Emerging Trends in IT Service Management (ITSM)

Trends provide inspiration and give insight into the opportunities available for organisations to implement continuous service improvement initiatives. It allows them to research and leverage the latest innovations, improve service quality, enhance operational efficiency, ensure compliance, and maintain business agility relative to opportunities, problems or challenges within their organisation.

Organisations that fail to adapt, risk falling behind competitors, suffering from inefficiencies, and ultimately delivering subpar services. Additionally, customer expectations are rising; in a world where services are expected to be fast, reliable, and personalised, ITSM must evolve to meet these demands, otherwise the organisation may become optional.

Finally, regulatory requirements and security threats are becoming more complex, necessitating a proactive approach to governance, risk, and compliance within ITSM. In a world where IT is central to business success, keeping pace with ITSM trends is not just beneficial it's necessary.

Reflecting on the historical trends that have shaped ITSM over the years is important for appreciating emerging trends. Understanding these trends provides context for the current and future direction of ITSM and highlights the evolution of practices that have brought us to where we are today. Below are a few of the historical trends in ITSM:

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) has evolved over the years, from siloed process in ITIL v1 to defining service support and delivery in ITILv2 to introducing a lifecycle approach in ITILv3. ITIL 4 is the latest iteration aimed at improving the value and agility of ITSM within organisations for delivering service outcomes.

ITIL, supports segregated other practices. Very few organisations had the appetite to do everything that ITIL recommended. It did not make sense relative to solving problems and overall improving need capabilities in IT. Practices such as the following emerged to focus more on organisational challenges or to help simplify adopting critical ITSM practices/processes.

• Enterprise Service Management (ESM).
• Business Service Management (BSM).
• Field Service Management (FSM).
• IT Operations Management (ITOM).
• IT Asset Management (ITAM).
• Software Asset Management (SAM).
• ITSM is a subset of ITIL when used to describe a product set.

There are many ITSM-related practices that organisations would adopt in line with ITIL's overall goal of improving performance, efficiency, effectiveness, and economic value of IT in support of the business. These are several ITSM-related practices that organisations may adopt to deliver additional and customised benefits, which include SIAM, MoF, KCS, COBIT 5, eTOM, TOGAF, FitSM, and CMMI.

DevOps and Agile have transformed ITSM, promoting collaboration, continuous delivery, and iterative development. This integration has led to faster deployment, improved service quality, and better alignment with business objectives. Integrating DevOps into ITSM is a growing trend, as organisations seek enhanced agility and speed in their IT services. Benefits and values include:

• Iterative Process Improvement
• Collaboration and Cross-Functional Teams
• Flexibility and Adaptability
• Customer-Centric Approach
• Empowerment and Autonomy

As IT environments evolved, the demand for technology-based automation, governance, and standardisation increased. Automation tools were introduced to handle repetitive tasks, like incident and change management. This reduced human error and increased efficiency. Standardisation and compliance through frameworks like ITIL and COBIT helped organisations develop consistent processes, ensuring reliable and predictable delivery of IT services.

The move to cloud computing has been a major trend in IT Service Management (ITSM). This shift introduced new challenges in managing hybrid environments, data security, and distributed network service availability. Cloud computing also brought opportunities for scalability, agility, and cost savings, making it an essential part of modern ITSM with a focus on business outcomes instead of a major focus on managing on-premises ITSM technologies.

Historically, ITSM was often seen as primarily an operational discipline, i.e., Service Desk, Incident, Request management, etc., with a focus on service support for customers and users. Organisations recognise that the success of IT services is ultimately measured by the satisfaction of its customers and end-users, whether they are external customers or internal employees.

Find out in this podcast how to measure experience, and in this blog, what experience level agreements are.

As we move from 2024 to 2025, several new trends are emerging that will further shape the future of ITSM. These trends are driven by technological advancements, changing business needs, and evolving customer expectations. Here are some of the top emerging trends to watch:

AI and ML are set to transform ITSM by automating tasks, improving decision-making, and providing predictive insights. This enhances efficiency and enables a proactive approach to service management. AI also automates incident management, quickening resolution and suggesting preventive measures. However, integrating AI and ML presents challenges, requiring proper training and access to high-quality data. Transparency and accountability are needed in AI-driven decision-making processes to avoid bias.

