficiency, cost savings, fewer manual tasks for staff, 24/7 support for customers and faster time to resolution, to name a few.

To successfully launch your AI helpdesk, it significantly helps to follow best practices to ensure it works as intended. This process takes careful thought and meticulous planning. Following the above outlined prerequisites, along with best practices, can help expedite the process and put your company on the right path to a successful AI integration.

However, organizations often find integrating AI into their workflows to be challenging to do. This is largely due to limited IT staff possessing the necessary expertise or having the budget to purchase the required equipment. Working with an experienced and knowledgeable managed service partner can help alleviate these constraints, while empowering your business to have access to the artificial intelligence technology you want.

Ready to Begin Your Business’s AI Journey? Red River Possesses the Expertise You Need

Integrating any type of new technology has its barriers for organizations, whether it’s monetary, knowledge or staffing. Yet, technology continues to forge forward with businesses adopting new products and processes every day. Adopters of artificial intelligence are finding they not only gain the tangible advantages associated with this tech, but are also gaining a strong competitive advantage once they transition.

Change is hard. The knowledgeable team of experts at Red River understands this and are here to help. If your business is ready to begin its AI journey, we can help you get your AI helpdesk up and running. Amelia AI Helpdesk is one possible automated solution – it is a highly conversational virtual IT service desk agent that can handle repetitive tasks, freeing up your human agents to focus on other important tasks.

Red River’s experts will help you identify your pain points, find the right solution and help you through every step of the process of deploying your AI. Our business’s foundation is rooted in advanced technologies. Let Red River handle the intricacies of implementing and managing your solutions so you can focus on your company’s core competencies. Let’s get the conversation started. Contact Red River today to schedule a consultation.