With the advent of artificial intelligence, information technology service management is experiencing a refresh. Achieving successful ITSM implementations has always hinged on the ability to establish consistent, repeatable approaches to managing IT incidents — but complexity regularly leads to lengthy timelines and projects that run over budget.

But the real drag on ITSM success isn’t the framework, but the day-to-day experience of using it. When employees are forced into rigid workflows and over-engineered tools, they disengage, meaning even the most carefully-planned implementations start to unravel, according to Laura Padilla (pictured, left), senior vice president of global channels and alliances at Freshworks Inc. That’s the gap the company is targeting with a AI-driven approach designed to meet rising market demands.

“[There are] legacy archaic, hard-coded solutions that are extremely expensive from a service delivery point of view — [Freshworks is] the opposite of that” Padilla told theCUBE. “We really want to uncomplicate and make it easy for customers to adopt a solution that works for their companies.”

Padilla and Mac Bullock (right), vice president of sales and marketing at Whitlock Infrastructure Solutions, spoke with theCUBE’s Bob Laliberte at the Refresh North America 2025 event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the stumbling blocks enterprises encounter that keep ITSM from being successful as well as the impact of AI on the industry. (* Disclosure below.) 

The driving force behind successful ITSM implementations

As an implementation partner that leads with Freshworks’ Freshservice as the centerpiece of its “intelligent service management” practice, Whitlock is often brought in to replace complex legacy platforms and stand up a modern enterprise service desk that connects observability, automation and AI. A leading cause of failure with ITSM implementations is treating it as a tool that can simply be dropped into the organization, rather than a change in how people work, Bullock explained.

“You can’t just take one tool, put another tool in and say, ‘Okay, we’re good,’ and high five and leave and pat yourself on the back,” he said. “It’s so much more than that. You have to understand organizational change management.”

Putting in place a comprehensive training program for ITSM is essential today and will become even more important with AI, Bullock added. To this end, Freshservice acts as an “easy button” for service management because it implements quickly, and its AI-infused releases are all about “uncomplicating” legacy solutions so customers can adopt them more easily.

“You will not have a successful implementation if the people there don’t believe, not just in the tool, but how are you going to implement and train them and get them ready to go live,” Bullock explained. “That’s part of being a good consulting team.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Refresh North America 2025 event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Refresh North America 2025 event. Neither Freshworks, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE