The CTO Checklist for AI-Ready IT Operations in 2026
AI is moving from a side project to the core of IT operations, but most enterprises still rely on fragmented toolchains that dilute its impact. The article argues that true AI‑ready operations require a single, connected platform that unifies service management, observability, asset intelligence, financial visibility, workflow automation, and governance. Platforms like CoreITSM illustrate this shift by embedding AI across the entire operational stack, turning tickets and alerts into actionable intelligence. CTOs are urged to adopt this unified model to achieve proactive, cost‑effective, and auditable automation.
From Firefighting to Prevention: How Problem Management Transforms ITSM
Problem management, a core ITIL 4 discipline, shifts IT support from reactive firefighting to proactive prevention by identifying and eliminating root causes of recurring incidents. By documenting known errors, developing workarounds, and implementing permanent fixes through change enablement, organizations reduce...
The Compounding CMDB: How Executive Decisions Reduce IT Outages
Organizations often pour resources into a one‑off CMDB transformation, only to find the database outdated when outages occur. The article contrasts two approaches: a large, project‑based overhaul that loses momentum, and a continuous, operating‑model strategy that embeds automation, ownership, and...
5 AI Terms Every ITSM Practitioner Should Know in 2026
The article outlines five AI concepts reshaping IT service management in 2026: Agentic AI, AI agents, Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG), AIOps, and Model Context Protocol (MCP). It explains how these technologies extend the traditional ML‑NLP‑LLM stack to enable autonomous decision‑making, context‑aware...
Your ITSM Operating Model Is Blocking AI Adoption
The article contends that traditional, reactive IT service management (ITSM) models consume 35‑45% of engineering bandwidth, leaving virtually no capacity for AI initiatives. Adding headcount merely absorbs the same workload, so AI pilots stall despite approved budgets and vendor contracts....
Service Management Maturity Models: A Practical, Evidence-Based Approach (Pros, Cons, & Framework)
The article critiques conventional IT service management (ITSM) maturity models for vague language, unclear ROI, and opaque scoring, then proposes a practical, evidence‑based alternative. It outlines a five‑level model (M0‑M4) that emphasizes measurable standards, team charters, component templates, and progressive...
Shadow AI in IT Support: When Employees Fix Problems Outside the Service Desk
Employees are increasingly turning to generative AI tools to resolve IT issues on the spot, sidestepping traditional service‑desk tickets. This behavior, dubbed “shadow AI,” leaves incidents undocumented, breaking the feedback loop that feeds problem management and SIEM‑ITSM correlation. Without recorded...
Agentic ITSM: Understanding the 4 Levels of AI Maturity in IT Service Management
The article outlines a four‑stage maturity model for AI in IT service management, ranging from simple document retrieval (Stage 1) to fully autonomous, cross‑system agents (Stage 4). It argues that most vendor claims of "agentic AI" actually describe Stage 2 or 3 capabilities,...
The ITSM Industry’s Repeating Failure Pattern
Paul Wilkinson’s ABC cards have, for two decades, highlighted a single persistent ITSM failure: IT teams sprinting toward a launched rocket while clutching outdated tools, symbolizing a lack of business‑impact awareness. Survey data from 2021 and again in 2025 shows...
ITIL Version 5 Guiding Principles: A Practical Guide for ITSM Leaders
ITIL Version 5, launched in early 2026, re‑affirms the seven guiding principles first refined in ITIL 4. The principles—focus on value, start where you are, progress iteratively with feedback, collaborate and promote visibility, think and work holistically, keep it simple and practical, and...
ITSM Benchmarking – Your Chance to Get Involved
The 2022 Axelos ITSM Benchmarking Report offered a snapshot of ITIL practice adoption but relied on subjective self‑ratings, making cross‑organization comparisons difficult. PeopleCert has introduced an ITIL Performance Benchmarking Model that shifts focus from internal process checklists to outcome‑based metrics...
How AI Will Break the 1–3x ITSM Implementation Cost Rule
The long‑standing 1‑to‑3‑times implementation cost rule for IT service management (ITSM) tools is being challenged by AI‑driven digital workers. By automating catalog configuration, incident analysis, knowledge‑base creation, and documentation, these agents can slash the labor‑intensive phases of deployment. Organizations that...
AI Help Desk Software: How LLMs, AI Agents & Chatbots Are Transforming IT Support
AI help desks combine large language models, chatbots, and autonomous agents to interpret natural‑language requests and execute routine IT tasks such as password resets, which can account for 10‑50% of tickets. By mining historical logs, these systems proactively identify recurring...
The Genealogy of AI Slop: Generative AI Didn’t Invent It – It Learned It
The piece argues that generative AI did not create the phenomenon of “AI slop” but learned it from the abundance of vague, authority‑laden human content such as consulting frameworks, certification manuals, and best‑practice decks. By reproducing these patterns at machine...
AI in ITSM: How AI Is Transforming IT Service Management
Artificial intelligence is reshaping IT service management by tackling legacy challenges such as high volumes of routine incidents, lengthy resolution times, reactive problem solving, and siloed knowledge. AI-driven virtual agents automate repetitive tasks, while predictive analytics anticipate outages and streamline...