Improved User Experience Through IT in Web 3.0

The use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to improve IT operations and outcomes affects not only the speed of activity (or task) execution and operational costs but also the service quality and experience delivered to end-users. The most agile IT service management (ITSM) tool vendors have already added GenAI capabilities to their offerings, with these capabilities designed to improve customer experiences at both an IT service provider (IT staff) and service receiver (end-users) level.

This blog looks at what’s currently best practice for improving user experiences and satisfaction for the latter of these two groups – your organization’s end-users.

Web 3.0 and corporate IT

Web 3.0 is a transformative shift in how the internet operates that prioritizes decentralization, user empowerment, and advanced technologies. It aims to create a more intelligent, secure, and user-centric online ecosystem, and this is also leading the way for technology provision within corporate IT organizations.

Web 3.0 leverages new technologies such as blockchain. Data is no longer stored or controlled by centralized entities and is instead distributed across blockchain networks to help ensure transparency and eliminate single points of failure.

However, blockchain isn’t the only technology employed in Web 3.0. The web becomes more intelligent thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) understanding the meaning and context of data (rather than just keywords). AI has other roles to play, too. For example, AI means that data can be processed and analyzed at scale to improve decision-making and automation. The AI-enabled capabilities are already primed to help your IT organization.

Creating the right foundation for improvement in corporate IT

As with traditional automation technology, your IT organization must take a thoughtful approach to GenAI use. This should prioritize the facets that help to deliver the desired outcomes – such as greater efficiency, personalization, and user-centric design – but it also needs to be focused on “what matters most.” Importantly, this isn’t what matters most to your IT organization. Instead, it’s what matters most to your end-users.

This insight can only come from dialogues with and feedback from end-users. Your IT organization might think it knows what’s best for its end-users. However, only end-users truly understand this, and it will likely differ between end-user groups and change over time. For example, as certain IT capabilities improve, end-user improvement needs will change to reflect this.

This important point (and best practice) needs to be kept in mind when considering what follows. These are generic best-practice opportunities to improve your IT organization’s operations and outcomes using GenAI. To best meet your end-users’ needs and expectations and to enhance their satisfaction with IT, your IT organization must involve them in key areas such as GenAI capability prioritization and design.

Example GenAI use cases that improve user satisfaction

There are many ways in which GenAI capabilities improve IT operations and user satisfaction as a result. Examples of best practices include:

• Automating repetitive activities and tasks
• Implementing GenAI-powered virtual agents and chatbots
• Personalizing user experiences
• Providing proactive issue resolution
• Delivering regular and clear communications.

Each of these best practices is covered below.

Automating repetitive activities and tasks

If GenAI capabilities can undertake a task as well as, and maybe even better than, a human, why wouldn’t your IT organization automate that task? This automation reduces the time taken and the associated costs; it should also improve user experiences and free IT staff to focus on more complex work.

There are many examples of GenAI automation use cases. For example, the automated triage of incoming incident or service request tickets, with the technology deciding the appropriate categorization, priority, and resolution group. It might also apply the required resolution or provisioning if the needed outcome can be automated.

Implementing GenAI-powered virtual agents and chatbots

GenAI virtual agents can provide 24/7 end-user support and immediate responses to their queries. This includes end-user requests related to FAQs, ticket creation, and basic troubleshooting.

Once implemented, virtual agents or chatbots can act as the first line of interaction with end-users, leveraging automation to help resolve issues or to provision new services. This includes incident diagnosis and resolution and tasks such as password reset automation, undertaking system health checks, and deploying new software or updates.

While implementing virtual agents or chatbots for IT support can be considered a best practice for improving user satisfaction, it’s also important to ensure that the new capabilities are integrated with the operational status quo. So, it’s also best practice to ensure that virtual agents or chatbots can seamlessly escalate complex issues they can’t handle to human agents.

Personalizing user experiences

While the speed (efficiency) improvements associated with GenAI use will help improve user satisfaction, the ability to provide tailored solutions will also improve IT support quality and effectiveness.

This starts with the simple ability to know more about the engaged end-user, their services, and their past IT interactions. For example, knowing an end-user’s role and location will inform how IT support is provided to them. Solutions can also be recommended in context based on understanding their behavior and past interactions.

Providing proactive issue resolution

GenAI capabilities allow your IT organization to identify and resolve issues before end-users are impacted (and need to report them). On the one hand, this might be viewed as having a neutral or even a negative impact because there’s no IT engagement to uplift end-user perceptions of IT support.

However, as with the philosophical question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” there are ways to “make the sound heard.” For example, end-users could be notified that IT has taken proactive and preemptive action to prevent them from experiencing an issue with their IT services.

Delivering regular and clear communications

One of the issues end-users can experience with their corporate IT organizations is a lack of communication (relative to their incident and service request tickets). The sheer level of work often causes this; these “administrative” tasks are often not considered sufficiently important relative to other IT activities and tasks.

GenAI will help keep end-users informed and more satisfied with their IT experiences. The technology can send automated updates on ticket status, expected resolution time, and progress. It can also notify end-users of system issues or outages, planned maintenance, and availability-affecting changes. This greater transparency helps to build trust and reduces end-user frustration.

But not all GenAI best practices for improving user satisfaction relate to capabilities

There are also many best practices for getting the most from your IT organization’s GenAI capabilities to improve user satisfaction. These include:

• Focusing on usability and providing appropriate end-user training. This has long been an ITSM need – for example, in the days of pre-AI IT self-service portals. Any technology designed and delivered without sufficient user input will likely struggle with low adoption rates and dissatisfaction.
• Continuously improving capabilities using feedback. This includes using automated surveys or sentiment analysis to gather user feedback, with key issues and improvement opportunities identified and addressed.
• Maintaining a balance between automated and human support. While automation has many benefits, there will always be occasions when human support will be more appropriate. For example, critical or high-priority issues might need to be promptly routed for the attention of human agents. So, allow end-users to easily bypass automation and speak with a human agent when necessary.

How are you improving user satisfaction through automation in Web 3.0? Let me know in the comments!