The evolving field of experience management now encompasses both customer and employee experiences. Organisations are shifting towards a culture that prioritises feedback, iterative improvements, and a focus on customer and employee journeys within ITSM practices. Key aspects of this transition include customer-centric IT services, feedback utilization, and defining metrics within experience-level agreements (XLAs). Next, the focus will shift towards customer success, considering both employee and customer experiences to enhance overall service and product value and branding.

The "Shift-Left" strategy is gaining traction in IT Service Management as organisations aim to improve service responsiveness and efficiency while reducing costs. It involves moving tasks closer to the end-user, such as incident resolution and service requests, to reduce the overall workload on IT teams and improve response times. Key components include self-service portals, knowledge management, automation and AI integration, and user training and education.

Cybersecurity is a high priority for organisations. There is increasing integration between Security Operations (SecOps) and IT Service Management (ITSM) for more efficient and secure IT operations. This integration leads to a more cohesive approach to IT management. As organisations face heightened cybersecurity risks, the line between IT service management and security management is blurring. Here are some of the ways this trend is manifesting:

• Proactive Incident Management
• Integrated Response to Threats
• Automation and Artificial Intelligence
• Shared Data and Analytics
• Shift-Left in Security

ESM is driven by the growing recognition that service management practices, initially designed for IT, can be highly beneficial when applied to other business areas. ESM expands ITSM practices across all departments within an organisation.

ITSM, as a practice, covers the use of ITSM/ITIL (ESM) practices and technologies for the benefit of the organisation internally. The internal benefits of ESM efficiency and effectiveness also benefit the external customers of the organisation's services and products. ESM improves employee experiences and the overall service performance of the organisation.

ESM leverages a central technology platform to streamline service requests and manage workflows to ensure service agreements are met across the organisation. ESM creates cross-functional coordination and collaboration across departmental functions, leveraging the specialised capabilities of each department to support the organisation, eliminating a siloed approach, technical debt, and shadow-IT challenges.

ESM applies to all services within an organisation and is facilitated through an IT Service on the ITSM technology platform. Some of the key functions and services enabled by an ESM approach include HR, finance, legal, facilities, procurement, and marketing.

Other ITSM trends that address automation to increase the efficiency of teams, provide faster incident resolution, cost savings, and improved accuracy of service delivery and support are:

• Chatbots and Virtual Agents to handle routine service desk inquiries. These are AI powered solutions to assist with answering common questions, guiding users through troubleshooting steps and fulfilling requests such as password support or software installations without human intervention.
• Self-healing IT systems can autonomously detect, diagnose and resolve issues without human intervention. This is very valuable in large-scale, complex IT environments where downtime or service interruptions can have significant business impact.
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software robots to perform repetitive tasks traditionally done by humans. RPA can be used to automate report generation, ticket creation and some data entry.

Organisations increasingly embrace the organisation and people aspects for success with ITSM initiatives. OCM, as a discipline in organisations, is inspiring new roles and capabilities to support ITSM projects and all organisational changes. ITSM projects can have a seven-fold success rate when OCM is included within projects. The people side of ITSM adoption is always a critical factor for success.

While organisations invest heavily in tools, processes, frameworks, and best practices to streamline IT operations, they sometimes overlook the human side of change. This is where OCM comes in—a trend increasingly recognised as essential for achieving ITSM success.

OCM is instrumental in improving coordination and collaboration, minimising resistance, and enhancing governance. It helps align ITSM projects with business goals and realisations, and most importantly, it significantly enhances the overall ITSM stakeholder experience and engagements, ensuring success.

The emerging trends in this blog merge into an overall service management discipline within organisations. Many organisations are starting to adopt them all because they see their value. These trends will not drop into the "trough of disillusionment" as defined by Gartner but emerge as standard practices waiting on the next stage of IT evolution to support the ever-changing business environments and needs of employees and customers.