As endpoints multiply, cyberthreats evolve, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools proliferate – both officially and in the shadows — IT support teams face a new mandate: move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive enablement.
We asked enterprise IT leaders, practitioners, and cybersecurity experts from Foundry’s CIO Experts Network what capabilities today’s IT support teams need in order to succeed. Their answers point to a future in which automation, predictive intelligence, and clear communication are just as critical as technical skill. And yes, AI will likely be part of the solution — but it will be most effective when paired with visibility, governance, and empathy.
Moving beyond the reactive help desk
Support teams are under pressure to do more with less — often across a broadly distributed workforce, unmanaged devices, and a constant stream of user requests. Intelligent automation, powered by AI and predictive analytics, is quickly becoming a must-have.
“To succeed today, IT support and help desk teams need a blend of intelligent tools and proactive capabilities,” says Vivek Singh, SVP of IT and strategic planning at PALNAR. These capabilities, he adds, include:
- AI-powered assistants for ticket triage, resolution suggestions, and auto documentation
- Automation, including robotic process automation, to handle repetitive tasks such as password resets
- Predictive analytics to detect and prevent issues before they escalate
Anshul Gandhi, former senior machine learning engineer at Dell Technologies, adds that success is no longer measured by how fast support teams can react but by how well they can anticipate. “IT support has already moved beyond firefighting,” he says. “Success now depends on predictive AI that resolves issues before they surface, unified platforms that connect knowledge across the enterprise, and contextual intelligence that empowers human agents to focus on high-value interactions.”
Joan Goodchild, founder of CyberSavvy Media, agrees. “AI-powered assistants that can triage issues, suggest fixes, and even automate resolutions will free staff from repetitive requests and shorten response times,” she says. Goodchild stresses that technology alone isn’t enough, however. “Ultimately, the most successful help desks will combine strong automation with human empathy: technology that resolves routine issues quickly, paired with skilled staff who can step in for complex or sensitive problems.”
Visibility and security: Foundations of trust
With the endpoints of a modern workforce scattered across homes, airports, and coffee shops, visibility and security are nonnegotiable. IT teams must protect devices and their data wherever work happens.
“Endpoint visibility is critical,” says Goodchild. “With hybrid work now the norm, IT must be able to monitor and secure devices wherever they are. Embedded analytics can help spot recurring problems and guide smarter investments in infrastructure.”
Scott Schober (@ScottBVS), president and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems, sees the challenges firsthand. “Too often our IT team ends up reacting to problems instead of getting ahead of them,” he says. “With so many employees working remotely and relying on mobile devices, they need better visibility into what’s really happening on the network.”
“The right tools make a big difference: strong authentication, straightforward dashboards, and practical training on new cyberthreats,” he adds.
Security must also evolve to meet the dual challenge of innovation and protection. “Today’s IT teams primarily require security and governance features to allow the maximum use of genAI [generative AI] to drive IT service reliability and quality,” says Kumar Srivastava, CTO at Turing Labs. “Balancing innovation against protecting enterprise IP and trade secrets creates a huge blocker to AI adoption.”
Jack Gold, president of J. Gold Associates, warns that failing to modernize carries real consequences. “Shadow AI has become a major threat and potential obstacle to IT and help desk operations,” he says. “AI has enabled bad actors to increase their ability to impact corporate data assets and generate significant data breaches and ransomware attacks.” The takeaway: “Failure of IT to stay ahead of the encroaching technology will result in security impacts, user frustrations, and overall lowered corporate productivity that can cost millions.”
Supporting work wherever it happens
With workers no longer confined to the corporate office, IT support faces an additional challenge when endpoint connectivity is weak or compromised. When help desks and technicians can’t rely on the cloud, on-device AI becomes a critical asset.
Peter Nichol, data and analytics leader for North America at Nestlé Health Science, offers an example. “Imagine a busy airport gate where a kiosk grinds to a halt. The help desk technician has no reliable Wi-Fi, and cellular back-haul is already saturated with passenger traffic.” With on-device AI, the technician can “process logs locally, pinpoint the issue, and restore service — ensuring 150 passengers make their flight.”
The key is local compute. “Applying NLP [natural-language processing] for anomaly explanation with LLMs [large language models], accelerated by on-device compute orchestration across a CPU and an NPU [neural processing unit], enables real-time inference without cloud-induced latency,” Nichol explains. In high-stakes or offline scenarios, edge AI delivers business continuity.
That applies to security, too. “Ever tried to update antivirus software without internet access?” Nichol asks. “With on-device AI, help desk teams can now run edge security scans using BERT-style models for file inspection and behavior classification directly on the CPU and NPU.” This enables endpoints to “instantly quarantine threats offline, reducing the volume of security tickets.”
The human side of AI-driven support
For all the sophistication of AI and automation, human skills are more important than ever — especially in translating what AI can and can’t do.
“IT support and help desk teams must understand not just what AI can do but also its limitations,” says Arsalan Khan (@ArsalanAKhan), a technology adviser and blogger. “Equally important is the ability to convey this knowledge in clear, jargon-free language. Strong communication skills are no longer optional — they are critical to helping teams and customers trust and effectively use AI.”
Technology journalist Maria Korolov urges IT leaders to embrace experimentation over perfection. “The top technologies that IT support and help desk teams need to succeed are generative AI — and, more specifically, agentic AI,” she says. “Starting small and experimenting can help teams figure out what tasks are a good fit for AI, which are best suited for traditional scripted automation, and which are better left to humans.”
Building the future of IT support, one capability at a time
Today’s IT support teams face a moment of transformation. No longer reactive gatekeepers, they are evolving into proactive enablers — blending intelligence, empathy, and agility to meet the needs of a more complex digital workplace.
Success will be defined by how seamlessly people can get their work done, unencumbered by friction. In that sense, IT support has become one of the more strategic functions in the modern enterprise.
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