Self-Driving Operations That Can Free up Busy IT Teams Are Close

IT professionals who manage the systems that power our digital world are no strangers to artificial intelligence (AI). While most people are only now discovering the wonders of ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs), IT pros have been using AI to power the back end of the consumer internet for years.

Called AIOps, it’s an approach that enables IT teams to ensure websites, applications, databases and infrastructure function better. It uses AI to pinpoint the causes of outages or performance issues so that IT teams can intervene and take the appropriate action.

Until recently, these tools were based on purpose-built small language models trained to address specialized needs such as identifying and remediating IT issues.

Self-Driving IT Operations Are Within Our Reach

But now, with the rise of large language models (LLMs) like GPT4, we are reaching the point where AI can deliver fully powered self-driving operations. This is where AI and machine learning (ML) can completely take over prediction and decision-making for IT teams. And it’s now closer than ever to becoming a reality.

This is, without a doubt, the paradigm shift the industry has been waiting for. Self-driving ops will relieve human IT teams from the increasing burden of IT management and administration.

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While it can solve several issues arising from IT skills shortages, some are concerned that it could threaten job security in the future. This reaction is entirely understandable; however, it is also misplaced—for two reasons.

A Solution to a Modern Problem

First, companies are already struggling to hire enough people to manage increasingly complex IT environments. Second, for hard-pressed IT teams, self-driving ops is only designed to replace mundane and repetitive tasks.

For example, IT and cloud teams spend around 44% of their time on routine work to ensure everything runs properly. The potential productivity gains that could be unlocked by freeing up this time from IT employees would be a game-changer. Imagine the innovations that can take place with this newfound time.

What’s more, we’re already getting glimpses of this new approach. This year, SolarWinds launched AgentAssist in SolarWinds Service Desk, which promises to radically improve the time-to-resolution of IT incidents.

This is a massive shift in cybersecurity, where AI detects and drives responses and resolutions throughout the entire environment. But it’s just the start. The advent of AI-driven ops opens a new chapter in IT systems management. It can free up IT pros from mundane—but essential—tasks so they can focus on things that matter more. The reality of autonomous, self-driving IT systems is now within touching distance.

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